Eric and I made it out of Hong Kong having done no shopping - is that
possible? We made an excursion to Lantau Island, the location of the new
airport. What is amazing is that only a few thousand people live on the
island (despite being only 30 minutes by boat from Hong Kong), so it is
mostly wild country and beautiful beaches. We visited a huge bronze Buddha
that sits at the top of one of the hills there, and then 12 km on the Lantau
trail until we got to the beach. We were so hot, and water never looked so
good. Unfortuantely the South China Sea didn't feel much cooler than the
air, but was still a welcome alternative to hiking.
This may seem backwards, but I was happy to see that even eating out with
Meg, our fluent friend, we sometimes got ignored or forgotten. We even saw
it happen to Chinese people. When this happens on the mainland, I can be
comforted that it isn't just our inability to speak the language or the
color of our skin.
Speaking of the mainland, we are here! On Monday we took the ferry out of
Hong Kong to Wuzhou, a nine hour ride thorugh the Pearl river delta. We
were greeted upon arrival by "Cherry", an English speaking native who wanted
to help us get to her hotel. Of course our hackles were immediately raised
- especially after we said we didn't know if we were going to stay the night
and she asked' "Well are there any more white people on the boat?"
No there were no more white people - there had only been another couple from
Poland who had already caught a taxi to the bus station. We decided to
walk, and Cherry walked with us. She turned out to be quite helpful -
walking us to get bus tickets, and when we decided to take the overnight
bus, she still helped us get to a resturaunt and helped us order food.
Let me step back for a second. As we walked with Cherry, it was an amazing
sight - rickshaws, people carrying baskets on sticks on their shoulders. We
were the only white people we could see (probably the only white people in
town besides the Polish couple, wherever they were). People were staring at
us - and when we walked by taxis and street vendors they would shout and
smile. If it hadn't been for Cherry, we wouldn't have found a resturaunt
because the place she took us was just a room with tables - but as we came
close they opened up the glass door and yelled and smiled.
Eric tipped her Y10 for her help (about $1.50) and she continued to help us
by telling us how much the cab should cost, and wrote down the words for
telling the cab driver we wanted to go to the bus station. So while we were
enjoying our meal, Eric and I were speculating on the fact that all these
people must just see us as walking dollar signs (or actually walking Renmibi
signs), as Cherry told us that she makes the equivalent of $150 a month for
her job at the hotel. She had been so nice, though - were we being ripped
off? Was the resturaunt going to end up costing a fortune? The meal turned
out to cost the equivalent of $6 for two liters of beer, three main dishes,
and three bowls of rice. If were ripped off, it was fine by us.
We took the overnight bus to Yangshuo, about a 8 hour ride. The bus was set
up with bunks instead of seats, quite comfortable with bamboo mats. We were
lucky that the bus wasn't too crowded - Eric and I each got a bunk designed
for two people to ourselves (which for Eric was pretty crucial, considering
he was well over a foot longer than the bunk). Eric thought he was going to
die because the bus didn't pull over for so long - we had heard a story from
a guy in Berkeley who had traveled on a bus in China where the driver
wouldn't pull over, and everyone started peeing on the bus - yuck! We were
fortunate - the bus did pull over, and everyone went rushing out with a
collective sigh. OF course, I picked a bad time to become pee-shy, though,
and had to suffer for another 2 hours until the driver pulled over again.
Yangshuo is quite touristy, but still amazing. The area is full of little
hills that rise up out of nowhere - we definitely are in Asia now. The heat
is oppressive, so we spent a lot of today in our room with the air
conditioner on. Tomorrow we will take a tour of the countryside with Lee
(she promises to take us away from all the bus fumes). We will see...
We have had some trouble with the e-mail - if we are sending to you twice,
or if you don't want to get our stories, let us know.
ni hao,
Sue and Eric
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