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Description
No photos taken again today but this is from another time in Guangzhou, showing the queen of the Shamian Island pool hustlers in action. She was good!

Day 21 - Saturday 15 February

Guangzhou - South China Sea

Once again the weather chose to take a perverse turn on the day of my departure from China. After the climactic storm that had raged during the early hours I awoke to a beautiful sunny morning, by far the best of my time in Guangzhou and bettered only by the day of my departure from Wuzhou. I had read in the newspaper last night that the rainfall in the Guangdong area for the year to date was more than three times the average. As if I needed any confirmation of that!

I spent a leisurely morning packing my bags and taking another shower prior to checking out just before the noon deadline. There followed a period of intense confusion when I was pursued by a girl from reception waving a piece of paper which she then presented to me. At first I thought that I was being asked to stump another ¥280 plus change. I tried my best to find out from her what on Earth this could be for but didn’t get anywhere. I accompanied her back to the reception desk where eventually someone succeeded in communicating to me that I was not being asked to pay a further ¥280 but being given a refund for this amount and that they simply wanted me to sign the paper to acknowledge my receipt of the money! I still couldn’t figure out why they adopted this absurd policy of overcharging initially and then giving refunds at the end as it was creating twice as much work. But, given that this was Communist China, perhaps that was the answer! Or maybe someone had taken note of my sarcastic comments yesterday about the hotel’s distinctly unfavourable exchange rate, but I doubted that very much. In truth it was probably some kind of damage waiver surcharge that was returned if you didn’t abscond with the hotel towels!

The afternoon was spent largely in the bar, slowly sipping two beers out of the proceeds of my unexpected windfall, chomping on three bowls of mixed peanuts and cashew nuts, and finishing off a book that I had been reading on and off for the last couple of weeks. This was followed by a quick trip to the hotel gardens to devour the last of my fruit from Wuzhou in the sunshine, and then some aimless perambulations around the hotel until a quarter to seven, when I went to collect my bike and luggage, which proved to be pleasantly uneventful and drama-free.

I arrived at Zhoutouzui Matou expecting to be confronted by huge crowds and was therefore quite shocked when there were not. I had a wait of about fifteen minutes before passport control opened but the queues that had built up in the meantime were processed remarkably quickly and I had only a short wait before being allowed to board. During that time I spoke with an American from Oklahoma who was teaching English in Tokyo. He had been in Hong Kong for a week and had only come to Guangzhou for the day and hadn’t been very impressed by it. As we left the waiting room he appeared to be startled when confronted by the sight of a ship; he had bought a ticket for the hydrofoil! He went off to consult with a couple of officials whilst I boarded. I never saw him again so I can only assume that he managed to locate his hydrofoil.

I was directed to store my bike in a large dining room, which I was assured would be locked overnight. In spite of having doubts regarding the veracity of this statement I elected to leave my luggage on the bike, not really wanting to unload it all, find somewhere to store it in the dormitory and then load it all up again on arrival in Hong Kong. I soon found the dormitory, consisting of thirty bunk beds but quite pleasant in comparison to those that I had seen on the ferry from Wuzhou to Guangzhou. The bedding was clean and should be more than adequate for this one night.
I read the copy of the China Daily that I had picked up at the White Swan from cover to cover and then settled down to get some sleep at ten-thirty. According to the announcement over the public address system we were due to dock at a quarter past six tomorrow morning.

Today’s ride - 2.5 km
Total tour ride - 505.5 km
Today’s average speed - 11.8 km/h
Today’s maximum speed - 31.9 km/h

Description
No photos taken again today but this is from another time in Guangzhou, showing the queen of the Shamian Island pool hustlers in action. She was good!

Day 21 - Saturday 15 February

Guangzhou - South China Sea

Once again the weather chose to take a perverse turn on the day of my departure from China. After the climactic storm that had raged during the early hours I awoke to a beautiful sunny morning, by far the best of my time in Guangzhou and bettered only by the day of my departure from Wuzhou. I had read in the newspaper last night that the rainfall in the Guangdong area for the year to date was more than three times the average. As if I needed any confirmation of that!

I spent a leisurely morning packing my bags and taking another shower prior to checking out just before the noon deadline. There followed a period of intense confusion when I was pursued by a girl from reception waving a piece of paper which she then presented to me. At first I thought that I was being asked to stump another ¥280 plus change. I tried my best to find out from her what on Earth this could be for but didn’t get anywhere. I accompanied her back to the reception desk where eventually someone succeeded in communicating to me that I was not being asked to pay a further ¥280 but being given a refund for this amount and that they simply wanted me to sign the paper to acknowledge my receipt of the money! I still couldn’t figure out why they adopted this absurd policy of overcharging initially and then giving refunds at the end as it was creating twice as much work. But, given that this was Communist China, perhaps that was the answer! Or maybe someone had taken note of my sarcastic comments yesterday about the hotel’s distinctly unfavourable exchange rate, but I doubted that very much. In truth it was probably some kind of damage waiver surcharge that was returned if you didn’t abscond with the hotel towels!

The afternoon was spent largely in the bar, slowly sipping two beers out of the proceeds of my unexpected windfall, chomping on three bowls of mixed peanuts and cashew nuts, and finishing off a book that I had been reading on and off for the last couple of weeks. This was followed by a quick trip to the hotel gardens to devour the last of my fruit from Wuzhou in the sunshine, and then some aimless perambulations around the hotel until a quarter to seven, when I went to collect my bike and luggage, which proved to be pleasantly uneventful and drama-free.

I arrived at Zhoutouzui Matou expecting to be confronted by huge crowds and was therefore quite shocked when there were not. I had a wait of about fifteen minutes before passport control opened but the queues that had built up in the meantime were processed remarkably quickly and I had only a short wait before being allowed to board. During that time I spoke with an American from Oklahoma who was teaching English in Tokyo. He had been in Hong Kong for a week and had only come to Guangzhou for the day and hadn’t been very impressed by it. As we left the waiting room he appeared to be startled when confronted by the sight of a ship; he had bought a ticket for the hydrofoil! He went off to consult with a couple of officials whilst I boarded. I never saw him again so I can only assume that he managed to locate his hydrofoil.

I was directed to store my bike in a large dining room, which I was assured would be locked overnight. In spite of having doubts regarding the veracity of this statement I elected to leave my luggage on the bike, not really wanting to unload it all, find somewhere to store it in the dormitory and then load it all up again on arrival in Hong Kong. I soon found the dormitory, consisting of thirty bunk beds but quite pleasant in comparison to those that I had seen on the ferry from Wuzhou to Guangzhou. The bedding was clean and should be more than adequate for this one night.
I read the copy of the China Daily that I had picked up at the White Swan from cover to cover and then settled down to get some sleep at ten-thirty. According to the announcement over the public address system we were due to dock at a quarter past six tomorrow morning.

Today’s ride - 2.5 km
Total tour ride - 505.5 km
Today’s average speed - 11.8 km/h
Today’s maximum speed - 31.9 km/h