Guangzhou, pronounced something like gwong-jo, was where we spent our first few days in China with a population the same as all of Australia, 26 million.
(J) The mission for our time in Guangzhou to seek out the local hash house harrier club and partake in a little pre interhash tom foolery known as a pre lube. We went along with three others from our own C2H3 club, Vic, Kath & Don.
The GH3 met at a little place in town known as the Gold Mango bar which was of course a little expats bar in the Chineseness of Guangzhou, although the club did include a number of locals we had plainly warmed to the idea of hashing.....they do drink more beer in this country than any other you know.
The Saturday run was a killer and Sunday was about the same. We didn't see the sun but it did rain most of Sunday and it was cold cold cold campers!!! The mud was thick on the ground and I managed one spectacular stumble near the start of the Saturday run, so ran with a wet muddy bum for 11 kms. One of the locals tried telling me it was unseasonably cool during our stay...yeah right!! Both runs finished with a decent feed in a restaurant somewhere. We were out in the sticks for the runs so it's a pretty good guess that if we didn't go hashing we would never have experienced these places.
On Monday there was a full moon run (that means night time non hashers) so we had the day to fill in. We set off to find a restaurant in town using the subway where some of the hashers were meeting up for lunch. By Kaths trusty GPS we eventually got where we were going about an hour late....we got to the right train station but found it hard to locate the restaurant, our only guide (until Kath intervened) being a business card and a bunch of bemused locals who were confused by the influx of 'big noses' in their neighbourhood.
Full moon run was through parts of the city, most notably the ....gardens. Lots of pictures as we elected to walk (and subway) rather than run. More good food and loads of beer to finish. Good job GH3, a great time had by all at an excellent pre lube to interhash.
(C) While John was running with the hash I stuck with the walking hashers to avoid upsetting my dodgy knees this gave me the chance to have a good chat with a couple of the young local Chinese harriettes whose hash names were Mattress Pad and Angry Dragon. They liked to converse with foreigners to help improve their English language skills. May have helped with their English but didn't help with my Chinese much.
Our taxi ride from Guangzhou Baiyun International airport to our hotel was a bit of a different story. Kathy and Vic were also with us at this stage and while waiting in line a taxi for the 4 of us and our 4 suitcases we soon realised we would need 2 taxis. The drivers spoke negligible English so lucky I had the hotel address in Chinese. Our taxi driver seemed to have more of an idea of the hotel location so there was a bit of conversing between the two drivers through the windows as we drove along.
Our hotel bed was to say the least rather on the firm side which seems to be the way they like them in China. When we first entered the room and sat on the bed, as you do to see how comfy it is, there was no movement it felt like we had just sat on a desk or table. After a couple of nights I found a spare doona to lie on top of which helped a little. Hopefully they won't all be this hard.
You don't need to be running to fall down on your bum in the mud. I too managed this on the Sunday run, just lost my concentration momentarily after taking a photo of a pretty little waterfall, next thing I new my feet slid out from under me on the muddy dirt road and with camera in hand landed hard on my tailbone planting the lens side of the camera in the road to brace my fall. The hashers I was walking with rushed over to see if I was okay and all I was concerned about was the camera...until I stood up that is ...ouch..still pretty tender over a week later. I might add that it was in full view of other hashers waiting at the beer stop just across the lake. Camera lens now has a big scratch on it so camera shopping next stop.
All in all though somewhat cold and damp we had a fun time and some great chinese Cantonese food with the hashers in Guangzhou. Some of the food highlights were the crispy skin chicken and duck, dumplings and steamed buns. Our most adventurous culinary delight was the chicken feet at the dim sum lunch.
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