Vacate-shun

Travelling is a lot like marriage. You and said partner are in it together and if something goes wrong you better suck it up and move along because you're stuck with them, it's only going to ruin the 'trip,' and you can't change what's already happened. (Remind me that I said this in like 15 years when I'm married). This epiphany came to me when I found out on the bus ride to our destination that the papers that I had worked on so hard the night before with information for our trip had been conveniently and intentionally left behind by my travel buddy. Not a good start, I was frustrated, but I tried my best to make a point and move along--we'd be fine, I just hate doing work for nothing.

Our first stop on the mini-vacation was Guangzhou, where we stayed with a Fulbright research grantee that we'd met on our previous trip. We went to the tea market and tested different types of fresh flower tea, stumbled upon an art village, walked around and met up with Pete and clan for a friend's birthday dinner at a Chinese seafood restaurant--the food was delicious. That night, I took the couch and Athena took the mattress pad on the floor in front of the balcony. The apartment was nice and Pete was nice to let us stay there for free, but Athena became a tasty morsel for over 50 mosquitoes in the night....I'm not being overdramatic, she really counted them. Her arm looked quite the part.

The second day we took the bullet train to Shenzhen (about 1.5 hours away). We arrived and walked around a bit before grabbing lunch at a Muslim restaurant in the area. One thing I love about China is cheap, good food. The dish I had had beef, veggies and dumpling skin/pieces in it. It was quite delicious and unlike the last time I had Halal food in China, I didn't pass out! Yay! Athena and I then ventured to a place called OCT (Overseas Chinese Town). It was a modern development and fusion of eastern and western. We went to a Walmart just because it was there and for the experience. It was interestingly very similar to the set up of a Walmart in the states--the same color schemes, but obviously lots of different products. We went sample crazy--yes, we were those kids. Other things in OCT included an outdoor sculpture garden and Chinese art museum that we ventured to. We were supposed to meet our CouchSurfer host for dinner, but she ended up having alternative plans when her family surprised her that they were in town. This was fine with me--it gave Athena and I more options. As for the room, the girl taught at a middle school that seemed something like a boarding school, so she gave us a  room of our own--equivalent to the set up of a hotel room though not so clean. It was free.

Athena and I ventured to a place called the Children's Palace--a park/mall development area. There was a wave building there that our host had recommended. We had dinner at a place called RBT, but more interestingly, we had dessert (Americano and chocolate covered danish) at a place called Gaga. Yum. After we were done looking at the Children's Palace, we went a couple of metro stops up to this area our host had recommended where we could look out over the city. Unfortunately, said hill was much too far away from this stop and we decided to walk around and attempt to walk back to our place of stay since the metro had stopped running. Somehow we walked right back to Children's Palace... What else do you do at that point besides find somewhere to buy a drink? haha. I had a blueberry pomello (a fruit like a lemon) shake--it was vacation, dessert is like a vegetable. While at the coffee shop/bar, I overheard 2 younger American guys apparently talking to Chinese college students about how dangerous America is... I was not impressed. I listened into their conversation and apparently everyone in America carries a gun so it's very dangerous. I'll admit that big cities and the wrong part of town can be dangerous, but come on-- Anyway, when the guy left, I was tempted to smart off to him (me? No.), but I didn't. Instead, he caught my eye on the way out and a few minutes later popped his head back in. He inquired where I was from at which point I found out he was from one of the Carolinas, originally from Texas....I jokingly said, "I was wondering where you got some of your interesting ideas about American and the idea that everyone carried a gun, but I guess that makes a little more sense." He and his friend talked to Athena and I for a bit, Athena got information about a potential teaching position in Henan province. The friend actually offered it to me at first--which I quickly declined. The original guy I was talking about works at an orphanage.

We woke the next morning and had local Chinese breakfast with our host before heading to Hong Kong. We then proceeded to stand in an immigration line for 2.5 hours. I've never been in line for that long--maddening. At one point it wasn't even it a line, it was a mob they had roped off to get into the line. Craziness. Fortunately, I had Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential to keep me entertained. Once in Hong Kong, we were able to leave our bags at the Cricket Club where Athena's aunt and uncle are members. Oh it felt LOVELY to get the load off our backs. The bad thing about budget travelling having to carry everything with you. We then walked around the Kowloon area of HK, took off to Central, sat/ snacked/ read in a roof top garden at the IFC Mall (I finally found Cheez Its!!!!!!!) and then enjoyed some fancy soup for dinner. We met up with her aunt and uncle at the cricket club after dinner for coffee and drinks. They had had dinner with some former business partners/now friends who were in town from Thailand. They were very nice and we got to speak to them briefly.

Athena's aunt and uncle let us stay with them and gave us a ride out to the Sai Keng Peninsula/ New Territories where they live. Hong Kong is a big place with lots of little parts and islands. This part is further away from the business district, but has way more green space and is quite fantastic. They had a nice house--the nicest I've been to in HK. We slept well, needless to say.

The last day of our trip, Athena and I went to Sai Keng Town and she briefly showed me around. We stopped off for breakfast at Starbucks and I had a scone :) I've also only found American scones in Hong Kong. English ones are a bit different. We joined Athena's aunt and uncle back at the house and went to a beach club where they had a membership for BBQ at the beach. We had lamb burgers (my first--yum) with tomato relish, salad with a homemade creme fresh Caesar dressing and spicy corn on the cob. Yum yum yum! We also got to swim. The set up of the area felt more like a lake than a beach because it had a dock and floating platforms you could jump off of in the water, but the water was salty and surprisingly not too cold at all. It was so refreshing.

The journey home was quite long--we got in several hours later than I had planned in part due to the holiday and also because there's a gift show going on right now in HK so lots of people are there for business. Dinner ended up being grab what you can at the CitySuper store. For us, this is still a specialty though as they carry a lot of foods not available in Macau. I bought some honey Greek yogurt for my dinner. If you like Greek yogurt (which tends to be far more expensive), Athena's aunt told us  you can buy a container of plain yogurt and leave it in a cotton cloth hanging up in the fridge over night and let it drain. You'll have the equivalent to Greek yogurt in the morning. I haven't tried this one yet.
--Overall, I feel blessed to have another vacation and am grateful I had a travelling buddy to put up with me. We're safe and back in the comfort of our apartment. This is very good.

Today wasn't as exciting as the vacation--just teaching mostly. I did finally use the free gym equipment that they recently added at our work. There may be hope for my exercising regularly after all ;)

It's gettin toasty toasty here, but I will take the sunshine with the heat :)