Guangzhou / Huadu

November 3

oh my God that train felt forever. I tried to busy myself by writing in this journal, uploading pictures, clearing my tablet, playing solitaire and angry birds. I think I've been on trains in China for over 50 hours now...and counting.

I found the Lazy GaGa hostel pretty easily. Yes, it really is called the Lazy GaGa. I Made quick friends with this guy from new York named Josh, another guy from California named David and lastly someone from shenzhen named Vibhu. Didnt do much except get some dinner and walk around the Pearl River. For dinner i had spare ribs and rice and also won ton noodle soup.

Theres something about being in Guangzhou that gives me a sense of familiarity...almost like being home finally. From the language to the food and to the women...all beautiful! As much as everyone says Sichuan has the most beautiful girls, i kind of think Guangzhou is better. Guess everyone has different tastes. I do get the sense that Guangzhou is more liberal than the rest of China and there does appear to be an attitude of resistance to conformity here. From appearance, it does remind me of chinatown in san francisco.

November 4

What stands out about Guangzhou is definitely the greenery everywhere. So different from the other major cities that I have visited thus far. Additionally, I feel that the driving is less reckless here and you can actually safely cross the streets without fear of being roadkill.

I had some dim sum for breakfast and for almost 2 usd you can easily load up. The rest of my day was spent taking the bus to white cloud mountain. The view from the top is pretty spectacular. There's also a temple at the top. I paid 40 rmb tl write my name and Riley's on a red sheet of paper that a monk will read off later for blessings.

Later I caught up with David for dinner and a well needed foot massage at the parlor around the corner.

Side note: there's a guy who snores incredibly loud in my 4 bed dorm. After a bit, some other dude started syncing up with him in a snorchestra.

November 5

It's funny how my broken Cantonese from back home has improved so much in China. I'm actually teaching two mandarin speakers now at the hostel. Diana is from outside of Beijing and in Guangzhou now for an interview with Emirate to be a flight attendant. They told her she needs to be able to speak some Cantonese so I've been helping her prepare for her interview. Then theres a sichuan girl named little pear who works the front desk at the lazy gaga and she too wants to learn Cantonese.

Little Pear has been helpful in researching for me on how to get to hua yuen which is known as huado these days. The only reason I'm really in Guangzhou is to find my grandfather's home.

Diana took David and I to a nearby place to get Congress for breakfast since the weather was cold and rainy. My cargo pants have rip away leggings so they double as shorts but I think I lost one leg and now the pants have to permanently be shorts.

I took Little Pear out for lunch as an appreciation for all her help. We bad some yummy rice steamed in bamboo containers. On top of the rice was bbq pork and fish. Very tasty. I'm always fascinated by people's life stories and Little Pear had a good one!

in the afternoon I decided to go this other mountain park called yue could mountain . It's famous for being a sun yat sen memorial. But for me it was watching these two grandmothers play badminton at the base square. I sat and watched for a while and then asked if I could play. I've never really played in my life and grandma whooped me. I didnt feel bad and she even took a picture with me. 

I started feeling sick towards the evening. Argh my first time being sick on the road. Horrible.

November 6

I woke up early to find my grandfather's home. All I have to go by is 徐錦章, 三华, which is his name and the area. To complicate things, names have changed and I have no physical address. My grandfather left his village as a teenager to find work in Vietnam. That was nearly 80 years ago and my grandfather has been dead for 12 years. So this really is a needle in a hay stack scenario. Even my dad has never searched. What I have gathered thus far is the city is called huado and the district is 3 wa dim which has been renamed 3 wa churn. This is near the biggest airport in Guangzhou. From Guangzhou take the 527 bus to 807 bus until you are in huado... the stop says computers at the end of it. From there start asking people until they lead you to an alley area that opens up to a farming and merchant street shops area.

I asked around and everyone told me to look for a man who sells tobacco. When I finally found him he told me the name I am looking for is his father. Sure enough the man died around the same time as my grandfather but after more sharing we concluded that they are two different people. The challenge here is that everyone has my family name....there are 10,000 of us here in this village. Apparently we are all related because the founder of this village in ancient times is my ancestor.

Later in the evening I met an Aussie/Chinese guy who lives in LA named Martin. Pretty cool guy who's in the music business. Used to drum and travels a lot. We've had some great conversations over beer at night sitting on the steps outside of the hostel. Two French guys joined us as well. I ended the evening with foot massages with the French guys. They have been walking for days and were very happy with the parlor we went to. Inside the parlor we ran into another guy from the hostel named Derrick or baller as I call him...he's a fast talker and has his hands in many jars. Overall a good day with new characters.

November 7

had a slow morning where I didnt feel like doing anything. Called my dad and gave him some info on our home village so now he's interested in making a trip in the future.

I walked around town and ate some duck and a rice plate. Did a quick walk to the Pearl river area and visited the shaman island and witnesses over 10 couples taking wedding photos.

