Day 3- Guangzhou (GZ)
Sherane was in charge of Thailand and I was in charge of China. While researching things to do in GZ, it was very hard for me to find anything. When we go there, we realized thats because there is nothing to do there. The place is beautiful though and the people seem to be alot friendlier which is really friendly because I have had all good experiences since I have been here. We spent the night there and met a man who we didn't know until later that he was a "God-send"- he was very familiar with the area since he was a frequent visitor to the city to do business. He saved us lots of time for our trip to Hong Kong by suggesting an alternative means of transportation. He gave us some dodgy directions and when we looked completely confused; he told us to give him 5 minutes, we went to the lobby to check out of our hotel and he came down dressed for the weather. He hailed a cab, took us to the train station, paid for our cab and train tickets and sent us on our merry way. Two hour later, we got to the last stop which read "Hum Hong" or something like that. We looked at each other with a look that declared, this was just the beginning of our crazy adventure. We went upstairs to find exactly how far Hong Kong was from this place the train had deposited us (our tickets clearly said Hong Kong!). We spoke to a man who after patching his English sentences together gave us seemingly decent directions. So after diligently studying Chinese for 5 months (ok maybe in total it was about a month with the amount of work I put in)- my chinese was no use- because in GZ and Hong KOng, they dont speak Mandarin; they speak Cantonese! So anyways, we then compared notes with another random person and then finally with a tour desk. We had a plan, leave our suitcases in the train station, buy tickets and head to Macau.
We took a one hour ferry jet from wherever we were to Macau- which was just as scheduled (except we were supposed to arrive in Hong Kon not Hong Hum or whatever. Macau is China's version of Las Vegas -it was simply beautiful,very posh and fabulous architecture. We called the hotel while on the train to get directions and confirm our reservation. We took a shuttle from the ferry station and someone from the hotel met us so that we would not get lost. Met us- only to let us know that after we had called to confirm the reservation and he made sure that he met us, that he did not have a room for us. So I explained to him that since he had guaranteed a room and failed to do so, he would provide me with a map, internet use and his telephone to find another hotel. Aftera while, we found a hotel which was on another island in Macau. It was great because it was beautiful, we got to stay on another island which was only 15 mins from the city center and tons more posh than the original one and 5 mins from the gorgous Venetian Hotel. The next day we visited the Ruins of St. Pauls, Senado Square and wondered around in other gorgeous hotels to see people act a fool losing all their money gambling.
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