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GRIME-ZHOU. Gaungzhou was the next stop on
our travels. This huge city is generally known as 'Canton' to English
speakers. We stayed about 30 floors above the traffic (which helped a
lot), though we had to tread carefully at ground level, 'cause the hotel
foyer was being renovated and we had to carry cases etc through the middle
of this damned construction site. Still, we DID get a discount on the
room....
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WE'RE 8! Our 8th wedding anniversary was spent in a nice
Thai restaurant in another city near the coast, Shenzhen. This is a major port and special economic zone just across the
bay from Hong Kong. We had a pretty decent dinner to wrap up a splendidly self-indulgent couple of hours in a Chinese massage/reflexology palace.
One thing about China - it's not THAT cheap, but the coffee should be. In
fact, it should be FREE because it's dire - almost as bad as the coffee in
Korea.
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| STONE-FACED. The bit of China that we saw is certainly worth another visit,
provided you've got some basic Chinese under your belt. Laetitia tried to
chat up one of the local lads but didn't get very much in the line of a
response. Must have been her accent. Inscrutable types, these Chinese. |
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Macau - a little bit of Portugal in Asia.
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| MACAU. This little gambling enclave was (until
December'99) part of Portugal and was returned to Chinese rule as some
sort of 500 year-late Xmas prezzie. We arrived by strolling across the
border point from the Chinese city of Zuhai at about 9pm on Monday
night, just in time to get throught the gates before they closed for the
night, but not too late for Laeitita to have a nervous breakdown when the
Chinese officials started quizzing her about whether she supported Taiwan
or China etc etc. The day was saved by my stepping forward with a BIG
smile (giving face) and reminding everyone that
"South Africa is a great friend of China" and that "the
Chinese are fortunate to have such a great country" (not mentioning
the Taiwan issue at all). Their attitude changed completely. The prison doors
did NOT in fact swing shut on us and we were cheerfully informed that we'd
be welcome back anytime!. |
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We strolled from China into...erm...China and
booked in at the Hotel Fortuna in the casino area. As we were there for
only a few hours (excluding kip time), we couldn't do much except grab a
late supper in a lovely Portuguese restaurant near Selgado Square and then
wander around in happy amazement at the European-style parts of the old
city. Luffly. Another time, definitely....
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Leaving the mainland...
But now it was
April with about 25 different countries visited, and we were back in Taiwan.
The only thing on the calendar was work, work, work. We were still radically short-staffed so our schedule
was 12 hours a day.
Grim. Nicer things DID happen, though. I was lucky enough to catch a live gig by
former Duran Duran bassist John Taylor at the Taipei Hard Rock Cafe. He
played a lot of my fave tracks from the Duran 1983 album RIO - a tad
better than staying home and watching TV... I was half-expecting another
concert-cancelling earthquake of the 1999 ilk that nuked the SUEDE concert here
last September ...
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| BACK
TO TAIWAN. |
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