I can't remember much of the first day in china.&
nbsp; We arrived very early the morning in Hong Kong, met up with our contact person, got on a bus, stood in a queue to show our passports as we left Hong Kong, got on a ferry and stood in a queue again to have our passports stamped to enter Macau. All this standing in queues and getting our passports stamped really confused me.
Only later was I informed that Hong Kong and Macau are part of China, but have their own governing bodies separate from Mainland China. You therefore actually have to pass through customs if you travel between the 3 different areas (guess I should have studied the Lonely Planet BEFORE I arrived in China!!!!).
We spent our first few days staying in a school in Macau. We slept on the floor in a few classrooms, used the science room to cook our meals and the computer room as our own personal internet cafe.Life was good!!! The school had an American feel to it...I felt like I was part of a movie, especially watching a school play
entitled The Oscars? The kids were super funny and very witty. We helped out with some of the classes and were super impressed by the questions the kids asked us. The kids made us feel like celebrities when they wanted our autographs. Soccer was played on the roof of the 5 story school building...lots of fun!!!!
Macau is the Vegas of the East. In fact, Macau's gambling revenue exceeded that of Vegas last year. The cobble stone roads, mosaic walls and architecture reveal the fact that Macau was previously a Portuguese colony. Pastor Felix took us on a grand tour one evening after we attended his church service. It' on this excursion that we realized that it's only when the sun sets that this beautiful little city with its hundreds of little alley ways comes alive. Coming from South Africa, especially with our current power problems, I was blown away by all the pretty flickering lights. Even the road signs in
Macau have flickering lights (instead of reflector lights). Macau has 28 casinos with each casino more gigantic and lit up than the next. Pastor Felix even pointed out Jackie Chan's casino. We were awestruck us we drove through the Venetian's drive way (the Venetian is the biggest building in Asia and the second largest building in the world. It's the largest hotel entertainment resort in the world and is currently expanding even more). Though struck by the enormous hold money and gambling have over thousands of people, Macau is truly to be witnessed at night. For one, I understood now why the streets were so empty during day time!!!!
We spent a day at the beach. The sand was grey... the sky was grey... the sea was grey. Definatively no match on South African's beaches, I can now say that I have officially swam in the South Chinese Sea...yay!!!!!
Sunday we explored the Macau city centre, browsed through the street markets and window shopped at the very expensive clothing and jewelry stores that caters for those that had a lucky hand the previous night. I have never seen so many Chinese together in one place in my life. All the alley ways were jam packed and you had to focus not to lose your friends between the sea of Chinese people. It seems like Sunday is the official day for shopping in Macau!!!!
After staying at the school in Macau for 4 days, early Monday morning we set off for the border between Macau and Mainland China. Now this is where things got exciting!!! The police at the border would not let the team enter China (except for myself and Hector who had different visas than the rest of the team). The team literally spent the whole day at the
border. Everyone's backpacks were inspected by the police...this was quite nerve wrecking as we were carrying Chinese Christian material that is illegal to be taken into China. The police however, for some reason (we believe due to all the prayers prayed that day) did not confiscate the material. Still they would not let the team enter China. At 4pm, just as we decided to go back to Macau, out of the blue a police woman told the team they can go through!!!! Awesome!!!!
We had to rush to get a bus to Guangzhou (2hours ride), in order to catch a train. The train took 2 days to reach our destination. Due to our tight budget, we bought sitting tickets for half the team and sleeping tickets for the other half...this way half the team slept the first night in
bunk beds and the second night we swopped with the other half of the team that sat through the first night. Man, I can't express in words how awesome the first night on the train was. I was in the team that got bunk beds the first night. We got on the train at 9pm. The bunk beds were 3 on top of each other. We all had the top row beds. I think those were cheaper tickets as you would get hurt real bad if you had to fall off your bed. I got into bed, popped a sleeping pill and woke up the next morning at 10am. A well deserved nights rest after sleeping on the floor in the school for 4 nights!!!! The big "switch" was scheduled for 13:00. I must shamefully admit that as I lay awake in my bunk bed from 10:00 to just before 13:00, I more than once hoped that the train attendants would hinder us from switching. I really do love sleep. The switch took place without any glitches. The "sitting" team
members looked over joyed to see us and couldn't wait to go pass out in the bunk beds. The sitting part of the journey turned out to be lots of fun. We entertained the whole train carriage with our acting and singing. Not that we needed to perform to draw attention!!!! I truly believe that those Chinese people on the train have never seen white people in their lives before...they shamelessly stared at us. One slightly drunk Chinese man even challenged me to a dance off...which he won hands down when he did a forward handflip and actually landed on his feet again...all in a very confined passageway on the train!!!!!
As I mentioned earlier, I really do love sleep, and as the clock started ticking into early hours of the morning, I followed a fellow team member's example and crawled into the super low space between the dirty train floor and the train seats and stretched myself out. Whenever I felt claustrophobic, I just pictured a sleepless night sitting
cramped up on a train seat (this train was like an African taxi...at each station they just kept on picking up more people...some people spent the whole 2 days standing on the train as there weren't enough seats!!!!).
We arrived in at our destination early Wednesday morning (19 March). Before we got onto a bus to take the 3 hour drive to the next town, we had noodles (obviously) at a little local restaurant for breakfast. An hour into the bus journey we were stopped by the police at a toll gate and were told that we have to go back to the town we had just come from. From that point onwards the police followed our every move...according to them we are journalist coming to report on the situation between Tibet and China.
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