Third Stop: Shaoguan

Last time I travelled seven hours by bus was when I took an ordinary one (READ: no airconditioning) bound for Tacloban City from Catarman in Northern Samar. Sitting on that bus for what seemed like eternity was a numbing experience, I was tempted to jump off the San Juanico bridge.

It happened again on our way to our third destination, the city of Shaoguan in the northern part of Guangdong province. Leaving Zhanjiang at around 10 a.m., we reached Shaoguan at around 5 p.m.

Shaoguan is a working-class, industrial city in Northern Guangdong. Like most of China's cities, you can see signs of growth everywhere, but it is less cosmoplitan than either Guangzhou or Shenzen.

The bus trip took forever, my life literally flashed before my eyes. To kill boredom and to entertain myself, I had to make do with childhood memories. I refused to think about work.

The hotel seemed to hark back to the Mao era. It was obvious the rooms weren't used to have guests as the central air-conditioning system didn't seem to work. We were transferred to better accomodations: rooms fitted with sauna. The dining area seemed like it once served as a venue for Communist Party meetings, with 60's era decor of varnished wood panels.

During the regatta, we placed 4th out of 13 international teams for three rounds of cumulative time heats.

Kuya Art and I went out of the hotel to look for a drug store. I never thought he would be familiar with Chinese medicine, he immediately recognized what he claims is a popular cough syrup also found in Chinese drug stores in Manila. It took us quite some time to inform the shop keeper that we wanted the bigger size.

Communicating in sign language is a very exhausting, and sometimes frustrating experience. The trick is to drop the articles altogether, speak slowly and in plain English, and complement it by contorting body parts (use lots of hand signals) or facial expressions.

Again, during the dinner party the Philippine teams brought the house down with a hip-hop number ("Black-Eyed Peas' Bebot), le Pecheur and Frodo were among the performers, which had everybody on his/her feet. We're born entertainers, yah?