I woke up at 7, it was a bit cold and the hot shower wasn't until 8 so I put on my jumper and rested for another 50 minutes. I got up and researched the area after all Betty was right I should see something so I found 2 of the 4 things to see were not too far. I showered packed up and messed around on the internet getting a vpn working so I left around 9. I walked along the road, stopped at a cemetery and came to a main road I needed to cross. There was no crossing I could see so I decided to walk across the busy road. Midway the fence was broken, maybe from others climbing over and it was easier crossing the other side of the road but there was a slow moving bus close to a gap in the hedge. It was a low hedge but about 1.5 metres long, I sped up and leapt across and the bus honked and the driver gave me an ok hand sign. I saw some bikes on the side of the road they looked like rental bikes but no one was around so maybe you just take them. I got to the temple which was a bit busy and had quite a few buildings. It was good to see and there was a lake behind it. I walked on a white path which went on the lake and continued around the lake where there was a theme park although it looked closed, probably because it was not summer. At the end of the lake was another temple which was closed but also had a few buildings. There was a cable car going up the hill and a theatre area. I looked around for a path up the hill but couldn't see on so I walked on to go all the way around the lake. There was a small castle gate so I went up and there was a wall on the other side, like the great wall so I walked along and it kept going up the hill until I got to the point where the cable car went. There was a viewing platform but not much else so I went down and took a different path that went to a viewpoint of the lake so I could see the path over the lake which I'd seen on a map of the area earlier and was shaped like the Buddhist nazi shape. I carried on down and the path didn't complete properly so I had to walk along a dirt path and go back up a bit to find the other path. There were food stalls and funfair prize challenges as I completed my circuit back to the temple. I went to the last place I'd missed which were 2 white palace buildings, very nice but both closed. I headed back a different way and saw the bikes had locks on and a barcode for people to unlock. I went across an underpass and found Betty back at the hostel gate painting the hostel name in the wall. I got my suitcase and she came with me to the bus stop and said the bikes are operated through an app. I needed a 601 or 608 bus and Betty had an app to check the bus time but the bus 601 cane so I paid the 2 yuan and it took me to the station where I got in the English speaking line and crossed my fingers. There was some noise up front, I looked up and the window was closing for my line but they were opening another so we all shuffled across. Soon afterwards it happened for another queue, surely having the ticket people change seats would be easier. Some people had a China railways person help them book a ticket using an app, I was pretty sure I couldn't do that. The queuing took ages, about 40 minutes and the next train available was at 4.10, over 3 hours away. I didn't just want to sit here so I went looking for some luggage storage but didn't find any so I went down to the car park and found a spot under stairs that looked ok. I had to wait as there were some people just hanging around and then a security guard came down and spotted my suitcase. He wandered over and kicked it so I claimed it as mine and walked off with it. I found another staircase instead and left it there and went off. I walked past the immigration border area and came to the coast but there was not too much to see, no statue wikitravel mentioned for one thing. I was worried about leaving my suitcase, this was China after all and I tried to cut across to go back a different way but there was construction work and no way through so I went back the way I came. Back in the car park I found the staircase and my bag was gone. I came out and spoke to the guard who was there and seemed to know what I wanted but didn't speak English so I didn't know what he was saying. Eventually with the help of another security guard I found out I had to visit a police station and had the location bookmarked on my map. I walked there and couldn't see it so I went down into the mall next to Macau border as there had been mention of that. I couldn't see any police but there was an information desk so I went there and they sent me back out and then go right. So I went there and still no station, I carried on upstairs, downstairs, round the block and found a policeman giving a parking ticket so I asked him and he pointed me round the corner I'd come so I went there and asked at a booth and they pointed me the way and I did find the station. I used google translate and the man on the desk had the suitcase there but he needed to fill in a form first so I gave him my passport, he did a short form and I had to sign and leave my fingerprint. Not sure if that was a criminal record but not a good thing regardless. I took my suitcase and headed back and stopped at a shop to look at some food and I got a pot noodle for 5 Yuan but when I pointed at the hot water