The final day
Today was the last day in China. I can’t believe almost a whole month had passed us by. It doesn’t feel just 5 minutes ago we were backpacking newbies, fresh off of the plane. Tomorrow morning we fly from Guangzhou to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. There are no windows that have daylight on the other side, in our room. Due to the lack of natural light, we overslept as we had no indication of the time of day. We were up and out in a flash, ready to seize the day!
Yesterday when exploring Guangzhou, we saw a food stall that was selling some nice looking breakfast goods, so we visited the same one today. More delicious steamed buns and goods to start the day! We were visiting some sort of busy street market that Mat had found online. A bus was required to get there, so we ate breakfast on the way. It took a while to actually arrive, but after a brief worry, we hopped on, and away we went. We weren’t on it for too long. When we did get off, we decided to explore a shopping centre.
Diagon Alley
As is custom when in a city, such as Guangzhou, and not much to do, we visited the shopping centre. We’re always able to spend an hour or two in these places, despite hardly ever buying anything. I did have my first proper chocolate bar since coming away, it was absolutely lush! We also stopped at a smoothie stall to have a drink. I had a fruit smoothie, whereas Mat had a wonderful concoction of smoothie, yogurt, fruit and muesli. It did look pretty epic. After we had done with the shopping centre, we decided to visit the street market. It was only across the road apparently.
Apparently, anyway. Both of us spent a good half an hour to an hour looking for this damned street. We tried pretty much every entrance to this street, but nothing of significance ever appeared. To this day, I think Apple maps was high on something. No matter which way we went, we always ended up on the same long, narrow, and dodgy looking street. Long story short, this street we were trying to find didn’t exist, or it was way below our expectations. This street we were on was just a very long street full of lingerie shops. I have a feeling the street we were after was akin to Diagon Alley. There’s probably a couple of bricks we have to hit to open the entrance to it.
Heading to the park
After both of us got slightly frustrated at this wild goose chase, we decided to take a respite from the city. We decided to head to a park quite nearby. This park was called Yuexiu Park. It was a mile or so away, so we just walked there. We got to see a few nice views of the city. Down the long roads, in between sky scrapers. On the way to the park, we had a nice little interaction with a Chinese security guard. He told us of his dream to visit the UK, so we encouraged him to follow it.
As is normal, as soon as we walked into the park, it was like another world. All sights and sounds of the city are drowned out by the scenes and sounds of wildlife and nature. It was a welcome contrast to the hustle and bustle of the cityscape. There was quite a lot of ground to cover in this park, including some uphill battles with hills. There was a large statue of multiple goats. I believe each goat represented a different aspect, and that Guangzhou has a relationship with goats, so the legend goes. For more info on either the park, or the legend, click here.
A disaster
When the day began to draw in, and became dark, we decided to make our way back. We were pretty hungry as we’d not eaten for a while, and a Burger King was calling to us. I am a devout McDonalds follower and shun Burger King, but I had to bite the bullet (and the burger). Now I know why I don’t go to Burger King. First of all, a patty was missing off of my burger, which left me disgruntled. Secondly, a dropped my drink and it spilled everywhere, I couldn’t believe it. This is the kind of luck that Burger King gives me. Never again shall I return!
Once we were back near the hostel, we had a quick look around a super market. They had a lot of imported goods. I couldn’t believe what they had, all sorts of stuff from back home. Why were we only finding this now, on our last day?! Damn it all. Anyway, we headed back to the hostel to get some shut eye. As our flight to Vietnam was early in the morning, we were having to wake up at midnight to get ready. It’s safe to say, neither of us actually got any sleep. Soon enough, it would be time to say goodbye to Guangzhou, and China.
