Guang zhou

ok, are you ready???????well don't you remember that i was supposed to reveal something more about my travels around China!!!!!!!!

my today's topic is Guang zhou. well it is the third largest city in China, right after Beijing and Shanghai and is located in Guang dong province. the place is about 3 hours from Hong Kong by bus. so you can very well imagine how far it is from Luzhou.


actually at first i didn't know anything about Guang zhou. i will tell you all how i came to know about the place. every night at 10:30 pm i go to Tanya's room for our Bible reading and night's prayers.
(Tanya)



for those who don't know Tanya, she is our Senior in our college, a star student and a wonderful human being and she is from Shillong. oh i almost forget, her favourite time pass is pulling my leg. anyway, lets continue our story.

well that night when i went to her room, no one was there except Tanya, Lahun and Helbert, so we had to wait for 30 minutes more for everyone to come and we had our prayers. after that we started discussing how boring life was, stuck in Luzhou for 42 days, nothing to do, no classes.........then Tanya said that she will be going to Hong Kong to meet her aunt. well i thought atleast someone will not be bored. then suddenly Ban said that he will also be going to a place named Guang zhou. it was the first time i heard the name of the place and curiousity drove me towards asking him what he will be doing there.

(Guang zhou)
well he was a little surprised to know that i never heard of Guang zhou, he told me that the medical college there is very famous and he has got his friends there, so he wanted to spend the rest of the vacation there. i was too bored of the daily routine of Luzhou, so i agreed instanteneously to go with him when he asked. i didn't even think that i was short of money, i just agreed.

when i came back to my room, i thought may be he was just kidding, maybe he will not go or even if he does he will not take me. three days passed and i almost forgot about it. then one day at about 4:00pm he called me and asked me to get ready as soon as possible as we were going to buy our tickets that very day. imagine my situation, no money and was on my way to buy tickets for a place so far away. the only person about whom i could think at that moment was Suchi, i rushed to her room and asked for some money. Suchi was supposed to buy a laptop the following day, but then also she gladly gave me 600 yuans. i mean just imagine what a kind hearted person she is!!!!!!!!!!!!even Sandy gave me 900 yuans for my trip. so from almost bankrupcy, i had enough money for my tickets. but when we reached the agency, it was already closed. so we had to return there the following day. we got tickets for Guang zhou, but not from Luzhou, it was from Chong Ching. so we again had to buy bus tickets for Chong Ching.

Tanya, Mark and Reuel also bought their tickets upto Guang zhou along with us, they planned to leave for Hong Kong from there.

so on 26th January, all of us packed our bags and left the college campus at 7:00am to catch our bus for Chong Ching. guess what happened next??????????as soon as we reached the bus station, nature showered her love for me and i had to go shit. i mean it was so emberassing. and then when we boarded the bus, it was stuck in front of our college for 3 hours, because of fog. we reached Chong Ching in the late afternoon. Chong Ching is also known as Detroit of the East, well i don't know why, i am just quoting what Tanya said. it's a beautiful city with millions of fly overs.

but we didn't get to go around the city because we had our train at10:30 in the evening. so we went to a restuarant, ate our lunch, waited there till dinner, ate dinner and then proceeded toward the train station to catch our train. this was the first time i boarded a chinese train. it was small but very comfortable. and the service was better , much better than what we have in India. i was quite satisfied.

(Mark)

that night i was sleepy, but i didn't want to sleep, so Mark (not chinese Mark) and me, we kept on talking. he gave me advices about life and what is right and what is wrong. this is how Mark really is. he will help everyone with his advices and his knowledge, i feel so relieved whenever i talk to him. anyway, after a rather prolonged chat, we both fell asleep and didn't wake up till the next afternoon.

it was around 1:00pm when i opened my eyes. the first thing i did was brush my teeth, by that time everyone was awake and as hungry as i was. so "Brunch time" was declared by Lady Tanya. she prepared duck sandwich for all of us...........she even cut cucumbers, apply mayonaisse on the bread and put duck meat in between two pieces of bread. it was so delicious that i can hardly describe in words........i never knew Tanya has the qualities of a good Chef.

but that night we had to buy food from the pantry car, since we hardly had enough food left for the 5 of us.... after two night's journey we atlast reached Guangzhou. we took a cab to Nan Fang Yi Yuan (medical college and hospital) and i was given a fake note by the cab driver, which when i later found out, i had the urge to kill him. after reaching Nan Fang, we were recieved by Ban's friends..................Geraldo, Jeremiah (Jerry) and Anil.

when we reached their dormitory, i was full of envy. their dormitory consists of 14 floors with 3 elevators...............i mean , its such a luxury, don't you think???? and guess what they have in each room????????two "King-sized" Beds!!!!!!!!!we get bunkers to sleep and they get king sized beds!!!!!! well the only consolation was that i got to enjoy that luxury for the next few days. there we met the rest of the group...........Lakiewdor (Lakiew), Wilanika (Wila) and Percia, all from Shillong. we also met the twins from Manipur.....Ching Khei and Ching Len. it was quite funny to see two people who looked exactly like each other, i mean it's quite common in movies but not in real life.




(in front is Anil, behind him from left to right.....me, Jerry, Tanya, Ban, Wila, Lakiew, Percia...
and the two behind us .....the taller one is Reuel and the other one is Mark)


Tanya, Mark and Reuel left for Hong Kong that very day; it was Chinese New Year.

(Beijing Lu)
the rest of us went to Beijing Lu, a fantastic shopping area, all decorated for the New Year. it is such a wonderful place, i mean it is full of internationally branded shops but then also had such a chinese essence.


oh by the way, you won't believe what i ate there.............i ate Octopus. they are so tasty, just like prawn........cute baby octopuses............what do you expect me to do, it's China after all!!!!!!
we had a great time there and when we realized that it was time to return to the dormitory, it was to late to catch the bus. we had to return by a cab.

(Pearl River)



the next day, i woke up at 3:00pm. well i tried to wake up early, but the king sized bed said that it would be a serious crime not to enjoy the luxurious nap. that evening we went to the Pearl River. the colourful lights on the river bank, over the bridges and cruises created a perfect blend of true China. it was no less beautiful than any of the European countries. we spent all our time taking millions of photos, eating kebabs and teasing each other.

Guang zhou's beauty soothes the eye and its tasty cuisine nourishes the stomach, it's simply a wonderful city.


(Ocean World)





our next visit was the Ocean World. we saw Dolphins, seals, penguins, sharks and what not. but i must admit, the stars of the day were the dolphins who tossed their trainer in the air, as a part of the show. well unfortunately for me though, Lakiew got a little over excited by the show and started calling me a Dolphin. can you believe that!!!!me, a dolphin?????well i also gave her tit for tat. she is now officially known as a Penguin to me and to the rest of the world...... serves her right.







oh did i mention that there are regular presentations by mermaids in the Ocean World????well not real mermaids ofcourse, but well they are quite cool...



that day we had our lunch in an indian restuarant. it was after such a long time i tasted true indian food!!!it was as if we were back in india, feasting on chicken curry, mutton korma, paratha and Chilli chicken...............simply mouth watering.


(mermaids)

that evening we again went to Beijing Lu and did some shopping for our friends. after that for the next two days we simply stayed in room and relaxed. we didn't go anywhere except for the canteen to eat. we watched movies all night and slept the whole day.

but after that came the best part of our trip......................HONG KONG...............well .........i think i will talk about Hong Kong in the upcoming posts, not now...... so keep waiting.....bye...