guangzhuo

The trip to Guangzhou is a straightforward two hours by train from HK. I had heard much of Guangzhou and it's reputation so I expected to be seized upon by a multitude of touts, etc once I got out of the station. Just like Shenzen. But I had little harrassment there. That begins at nightfall when the hookers and pimps get to business. Every few metres, they are offers of 'boom, boom'. It gets really tiresome.

Then there are the pickpockets who work in pairs. I detected two attempts, and on one occasion I lost my rag and pointed agressively at him and yelled 'YOU WATCH IT SON!'. Not sure he understood the words but he certainly got the message. Besides the map in my back pocket would have been a poor reward. Another thing is the number of fake notes knocking about. I ended up with five 100 yuan notes which is bizzare given that these are the highest denominations I am aware of and even in my most stupid moments I wouldn't take five in one go. My conclusion is that the reception of my hotel opened by bag containing passport, etc and switched them for genuine notes.

I liked Shaiman Island though. It's where the British, French and all had their trading posts and it resembles that of a European city. Big, majesterial buildings. This was the area formerly known to Westerners as Canton. A lot of dough was made there. Opium of course. Nowadays it's more a museum piece for tourists and seemingly endless numbers of American couples wheeling around newly adopted Chinese children. The American consulate is on the island.

My main night out was to bar alley, which is more like out-of-business bar alley. I found a place where a Philipino act were singing. During their break, she came to talk pleasantries with me, name, country, blah, blah, blah. Customer relations, I suppose. Then when she returned to the stage, she announced before the first song ' Welcome to....(pause) from.....(pause).....I forgot'. The music wasn't much better.

Met some decent people in my dorm but to be truthful, I wanted to leave the city as I found it dirty (it is after all the alleged birthplace of the bird flu) and somewhat menacing. I was biten to shreds too by unknown insects. Besides it wasn't pleasant to see some of the things sold at the markets. For example, the number of tiger paws on sale is alarming.

I was happy to get on the night train.

hong kong part two

I stayed in HK for a further week before going back into China. I figured it would be good to take an overland approach to Vietnam rather than a direct flight to Hanoi. After all, I had a multi-entry visa so may as well use it. Catherine and Raymond, once agin, were the perfect hosts. Patient and kind.

The remaining time in Hong Kong was spent being lazy. Going out, having good meals and of course, getting through a few beers. One night was spent playing a dice game where the loser having to drink the most. Not difficult to guess which result I favoured. Raymond and I also staged a series of sporting contests; snooker, crazy gold, football and trout fishing. The last two being playstation events. I lost overall but the trout fishing was inconclusive as neither of us could catch a fish over regulation weight.

Amelia treated us all to an evening concert with a one-time popular HK singer. The music wasn't really my thing. Too much staring wistfully into the middle distance and that's not to mention the songs themselves. Plus this lady was a bit of a loon. In between songs, large screens broadcast interview clips of her. She was complaining that the media are always writing of her as being mad. One particular outburst had me agreeing with them. Strange stuff plus the HK audience seemed to like it in their passive way. They were happy with waving little coloured lights over the heads. But not in time with the music.

It was during this concert that my ear really went into high frequency overdrive. It was worrying enough that I concluded my 'wait and see' tactic had failed. So professional help was necessary. After the first doctor I was referred to a specialist who probed my ear with micro-instruments and blasted air at my eardrum which was uncomfortable. It turned out I had a little hair glued to my eardrum by a little spot of hardened wax. Tasty. It was causing additional vibrations, hence the frequency noise. So 200 euro's later, I could hear again.

Raymond, being a throughly good bloke, gave me a MP3 player to replace the stolen ipod. I quickly brandished him a copyright infringer by downloading 512k of music on his computer!! Then he gave me a choice of three mobiles to pick from. Amazing. In fact, my HK friends are all great people and everytime I'm there, this notion is further reinforced. I suppose that is the reason I like this vibrant, energetic city so much; it's the people and my friends there.