From Hong Kong to Guangzhou

GOOD BYE HONG KONG, HELLO GUANGZHOU



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This is our last night in Hong Kong. After a shopping spree that almost killed my feet and shoulders (from carrying my bag filled with camera, shopping goods, bottled water, etc), I asked Renny to stop for a meal at some random Chinese restaurant. It was so random that I even forgot whether it was in Kowloon or around the Causeway Bay, but I think it was the latter.

I liked the place because it felt local, moreover we just had lunch at Pizza Hut earlier in the day, which was the opposite of local, obviously. And my choice of dish was handmade noodle with beef tomato soup. The beef and tomato soup part reminded me a lot of a Minangnese (link to definition of Minang) dish called pange’ or asam padeh that my Mom often had it made for us at home, only this one was without chili.

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Soon after we stuffed our tummies with the local delights, we went back to our hotel and repacked our bags.

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Whew! We flew from home only with a backpack and a sling bag each, and now an extra bag for each.

Last Day In Hong Kong

Gosh, it always stinks whenever it’s the last day of being somewhere, simply because any place is never enough to be explored in only a few days time. But there’s too many places in this world I’d love to see, and today we’ve scheduled ourselves to leave for Guangzhou, China. However, we do still have time until a little bit after noon to roam around Hong Kong.

We wanted to see the Whampoa Garden side of Kowloon, the area in which we got lost the first night we arrived in Hong Kong in the search of our hotel. We waited for a bus that we were sure would take us there. How were we so sure? Well, we looked at the bus stop, there’s some information about what bus stops there and goes where and from where. But of course the writing is in Chinese, so we could only guess from the numbers and a few names in English.

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I don’t remember what bus we took, but it obviously didn’t take us to Whampoa Garden…LOL. It took us aaallll the way to.. some area named Nam Cheong, wherever that was. And by that time, we left our maps in the bags that we deposited at the hotel lobby after checking out, so we decided to get off the bus just because it felt too far from city central already.

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We took the MTR back to Tsim Tsa Shui. Our mission: to have lunch in a more familiar area. And so we did.

At a park on Carnarvon Street, Kowloon

Thin noodle, beef, and, I think, cutlets of pumpkin

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Last Visit to Bridal Tea House Hotel

It was around noon already, we decided to end our Hong Kong episode. So we took the MTR back to Hung Hom station, walked out to the bus terminal, walked on the sidewalk along the bridge about 10 minutes, then walked down to the street and turn left to the Bridal Tea House Hotel.

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We picked up our weighty bags, said our thanks to the angry staff (don’t ask why, but he’s just never friendly to us, unlike the guy on the night shift, possibly because he doesn’t really understand English), and walked back to Hung Hom station.

Apparently, Hung Hom is a 3-in-1 station. Meaning? Well, it serves not only as an MTR station, but also a bus terminal and inter-city train station. That is where we got our HK$190 train ticket/pax to Guangzhou (they also accept RMB [Chinese Yuan] which would be RMB180).

We waited awhile for our train at McDonald’s, and then got on the train which left at 4.35 PM. There are a lot of options of departure time from Hung Hom Station to Guangzhou East Station, from morning until about 9 PM.

The train ride was about 2 hours long, so we arrived at almost 6.30 PM.

GUANGZHOU, PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

--> Previously, we heard and read quite many stories about people’s unpleasant experience in China in connection with hygiene. And when we stepped off of the train…, well… I guess this would be the start of our non-hygienic adventures.

On the floor of the train platforms and on the stairs, there were these.. whatchamacallit, it looked like, you know, like the (dedak) for farm animals, and wet too, possibly because it rained. But here’s a spoiler: that was one of the few non-hygienic situations we encountered as the places that we visited in China were really not that dirty. Thank God for that.

Guangzhou Shanshui Trends Hotel

Luckily, I had asked for direction via email about how to get to our booked hotel. And the staff that replied my email said it perfectly: Just go out of the exit, turn left, and you’ll see our hotel. Mucho gracias! We got there in no time and without getting lost at all.

The staff didn’t comprehend English very well, and they didn’t even get what a ‘wi-fi’ is, but that’s fine. And we loved our RMB 250 / night room (more or less). Here, take a look at it:

Dinner At Random Restaurant

The hotel has no restaurant whatsoever, but it is located in between rows of local fast food restaurants.

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However, we were in for some real Chinese food, hence we walked to… some random direction, and picked a humble restaurant to eat at.

When we spoke in English, the waiter that greeted us directly shouted something to his colleague at the back, and it seemed like many heads turned to us right away. He probably shouted and asked if his colleague could help him talk to us in English.. LOL.

Future international champions of badminton
were dining next to our table

The food was fine, and it served me some fibers that I needed. After dinner, we didn’t feel like roaming around town because it was already 9ish PM, and I wasn’t comfortable with the thought of getting lost in a foreign city whose people aren’t always friendly nor helpful to those who don’t speak their language. And so we turned the TV on and watched until.. zzzz….