Day Next

Today we were to leave at 6:00 am after receiving the dreaded wakeup call at 4:30 am to go to Hong Kong. As a group we are amazing. We were on the bus leaving for the airport at 5:50. We flew to Guangzhou then took the hydrofoil down the Pearl River to the Pearl Delta and into Hong Kong Harbour and Kowloon. This was our last internal airline flight in mainland China.

I have been amazed at air travel within China. I am becoming an expert as this is our fifth flight. It matters not the length of the flight - you will get food and a beverage. Our shortest flight was 50 minutes and we were still served breakfast. As Joy says, “The food may be not so good.” Really whatever is served is more than decent, usually noodles with a little meat, bread and a fruit with beer (for me). Another surprise to me is the number of air carriers here. We have flown on China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines (That one worried me until we landed and it was a rough landing – Airbus, of course, Mr. Latter). In addition I have seen Shandong Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Guangdong Airlines and the ever popular Air China.

One Chinese tradition I have not adopted is the enjoyment of tea. It just does not do for me what coffee does. I suppose it is from my long tradition of using this drug to wake me up and keep me awake. Last night I had two cups of tea at a late dinner and fell directly to sleep. Coffee would not have had the same lack of effect.

I am sitting in our hydrofoil at present traveling down the Pearl River out of Guangzhou then into the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong. In the lower cabin are fourteen airline seats across in a 3-8-3 arrangement. We are in the middle of the middle eight. These are the worst seats I have ever been in. But fortunately this is only for two and a half hours – YIKES. We are among friends so it is not that bad. Also I have my best friend, my computer, with me – sorry Ann. The sky is as smoggy as Beijing and Chongqing. I can barely see the banks of the Pearl River as we travel downstream. I am placing Shunde/Guangzhou a solid #3 in the informal Bob Index of City Pollution. This is not a pretty trip so having a window seat is not really beneficial.

The food in China has been universally good. Too many vegetables for me though. We have not had nasty food as I expected to happen occasionally. We once had grass carp on the Yangtze. I tried it although Joy said not to eat river fish due to the polluted water. I think I got my minimum daily requirement of toxic heavy metals in that one bite. As the Chinese say they eat anything with wings but airplanes and anything with legs except chairs and tables. All dinners are served family style with a ‘lazy Susie’ as in a “real” Chinese restaurant in the US but without fortune cookies which were discouraged during the Cultural Revolution and never returned. I am not a great fan of Chinese food; I like Thai better, so my cravings are beginning: Taco Bell, peanut butter, potato chips of any variety and any single malt whisky.

One would think that for an American tourist the border crossing from mainland China to Hong Kong should be a snap. Show your passport, fill out a form and you are out of one country and into another. Wait a minute. Hong Kong IS China. There should be no border crossing. OK, I can understand mainland Chinese citizens having a problem since this is a special autonomous region with a different economy but why was I in two half hour lines today – one to get out and one to get into the same country. Ah, China.

A walk around Kowloon sealed the deal for me. I was spent. Dinner was on our own tonight. Several groups asked us to join them but I declined saying I wanted a romantic dinner with my bride. We found Mc Lovin’s Pub. Not really romantic, huh? It sounded so not Chinese we went in excited. Sitting on the Promenade looking over Hong Kong Harbour and Hong Kong across, we had a pint each and a gigantic burger, fries and cole saw. One of the best, and needed, burgers we have ever had. Even in the US it would be a keeper burger.

Thought for the day: A burger in China beats Chinese food in America.