I even took the 50 cent ferry back and forth to pass the time.

Later I went back to yue xiu, my favorite park to find my badminton friends. Again the elderly ladies whooped me. I decided to try hoola hooping instead. I suck at that too. I did wander over to another area where 10 ladies were singing old patriotic songs for china. I asked if I could film them and they obliged happily. I told them I would email them a video but they told me they don't have email. We chatted for a good bit.

Afterwards I met a new friend, Demi, from the hostel for dinner...it was short cuz I had to meet Oliver for basketball.  The game is quite different here in China as they call various touchy fouls. Oliver works at the hostel and has been trying to select an English name. I think he had one before but didn't like it. And some French guy called him Olivier and he was OK with that. I suggested Oliver and he liked it. After basketball I met Demi for dessert and then we walked around the river for a few hours. Demi has similar life experiences as me but less jaded. She has a very positive outlook on life that is refreshing. Also she can speak mandarin, Cantonese, English, Spanish, and French!

There's also a Polish traveler named Dominic who has cycled to Asia via Poland. Instead of going the easy route through Russia, he decided to go west Europe and back down to Asia. While in Guangzhou I saw him buy parts to convert Ghana bicycle into a motorbike...very nicely done. He worked on it in the hostel lobby for 3 days. My one contribution was negotiating the purchase of motor oil for him from a street vendor because no place would sell to him. His plan is to ride all over Asia.

Side note: I patched up one T-shirt and one jacket with the sewing kit that I got from the hotel in Beijing. I'm actually quite proud of myself  : )

November 8

I was supposed to check out today and head to shenzhen but I felt at home in Guangzhou so I stayed an extra day. There's something about the weather, food, culture, language and people that feel all so familiar to me. I started the day with a walk around the neighborhood. I almost feel like a local...dodging traffic casually, spitting on the floor, buying groceries at the local market, and I even helped an old Cantonese lady understand what a mandarin speaking cashier was saying. For some reason the people in Guangzhou think I speak Cantonese pretty well. It's only when I say things oh n English that they ask me where I'm from.

I went back to yue xiu in the afternoon but didn't see any badminton action going on so I decided to west on one of the stone benches. I was feeling quite knackered out since I didn't sleep till after 2am earlier. I found the perfect bench under a shady tree at the footsteps of the Sun Yat Sen memorial. When you look up you see a field of bright lime colored leaves dangling from lively brown branches. It was more perfect than any trippy hallucination. And then I fell asleep at peace. It was perfect until I was woken by security telling me sleeping was not allowed. Damn.

In the evening, i caught the metro and met Demi near where she works. We grabbed some ice cream and then she showed me the new place that she plans to sublet. It's in of the old Canton villages that has remarkably kept much of it's old character. Demi was really happy and excited about the area and told me how she plans to buy a bicycle and explore the village. We ate at a local restaurant and had one of my favorite dishes - beef with bitter melon.

Afterwards we took a double Decker bus and did some night sightseeing. The Canton Tower is gorgeous with it's ever-changing ensemble of bright flashy colors. We walked along the Pearl river again but wisely took a bus at midpoint to get back to the hostel. The Pearl is a long walk!

Made it back to GaGa and saw the usual suspects sitting outside on the entrance deck drinking beer. The French guys, the Columbia (really a texan), and a couple other. After saying good night to Demi, I joined the lads for the usual drink and talk. It pretty amazing that we all come from all over the world and have the unique opportunity to bond over beer and share stories usually about futbol, travel and of course girls lol. We were drinking till about 2am and then it happened. Out of nowhere we hear something fall from the sky with a thunderous splat on the ground. We were covered in water! The GaGa shares common walls with other apt building and apparently that's the warning to go inside and stop making noises. Instead of a verbal warning, we got a water splash from a faceless bomber. We were a bit worried that bomb 2 would be something worse than water...use your imagination.

November 10

Woke up early and had some warm congee with Demi and then took a stroll to a nearby temple. Then we went to a university up north because she was volunteering with some French group. Said our goodbyes and I headed back to GaGa to pack my bags for shenzhen. The French guys were headed there too so we made plans to catch the train together. On the way out of the hostel I came across an Austrian musician named Water who was playing the sitar, a beautiful guitar from India that north Jones dad made popular. He played a bit flexible me and the sounds are so lovely. 20 strings so you can imagine how tuning can be a chore!

we headed to the train station and with our oversized backpacks and certainly attracted a lot of attention from the locals. We got our tickets fairly easy. Goodbye Guangzhou. Thank you for the memories. I've had the chance to walk the same streets in the village where my grandfather and ancestors once walked. I've met so many awesome people. For a place that was originally not on my itinerary and only added a week prior, its amazingly been my favorite place. I think that really sums up travel and life. It's not really the planned destinations but rather the journey itself that opens not only our eyes and mind, but also our heart.