Trip - Guangzhou Day 1

We had a 9am flight leaving Taiwan to HK so we woke super early to get ready and pack our bags.  William picked us up around 6:30am to take us to the airport.  Good bye Taiwan!  We enjoyed our stay.

After arriving into HK airport, we took the bus #629 (pic above with Jules fast asleep on the bus) from HK airport to Hung Hom station and then took the 2pm fast train to Guangzhou.  The fast train was pretty comfortable (below pic) with designated seats for each person and you can even order hot food and drinks.  There was access to a toilet.  Because we hadn't eaten anything since the morning, I pretty much bought a gazillion buns from the bakery before boarding the train so we had plenty to eat and drink.

The girls found out the ugly truth about toilets in China...via the train.  It's a hole!  No toilet seat, no toilet paper and no soap.  Aaaack!  I spent a good 10 minutes "training" them and at first, they hated it.  But after the 3rd time using the washroom, they were pros.  I convinced them that these are great because it's easy to clean instead of our bulky toilets.  Just dump soap and spray water, all clean!  Jules then commented she wanted to convert our house washrooms into these...silly girl!

We arrived at Guangzhou station at 5pm but we missed the relatives who were supposed to pick us up.  Apparently, they waited at the station starting at 3pm!  They waited for 2 hours and left just as we arrived.  Too bad.

We didn't have a China cellphone so we could only call using a phone from one of the shops which charged by the minute.  After many unsuccessful attempts to reach the relatives, we decided to buy a SIM card which gave us phone access and data.  That should have been the first thing we did!  So much easier.  The relatives will meet us the next day.

I contacted our landlady to get to the apartment where we will stay for the next 3 days and took a cab.  We finally arrived at 9pm.  What a day.