Friday 30 April 2010

Shopping and CS dinner

30 April

Day 156: Guangzhou


Me and Juli went to the same shopping area today, to look for a backpack and some clothes. Ana, Pedro, Luciano and Serafin went to look for the electronics market, since Luciano wanted to buy some cheap iPod.

After 8 hours shopping, we bought lots of stuff, including a trolley bag which can be transformed in a backpack, some t-shirts, some shirts, sun glasses, underwear – and with all this stuff went back home to meet the rest of the team :D And this is Guangzhou subway at rush hour :-DD


Later this day, all of us together with Gisele went to the couchsurfing meeting organized in the place called: 13Factory.

We had dinner there, talked with some couchsurfers and decided to go home. Unfortunately, same day, taxi drivers had a strike (at midnight haha) so we couldn’t find any taxi for around 30 minutes, waiting in front of the bar.


Gisele called one of the guys we met at the dinner, Alex, a Columbian married to Chinese girl and living in China for last 4 years and he came to pick us up and dropped us close to Gisele’s place. Finally we walked for 15 minutes till Gisele’s place and successfully got to her place.

Thursday 29 April 2010

Shopping, drinks and midnight dinner in Guangzhou

29 April

Day 155: Guangzhou

We woke up at around 1 pm, so before everybody got ready, it was already 3pm. It was raining the whole day, so apparently it was the best time to go for shopping :D

We had lunch in the same place as yesterday:

Aand then, all of us (me, Juli, Luciano, Serafin, Ana and Pedro) went to one of the wholesale shopping area in Guangzhou, close to the Main Train station. Gisele wrote me on a piece of paper the name of the area in Chinese, so using this paper we asked people how to get there and found some shopping malls, close to each other.


The shopping malls area was huge and full of the imitation clothes. You could find here all kind of Levis t-shirts, Ralph Laurent, Boss, Paul Smith shirts, Versace, Gucci, whatever you can imagine brand and the prices are totally negotiable and completely different.


We wondered around but did not buy anything, have decided to do it tomorrow, when the weather is better and we have more time (since the malls started to close at 6 pm).


We went back home, Gisele came from work and told us that she knows one club, where today we can have free drinks from 10 to 11 pm. The easiest choice ever – who says no to a free drink? :D The club was having a Latin music night and it seems that Gisele knew all personnel of the place :-D We had a couple caipirinhas, cuba libes and margaritas and even went to dance a bit.


The star of the evening was Serafin, who fist tried to give a tip to a waiter, and did it so secretly, that it seemed to be in some communist country old time ago when you were not allowed to give any tips to anybody haha He just took the money, squeezed in his had and then took the waiter hand and squeezed the money in his – I can’t describe it properly, but we were laughing about it for the next 3 hours at least :-D


The other moment happened on the dance floor. When Sera has decided to demonstrate all his “salsa dancing skills” and while dancing with Gisele, he bent and lost his glasses on the floor. Gisele was dancing salsa, looking somewhere up and feeling like a star, when Sera told her:”Stop! Don’t move! I need to find my glasses” – this is was how Gisele’s dream dancing was interrupted hahaha

Ok, anyway, the free happy hour was finished and we were feeling “happy” enough to stop drinking and go eat something:-D Close to the club, there was a 5 floor 24 hours open seafood barbeque restaurant.

The restaurant was incredible: it had a big area with small pools filled with water and alive seafood and fish swimming in the pools. You just need to pick up the one you like and way you want it to be cooked and it will be served on your table within couple of minutes.


Incredibly, at midnight, there were plenty of people in the restaurant. Gisele told us that in the morning, after club is closed, there are many people eating here at 6 am in the morning after dancing the whole night :-D

We had a great meal, beers and finally asked Serafin to give some tips to the girl serving us, to enjoy again the beautiful moment of Serafin’s tipping tactics haha

Shrimps, clamps, two kinds of different fish, some more seafood, beers and in the end some beef with mushrooms for the boys – the whole dinner was 85 Yuan (around 8,5 euro/each).

Finally we went home, not without buying some beers on the way :-D

Wednesday 28 April 2010

Arrival to Guangzhou

28 April

Day 154

Part II: Hong Kong - Guangzhou

On arrival to Guangzhou, we passed customs and passport control in the station and we are in China!!!


On the railway station, there were many stands with people offering taxi, money exchange, sim card and other service. Everything was written in English with big letters, clearly meaning that it is a scam for tourists. We did not had any much choice, and finally bought a Chinese SIM card from one of the shops (since 7/11 were not selling any SIM cards). He wanted 150 Yuan and we bought it for 80 with some credit on it.

Luciano has called his host, who did not reply and we called Gisele, the girl we hosted in Barcelona once and now she was going to host us in Guangzhou. Besides me, Juli and Sera, a couple from Portugal was arriving same day to Gisele’s house, so it was going to be a “Big brother” apartment for sure.

Luciano has decided to go directly to his host house and we took the taxi and went to Gisele’s place. The taxi we took outside the station, but still it was not the normal one who is supposed to put meter and charge you the local price. We negotiated the price and finally agreed to 50 Yuan, instead of 120 Yuan they wanted to charge us. The real price was 25 Yuan though :D

We called Gisele and she explained to the taxi driver how to get to her place. Finally we were at her place!!!

In about 30 minutes or so, Luciano called telling us that he did not find his host place and he went back to the railway station, where nobody was understanding him and nobody was willing to help him, he was pretty desperate. We asked Gisele if he can stay with us too, and she said yes, even her apartment was a small one, she said we manage something.

Me and Gisele went to the station to pick Luciano up, and then together with Juli and Sera we went to eat something in one of the restaurants close to Gisele’s place.

Later Portuguese couple, Pedro and Ana, has arrived; we had couple of beers at home and went to sleep.