Day 217 - Third time's a charm in Guangzhou!

Our train pulled in at the station at 10.45am in a much warmer Guangzhou than the Beijing we had just left - Beijing was hovering between a chilly -5-5 degrees, while we have just arrived in the 20-25 degree range in south China. As we stood in the wonderfully chaotic lines in the train station for the next hour or so, we almost wished ourselves back to the cold. Almost. With onward tickets for tonight bound for Hainan Island, we set off in search of food - what we found was a culture shock worse than what we found when we first arrived in Asia 7 months ago. The problem is that we have become so comfortable in our life in Jinan - we know where to go to eat, sleep, shop, drink, relax and we feel like we belong because we live there. Arriving here where we have no bearings, a huge pack on our backs, and no real plans is hard - throw in millions of people who all seem to be walking in the opposite direction as you, and you've got how we felt at 12pm today. Was it this hard the first time around - we both ask ourselves?

Not to worry, we checked our bags in at the train station, hopped on the metro (that we know so well, having been to Guangzhou twice before now), found some yummy food and an internet cafe to absorb some of our free time. With Liv's limited Chinese skills she's usually the one that has to buy all the tickets, order the food and ask for directions on our frequent trips into the land of the lost - but today Liv was even more reluctant than usual to pounce on an unsuspecting local for directions to an internet cafe! After informing Liv, rather forcefully, that she "had to do it because I can't" Adam waltzed up to a Chinese guy, asked him for directions to an internet cafe (in Chinese) and walked back to Liv proclaiming "it's that way"! After we catch up on blogging and emails we'll head out to find some more food before jumping back on the metro and heading to the train station for our train to the beaches of China in Hainan province at 9.30 tonight!

Adlibing it in our home away from home away from home - well at least it seems that way!