A Taste of Home
Got to Canton, China a couple days ago. Oh god, this place scared the day light out of me. The people here drive like a bunch of mad men, people drives in the middle of two lanes for no reasons at all, and the taxi drivers drive without lights at night, to save the precious light bulbs, and there is no left turn lights. The way to turn left is to try to block the on coming traffics, before they block you.
Then there are those jaywalkers that cross the street without looking left or right, and some walk in the middle of the road like there is no one on the road. My relative dragged me trough/cross a six lane road by my hand like a early morning stroll in the park, while my hair stands on its back the whole way with the on-coming traffic come to a screeching stop and swirl around us... and he is calm like he just got out of a yoga secession. Couple days later, I ended up doing the same myself, because there is really no other way to cross the street. :-) I had thoughts of doing a tour of China on my touring bike in the future before I got here, such romantic notions disappears rather quickly as I watch this daily.
A strange thing.... I have yet to see an accident despite what is happening around me....
Spend the last few days wandering in the city. A lot have changed. Skyscrapers are everywhere now. Stores popped up everywhere, selling everything under the sun. I walked into a shopping center to get some presents for a friend, only to come out empty handed, because I feel so intimidated by the up-scale nature of the place and the strange stares. Maybe it is my T-shirts and shorts outfit. People dressed so nicely that shorts and T-shirts are a rarity in this place. Everyone dress nicer than I. By all means, I think Canton had surpass Hong Kong in all aspect now days. Twenty years ago people wanted to go to Hong Kong anyway they can, now they wouldn't even want to stay there a day longer than they have to.
At first look, nothing familiar had remained, but there are still signs of what remained from seventeen years ago. Most of the old houses that I have lived in still remained. Spend much of the last few days going back to my kindergarten, grade school and High School campuses and visiting old friends. It surprised me that how many people I used to know are still around, including my old kindergarten teacher!! It's easy for them to remember me, especially when your nick name is "Big Head Boy" (sounded more catchy in Chinese, Hhahaha... :-)
Things long forgotten from 17 years ago come back one by one. . I went to sleep with the sound of people playing Mahjong and watching geckos hunting for mosquitoes on the ceiling . . . woke up in the morning to the cicada singing in the trees and the sweet smell of the "White Orchid Tree" flowers. This is the summer in Canton, that I remembered!!! Oh yeah, the mosquitoes. Ahhhh..... I remember them well too. :-) I used to sleep with a flash light inside the mosquito net when I was a kid, I had to do that again, so I can hunt for those few mosquito (the smart one) that manage to comes in. Ahhhhh.... . That reminded me to add a mosquito net to my traveling gear.
One surprise that comes out of my visit here in Canton is my lunch with two of my cousins today; originally, I was going to ShangHai and HangZhou to start my way up the Yangtze River to SiChuan and YuanNan, and possibly Tibet. Half and hour later, all that had changed... That's when I founded out that my cousin and her husband had planned to go on to this month long (2-3000 km) trans-Tibetan trip that goes from (Golmud, QingHai)-->(Lhasa, Tibet)-->(Kishgan, XinJiang) with a 4WD. Being a soon to be a FOUR times!!! independent veteran Tibet traveler, she had me converted in a matter of minutes, and we talked for hours about the trip. This is too good of an opportunity for me to pass up. And we are leaving in a few days....!!!! :-). Now, I have to go return that train ticket to HangZhou that I bought... Boy, it's so strange that after separating for 17 years, that our timing, and interest can be so precise.
The plan now is to go to SiChuan and YunNan and the 3-Gorges/Yangtze afterward.
Oh yeah, I am growing a beard. :-) It makes me look more scary, I think. Scare away the thief & robbers I hope. Hahahah¡. Have to shave it later when I cross the border¡ Hahhahah
Well, hope things goes well @ home, best wishes¡..
Then there are those jaywalkers that cross the street without looking left or right, and some walk in the middle of the road like there is no one on the road. My relative dragged me trough/cross a six lane road by my hand like a early morning stroll in the park, while my hair stands on its back the whole way with the on-coming traffic come to a screeching stop and swirl around us... and he is calm like he just got out of a yoga secession. Couple days later, I ended up doing the same myself, because there is really no other way to cross the street. :-) I had thoughts of doing a tour of China on my touring bike in the future before I got here, such romantic notions disappears rather quickly as I watch this daily.
A strange thing.... I have yet to see an accident despite what is happening around me....
Spend the last few days wandering in the city. A lot have changed. Skyscrapers are everywhere now. Stores popped up everywhere, selling everything under the sun. I walked into a shopping center to get some presents for a friend, only to come out empty handed, because I feel so intimidated by the up-scale nature of the place and the strange stares. Maybe it is my T-shirts and shorts outfit. People dressed so nicely that shorts and T-shirts are a rarity in this place. Everyone dress nicer than I. By all means, I think Canton had surpass Hong Kong in all aspect now days. Twenty years ago people wanted to go to Hong Kong anyway they can, now they wouldn't even want to stay there a day longer than they have to.
At first look, nothing familiar had remained, but there are still signs of what remained from seventeen years ago. Most of the old houses that I have lived in still remained. Spend much of the last few days going back to my kindergarten, grade school and High School campuses and visiting old friends. It surprised me that how many people I used to know are still around, including my old kindergarten teacher!! It's easy for them to remember me, especially when your nick name is "Big Head Boy" (sounded more catchy in Chinese, Hhahaha... :-)
Things long forgotten from 17 years ago come back one by one. . I went to sleep with the sound of people playing Mahjong and watching geckos hunting for mosquitoes on the ceiling . . . woke up in the morning to the cicada singing in the trees and the sweet smell of the "White Orchid Tree" flowers. This is the summer in Canton, that I remembered!!! Oh yeah, the mosquitoes. Ahhhh..... I remember them well too. :-) I used to sleep with a flash light inside the mosquito net when I was a kid, I had to do that again, so I can hunt for those few mosquito (the smart one) that manage to comes in. Ahhhhh.... . That reminded me to add a mosquito net to my traveling gear.
One surprise that comes out of my visit here in Canton is my lunch with two of my cousins today; originally, I was going to ShangHai and HangZhou to start my way up the Yangtze River to SiChuan and YuanNan, and possibly Tibet. Half and hour later, all that had changed... That's when I founded out that my cousin and her husband had planned to go on to this month long (2-3000 km) trans-Tibetan trip that goes from (Golmud, QingHai)-->(Lhasa, Tibet)-->(Kishgan, XinJiang) with a 4WD. Being a soon to be a FOUR times!!! independent veteran Tibet traveler, she had me converted in a matter of minutes, and we talked for hours about the trip. This is too good of an opportunity for me to pass up. And we are leaving in a few days....!!!! :-). Now, I have to go return that train ticket to HangZhou that I bought... Boy, it's so strange that after separating for 17 years, that our timing, and interest can be so precise.
The plan now is to go to SiChuan and YunNan and the 3-Gorges/Yangtze afterward.
Oh yeah, I am growing a beard. :-) It makes me look more scary, I think. Scare away the thief & robbers I hope. Hahahah¡. Have to shave it later when I cross the border¡ Hahhahah
Well, hope things goes well @ home, best wishes¡..
posted by 54 at 1:02 AM
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