jidan mifan-steamed rice

After crossing the border into the mainland and leaving the sweet life in Macau and Hong Kong, we were in the real china, oh ya the real red country. So we were off to Guangzhou, and with the help of three lovely Chinese people (who spoke some English) we were put on a bus headed in that direction. After 3 hours on a bus we arrived in Guanzhou with the address of the hostel we booked online and no frickin clue where we were. We walked the police station and they pretended to understand us and made gestures toward different directions on our map. Finally after 30 minutes of playing charades and gestures we got in a cab and to our hostel. Guanzhou is the real deal and as we walked down the street we received looks of utter confusion as to our sudden landing in this city. We are aliens. But I have learned how to say two important phrases, jidan mifan (steamed white rice) and tsingtao ( the national beer of china) so I am eating rice and doing great.

What happens in macau stays in macau

Macau was our next stop and it is definitely a bizarre place. It's called the Las Vegas of the East and it is fully equipped with aspects of Las Vegas, yet you are still in China my friends. On one side of the city there is a Wynn hotel and an MGM Grand and then there is the other end of town, where we stayed and saw the open air fish markets and stray dogs roaming. I lost 20 hk dollars on a slot machine that I still don't fully comprehend where u were attempting to match up fish, dragons and coins. Rooz lost 100 hong kong dollars after 10 seconds of black jack. haha. So ya we were in the Las Vegas of the East with all the other asian tourists taking pictures in front of the MGM Grand and losing money in the 10 cent slots.

Hong Kong the land of noodle soup and prada.

Hong Kong is a bustling little hub of millions of people, huge buildings, Mc Cafe's (Mc Donald's), Chinese medicine shops, and food. First three days in Hong Kong consisted of getting over our jet-lag, eating noodles for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and avoiding Indian men trying to sell us suits at a "good price". Hong Kongers are really helpful and most of them speak English and so therefore they were good people. They love their cell phones, Rolex watches and designer goods. Hong Kong was all about the skyscrapers and the shopping. Needless to say, being on a tight budget and not being about shop was a difficult test of restraint. Overall Hong Kong was a great place to begin out trip and ease into our big bad Chinese experience.
While eating breakfast on the last day half way thru my noodle soup I was handed a fork by the waitress apparently my chopstick skills need some polishing. Luckily we have a few more weeks for me to become a chopstick professional and learn some fricking chinese, because from here on out the people don't speak our language.

Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey.

Getting ready to leave on a six month trip of Asia! Stocked up on malaria pills and antibiotics ready for anything and prepared for nothing at the same time.