Southern China

China is foggy. If we hadn't seen the blue sky at the Great Wall near Beijing, we probably would have left thinking China's sky is a nondescript gray color.

Which it is in most places.

It was also cold— I was wearing pantyhose, two pairs of leggings (thank God for India and punjabis), legwarmers, my short-sleeved shirt, and my long-sleeved shirt. On top of which I had my sarong on as a scarf (can't think why I didn't think of it before), my Scottevest, and my Marmot.

And gloves. And a hat. And my hood.

Not to mention socks.

And on top of this, if we weren't walking fast, I was still cold!

Don't get me wrong. China had some lovely things. In Guilin, the hills look like big, fat, dark green gumdrops. And we found solid honey. You can't get better than that. In Guangzhou… I cannot remember anything of Guangzhou except watching Life As We Know It on the laptop, all three of us crowded into one twin bed. We all had cold hands. Correction. I remember going out to Pizza Hut and losing the 100 yuan bill. I don't remember anything else.

And yet there must have been a reason we went to Guangzhou.

The official reason we went back into Southern China is Chinese New Year. It's celebrated in January and depends on the lunar calendar, so it's also known as Lunar New Year.

Hong Kong has a huge parade on January 23^rd this year, and Ileana wanted to see it.

I was expecting something… louder.

But no. It was very civilized, if you discount the enormous crowd of people that blocked everything and wouldn't allow you to see the actual parade.

A perfectly apt description of the parade served as my Facebook update that night:

Long. Parade. My feet hurt.

PEOPLE WERE THERE FROM MOLDOVA! THERE WERE DRAGONS! AND LIVE BUTTERFLY PEOPLE!

Really. Crowded. Metro.

BUT THEY PLAYED SYMPHONIC VERSIONS OF JUSTIN BIEBER AND LADY GAGA!

I don't like either...

BUT THERE WAS COLDPLAY! AND PEOPLE! AND IT WASN'T EVEN COLD!

Really tired and thus careening wildly. XD Awesome Lunar New Year Parade! ^_^

Our apartment in Hong Kong was a small one-room affair… but I think it was one of the greatest apartments we've ever been in. So small, so livable, so efficient…

I liked the apartment.

Heading toward Macau, we stopped at the ferry to drop our bags. Afterward, we headed to the Space Center— Ioan had been wanting to see it.

When I was in 8^th grade, I had Metereology. I didn't understand it. I still don't. I used Kepler's laws of orbit when I was forming Paa'nik, and I might even be able to memorize them at some point so I can prove it. But otherwise… the space museum was not the most interesting place I've been.

We took a TurboJet from Hong Kong to Macau. It was… interesting. Somewhat like a plane, except without the introduction from the crew and the 'Thank you for flying with us,' (which, in most cases, we'd be much happier without).

Macau was warmer than other cities in Southern China (and definitely much warmer than Northern China!). It used to be a Portuguese colony, and most of the signs— scratch that— all of the signs are in Chinese and Portuguese, with English scattered around every once in a while. 

It's sort of like the Las Vegas of Asia (or at least China), and has casinos everywhere. Macau is made up of Macau peninsula plus two islands, Taipa and Coloane. We lived in Coloane. I cannot remember what home looked like for two days.

I can't remember anything about Macau but the TurboJet, the bus ride home— ah! I've remembered now— a small room with a huge bathroom and a sanded glass window between the bathroom and the room. The light from the bathroom lit the room better than the lamps in the room.

They had 'good' coffee there. I don't like coffee at all.

Since we've left Southern China, here's a breakdown of that:

Favorite Location: Hong Kong

Best Food: Guangzhou, at a small restaurant. Fattest pork ever. It melted in your mouth. The place closed on the 20^th for the New Year. Just 12 HK$, too! Why can't there be food like this in America?

Nicest Place: Hong Kong's apartment.

Most Interesting Occurence: Hong Kong's Chinese New Year Parade. Moldovians were there and we shouted LA MULTI ANI! Not sure if they replied in Russian or Romanian, though.

And, India:

Favorite City: Kerala

Least Favorite City: Delhi

Nicest Place: Goa or Kerala Houseboat

Best Food: The Village Kitchen, in Kerala. With a close second being Mom's Cooking in Delhi and Goa.

Most Interesting Occurence: Taj Mahal twice. Or the bus ride from Goa to Hampi. Or meeting the Swiss woman who got scratched by a cow. Or the monkeys. Or driving through Agra. Or— you get the picture.