behind the counter he charged me an extra Yuan to have it filled up. I sat and ate the pot chicken of mushroom noodle soup and then got some more food from a 7-11. I still had an hour to go and I didn't want to just waste it, I like to see things or be productive on holiday/travels, I'd already seen a police station so I went to get a mobile phone sim card and went to the mall. The people didn't speak English but we made it work at the 3rd place and I gave them my passport so they could register the sim to me. Thankfully my criminal record didn't stop me getting the sim so now I had roaming data. I went back to the train station and charged my phone a bit and then went to be on the platform early. The first queue was so they check the ticket against id. Then bags had to go through an x-ray and finally there was another gate but it's wouldn't let me through as there was another train first. So I waited 10 minutes and then went through and up and went to my seat. I put my suitcase up on the rack but got told to take it down and then I slept for most of the journey. I woke up close to Guangzhou, the train message board had the temperature and it was 16 degrees outside and 24 inside, no air conditioning here then and no wonder I'd slept. I got my things and let the train to find an enormous train station. I wasn't sure where I was and maps didn't work inside so I went to the nearest exit. Outside I found that I was in Guangzhou south station and there was a hostel not too far away on the other side of the station. I crossed and was planning to go there and check out prices mainly to compare as staying a long way from the centre is not a great idea but when I'd walked 10 minutes and come to a road I needed to cross with still a fair way to go I gave up on that and found a place central on Agoda called Guangzhou Yulei hostel but I didn't book it. I got on the subway and got off where the hostel was supposed to be. It was dark now and there were tower blocks around but this was a park and there were no buildings for this hostel to be here. Maps had a hostel over the main road so I thought it might be there, I crossed and had a look around but getting addresses is really hard to do so after a while I got a Chinese translation of the address and asked some people in shops. They pointed and one person looked it up and I got it pinned on my map, cool. I went there dragging my suitcase which was getting worse and I managed to find the building, get in and up to the right floor. I found the room and it had a pink sticker over the gate, the kind I saw in Ho Chi Minh city. The gate was closed but the door was open and the place had a bit of an abandoned look to it. I knocked and rung the bell and shouted and I thought I heard a noise but nothing happened so I left. I went back on Agoda and found another hostel not too far away called Benjamin & Jason. My suitcase was a bit of a mess as the wheel was coming off so I got a taxi and showed him where to go. We went the wrong way around the block and got stuck at the lights and then had to do a u-turn. Still it was 14 yuan and I got out and looked for the place. Despite being in the right area there was no sign of the place and after a while of searching and getting a friend back home to help I noticed on Agoda that they only accepted mainland Chinese anyway. I went on Agoda again, surely this time it would be ok and again I took a taxi which was a better ride although I was low on phone battery so I was charging it and by rushing I bent the charging cable. It was the one I'd rescued from the internet shop. My phone was down to about 20% so I got another cable out to charge it and then searched for the hostel this time it was called Guangzhou a youth hostel and the map showed it was where a hospital was and again I couldn't find it. I thought about maybe just going to a hotel, Agoda had some for 30 USD or just write off one night but I didn't feel to good after my all nighter in Macau and really I wanted a place for 2 nights. I found a place that wasn't nearby but was near a metro station and seemed to be findable so I booked it for a night as it was getting late and I wanted them to know I was coming. I walked to a nearby metro station which the one I'd got off earlier to find the first hostel and the first stop was the name of the hospital. I got to the station which was at the end of the line and it was late now after 10pm. The train was making announcements for people to make sure they didn't miss their last train. I walked out and went to where I thought it would be but there it wasn't there. It was supposed to be in an exhibition centre so I asked some people at a car modifier place and one spoke English and showed me where the exhibition centre was but then as he spoke English I showed him the address which he found. He and his friend then said they would drive me there and took me right to the place and it was just an apartment in a block of flats. There was no way I was going to find that but those guys saved me. I got a bottom bunk and tried to sort out my phone as my email wasn't working and my vpn as well but none of them worked although I did find that Microsoft worked so I had bing and hotmail. I went to sleep late planning to spend another night here and then get a train the day after.
0 Comments
|
|