I have always been fascinated with China. You know, growing up, Chinese cuisine was my favorite to get. Be it my birthday or something festive like Christmas, I would always opt for Chinese food when in Mangalore. Hao Hao, is what it is called and they still run to a packed house today.

Heck, I even tried to get me a Chinese girlfriend but she just wouldn’t say YES!

Anyway, I happened to go on a short work trip through STYLABS to study the market. It was far from what I expected, in both good and bad ways. Well, to be honest, the bad ways were perhaps only limited to 2 things – Language barrier and data/internet restrictions. You know, almost nobody that we tried to interact with knew English. Except for hotel staff or upmarket bar staff. We tried so hard to get a data sim or ask for Chicken. But neither of those things are as simple as you would think they’d be.

Oh and I forget the most critical thing, they don’t have bum showers. You know, butt faucets? Whatever you call those things. And to make things worse, I left India with an upset stomach which only got aggravated because I would eat anything and everything I would see. But you know, “better well fed than regret.”

Also since there are no direct flights from Bombay, we had to take one to Hong Kong and then hop into an Uber that took us straight to the train station at Hung Hom. We then boarded a train that took us to Guangzhou, where we then took a cab to the hotel. It was an excruciatingly long journey with no breaks in between.

Here’s a Travel Vlog of my experiences in China:

Although I must admit I fell in love with the old city vibes of Hung Hom and want to go check it out soon. Maybe in 2019?

Ok, lol, that didn’t make sense but it was a quote I would hear often from Ajay during the trip. Which I will talk about in the next post that talks about my trip to Hong Kong.

All images shot on an iPhone 6 and edited on VSCO.

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Also check out my experiences in Dubai shot on an iPhone here.

One thing you need to absolutely be aware of, is the fact that nobody speaks English in China. Ok, maybe I exaggerate. But except for the hotel staff at Hilton Tianhe, I did not encounter one person who could speak English. Not at Mc Donald’s, not at KFC, not at 7 Eleven, no fucking where. Even using a translating app, we couldn’t ask for Chicken. I mean I ate whatever I ate.

And then I would take pictures of my meal and send them to Connie to translate for me.

Otherwise, I would live in eternal dread. Not like it matters to me, lol.

Coming up next are images from my subsequent trip to Hong Kong. Amidst all this there are a bunch of videos I shot as well of the entire trip. When I have those clips pieced together, I shall have the vlogs uploaded on my YouTube Channel. So be sure to subscribe.

Let me know in the comments if you have ever been to China or ever intend to go there. I know I did not do the commonly visited cities of Beijing and Shanghai. Have saved that for the next time I go on a guided tour perhaps.

Are you reading this Connie?