Chaozhou China
Tonight arrived in Chaozhou in Guandong Province. Been a long day as too lazy to get out of bed so missed the early bus. The ticket clerk was on about going somewhere else first as it was a long wait for the next bus so I agreed. She gave me a bundle of tickets but I didn’t pay attention as was more interested in a caffeine injection. So after breakfast went to the buses, they looked at my ticket and put me on a bus. It wasn’t until we started that the conductress looked at my ticket and informed it was out of date so deapite my best efforts to tell her I had only just bought it was kicked of the bus. So then had to tell a Chinese speaking ticket clerk that they wouldn’t let me on the bus to a place which I didn’t know the name off and the ticket was out of date. The joys of travel ! As it was there was a good ticket amongst the others and the bus I had got on was to somewhere totally different.
Journey out of Shenzhen slow, first two hours heavy traffic thru a urban high rise jungle. Then expressway, even the motorway service station had a McDonalds so certainly in the developed part of China. Approaching here horrendous pollution and never ending ceramic factories and would appear to be where a lot of the worlds supply of toilets come from – cant be that highly rated, my hotel has the squat version. Was dreading the bus stopping as the place looked a pit but on a arrival actually quite nice and will check it out more tomorrow.
Last 2 days in Pattaya quite heavy going, went out Tuesday night with an old work friend who has been out here for a while but does nothing but drink. Not saying it was a heavy session but one ago go bar tried to refuse us entry because he was drunk – he couldn’t actually walk – so I had to explain that it was no problem, he was always like this. Wednesday night planned a quiet one. Stopped for one beer, a few hours later and a few more beers got home to face a trip to China. So all my efforts not to head for China with a hangover wasted – when the bars sometimes charge double the price for mineral water as beer its very difficult to stick to water !.
Air Asia flight to Shenzhen their usual good selves, only shame was the 11pm arrival time. Entering China a bit nervy as they are quite heavy with the medical questioning and with people in white coats waiting as we exited the plane didn’t dare cough or sneeze and prayed no one else did as didn’t fancy a week in quarrantine. Airport itself easy enough, only let down was the ATM was working so once again had to do my bit to support bankers bonuses and paid over 5 pounds in charges to change a few dollars, outrageous.
Had hoped to leave Shenzhen that night but nothing happening and got fed up being hassled by touts, hasslers and pimps on dark streets not knowing where I was so checked into a hotel and ended up staying 2 nights. Shenzhen nothing special, just a huge manufacturing zone of over 14 million people producing exports for the west and bordering Hong Kong. But from a travel point of view user friendly and gave me a chance to get my bearings before moving on.
Tomorrow a day sightseeing.
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