Farewells and departures
Friday night we went out to dinner and drinks to farewell one of RB's workmates, a Swedish fellow who was heading home for the birth of his first child. We were joined for dinner by some of RB's other workmates (1 Lebanese, 1 Fijian-Australian, 1 Greek, 1 Jordanian, 1 Chinese) and 3 Chinese girls (one was the wife of the Jordanian). We had one of the hugest banquet dinners I have ever seen. I'll try and recall all the dishes, but I didn't want for food or beer and it was a great way to try so many things at once. All the food was Hunan style, which is the province to the north of Guangdong (our province) and renown for using a lot of chilli.
We ate roasted peanuts, beef with chilli and shallots, pork ribs, beef with a green vege, shrimps on skewers (you eat the soft shell and legs too), chicken with vege, a duck that had been roasted with a tea flavour followed by a chilli burning sensation, more pork, fish, tofu, beans, fried rice with some vege (very good!), and some steamed rice. All the dishes were great and I enjoyed meeting the other expat workers and local girls. It made such a difference to hand all the ordering over to someone else to take care of. Hooray ;) That dinner with loads of beer came in at 73 yuan per person, about $13.50AUD.
Afterwards we visited a pub for a few beers but I just sat in the beer garden and relaxed. I couldn't fit another beer in my tum was so full! It was a good, fun night in Guangzhou!
Saturday we got up early and by mid-morning we were down at the train station. We got in the line and presented our tickets to enter the station about 30 mins before our train was to depart. As we entered we had to put our luggage through a security scan and go through a metal detector. No way I was putting my handbag through the scanner in case I didnt see it on the other side, but there was no probs there. The departures screened list 2 numbers next to our train number. I guessed one was for the platform, but what was the other? We found someone to show our ticket to and they directed us to Waiting Room 2. So far so good when we had our tickets checked to get in there, asking each person "Foshan?" as we showed the ticket. We sat down for 5 minutes or so and then suddenly there was an announcement and everyone started for the door! Oh shit?! What did that official just announce? RB picked up he overnight bag and we got ready to follow the tailenders to see where everyone was going. We all surged out of the waiting room, jammed onto the escalator, then formed a semi-line/scrum to get past an official at a small gate, then through a doorway and we were on the platform. Everyone then ran across the empty platform to get to their carriage in a huge hurry. We found ours, and then our seats and sat down and laughed!
It was so strange to not be waiting for your train on the platform, but a great way of controlling large numbers of people. We encountered a similar system at the bus station at Foshan when coming home.
As everyone settled into their seats there was a lot of talking and excitment. It was very noisy and RB worried the grandma next to him was going to send him deaf in one ear while she talked to her travel companions in the seats behind. The funny music played over the speakers seemed to calm everyone down as the train started. Then the Chinese people got out their tea flasks to make some tea, and snacks were passed around the families to munch on. We left Guangzhou behind and saw some different scenery - vege patches being tended to by field workers and houses similar to those we had seen in Vietnam. After a quick 30 minute ride our carriage attendant told us Foshan, the first stop, was coming up. We jumped off and laughed at how small a distance we had travelled. We were never quite sure when planning the trip how far it was, as the Lonely Planet said it was only 19Km southwest of Guangzhou, but hotel staff had told us it was a long way away, over an hour! Talk about confusing! We had made it to Foshan in one piece though ;)
We ate roasted peanuts, beef with chilli and shallots, pork ribs, beef with a green vege, shrimps on skewers (you eat the soft shell and legs too), chicken with vege, a duck that had been roasted with a tea flavour followed by a chilli burning sensation, more pork, fish, tofu, beans, fried rice with some vege (very good!), and some steamed rice. All the dishes were great and I enjoyed meeting the other expat workers and local girls. It made such a difference to hand all the ordering over to someone else to take care of. Hooray ;) That dinner with loads of beer came in at 73 yuan per person, about $13.50AUD.
Afterwards we visited a pub for a few beers but I just sat in the beer garden and relaxed. I couldn't fit another beer in my tum was so full! It was a good, fun night in Guangzhou!
Saturday we got up early and by mid-morning we were down at the train station. We got in the line and presented our tickets to enter the station about 30 mins before our train was to depart. As we entered we had to put our luggage through a security scan and go through a metal detector. No way I was putting my handbag through the scanner in case I didnt see it on the other side, but there was no probs there. The departures screened list 2 numbers next to our train number. I guessed one was for the platform, but what was the other? We found someone to show our ticket to and they directed us to Waiting Room 2. So far so good when we had our tickets checked to get in there, asking each person "Foshan?" as we showed the ticket. We sat down for 5 minutes or so and then suddenly there was an announcement and everyone started for the door! Oh shit?! What did that official just announce? RB picked up he overnight bag and we got ready to follow the tailenders to see where everyone was going. We all surged out of the waiting room, jammed onto the escalator, then formed a semi-line/scrum to get past an official at a small gate, then through a doorway and we were on the platform. Everyone then ran across the empty platform to get to their carriage in a huge hurry. We found ours, and then our seats and sat down and laughed!
It was so strange to not be waiting for your train on the platform, but a great way of controlling large numbers of people. We encountered a similar system at the bus station at Foshan when coming home.
As everyone settled into their seats there was a lot of talking and excitment. It was very noisy and RB worried the grandma next to him was going to send him deaf in one ear while she talked to her travel companions in the seats behind. The funny music played over the speakers seemed to calm everyone down as the train started. Then the Chinese people got out their tea flasks to make some tea, and snacks were passed around the families to munch on. We left Guangzhou behind and saw some different scenery - vege patches being tended to by field workers and houses similar to those we had seen in Vietnam. After a quick 30 minute ride our carriage attendant told us Foshan, the first stop, was coming up. We jumped off and laughed at how small a distance we had travelled. We were never quite sure when planning the trip how far it was, as the Lonely Planet said it was only 19Km southwest of Guangzhou, but hotel staff had told us it was a long way away, over an hour! Talk about confusing! We had made it to Foshan in one piece though ;)
posted by Polecat at 7:31 PM
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