We flew from Shanghai to Guangzhou, due to the impossibility of getting a train ticket out of Shanghai. That's how many people are passing through the city due to the Expo. So we caught our plane at 7:30 in the morning and left Shanghai airport for Guangzhou, almost on the southern edge of China, and arrived a mere two hours later. It was very surreal arriving so quickly after we'd become accustomed to any journey taking longer than an entire day; it was nice. The first thing that hits you, like when we first arrived in Beijing so long ago, is the humidity. We've gotten used to the heat now, but it's a different sensation from in Shanghai. There it was a harsh white heat, like a bunsen burner, hot car doors and squinting behind your sunglasses. Here it's more like a sickening humidity, like a tight thick duvet on a warm night. We've seen palm trees and there's puddles everywhere due to the heavy rain which comes and goes again. Everything seems bright because of the heavy sun behind white mist, so everything seems over-exposed.

We got a bus from the airport that luckily took us straight to our hotel - notice hotel, not hoStel - which is a really nice place. It's set out more like an apartment complex with a garden in the middle, like those retirement complexes in Florida you see on American TV programmes. Everyone in the hotel, in fact it seems everyone in Guangzhou speaks English reasonably well, probably due to it's extremely close proximity to Hong Kong. Most people, instead of flying from Hong Kong to Beijing, get the short train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou then fly from Guangzhou to Beijing. It's much cheaper. At the moment, we're 83 miles from Hong Kong, so it's not long on the train. I was anticipating - before we arrived - that we'd have problems getting train tickets. I was bothered about the amount of people there'd be, the business of the route, the bureaucracy, everything like that. So I went down to the front desk to see if they'd be able to help get some tickets. We've done it before, you give them a few yuan and they get your train tickets for you. I went and asked the woman at the front desk where you got train tickets from.

"Oh, it's just in front of this building here sir," she said, and pointed out of the doors. Firstly, I was surprised by her level of English, and secondly I didn't remember there being a train station there. "Just in front of this building here?" I said, pointing to the same place as she did.
"Yes sir, that one."
"Right in front of it?"
She smiled. "Yes."
I thanked her and walked in front of the building, to find an enormous train station. It was hidden underneath piles of green sheeting and bamboo scaffolding (safe), and there was a massive display counting down the days till the opening of the Asian Games, being held this year in Guangzhou. It's 106 at the time of writing. Presumably they intended on finishing this enormous and complex-looking building in time for the start of the games, which should be a challenge for them. Anyway I followed the crowds, as ever, and found myself inside a standard train station. Thinking I'd have to find someone, anyone, to try and mime a train and some tickets, I started to scan my surroundings. In massive letters, on the wall in front of where I'd entered, there was painted:

TICKETS FROM GUANGZHOU TO KOWLOON THIS WAY ->

Guangzhou being the city I was currently in, and Kowloon being the place in Hong Kong I needed to get to, I thought I'd follow the arrow and hope it wasn't a tourist murder trap. I went to the counter helpfully labelled as GUANGZHOU - KOWLOON TICKET BOOTH and asked for a ticket to Hong Kong. I steadied myself for disappointment as I'd had lots of bad train ticket times in the past, but she checked the computer and popped her head back.
"What time?"
Katy had told me it'd be best to go in the morning so I said in the morning.
"9? 10? 11? When?"
It turns out they have trains every hour, about ten trains a day to Hong Kong. It's so easy to get tickets from Guangzhou to Kowloon it's obscene. I bought the two tickets myself, £30 for the both of us, and we're set. They were the last tickets we needed to buy in China, as we have the plane tickets from Hong Kong already booked. It's nice to finally have a story about how easy something was, about how well something went.

Two days ago a sign appeared next to the lift, informing the guests that there would be a power outage in this grid the day after - yesterday, the 26th of July - from 8am till 6pm. We grumbled and groaned a little bit but you know, what can you do? And at least it's in the day so we can go to Starbucks, read, pop to Ajisen and get some Japanese food, and not at night when we need lights and air conditioning. We woke up the next morning, about 9am, and found we still had power. Eventually, the electricity switched off at 10am. We chilled till about midday, when we decided to go across to the mall. We hung around the bit then went to read in Starbucks. We stayed there till about 6pm and went back to the room. At the hotel there was a problem. Still no power. They said it'd be 8pm now. 8pm came, I went and spoke to them, they said 10pm. I went back down at 10pm, they said 11pm. We were starting to talk about refunds now, there was trouble in the foyer. All of the guests were there and they weren't happy. I was in a strange situation as I had to try and be intimidating enough to get my money for the night refunded without actually knowing how to be intimidating in any way. I'm quite big I suppose but I've never had to be intimidating in my entire life. The manager of the hotel, who for some reason wasn't at the hotel, had left a sweating subordinate in charge and I was laying the guilt on him, reversing the roles, using everything I'd learned from Boston Legal. He said the army had said they were trying to turn the power back on but the heavy rain and stuff was making it difficult. I sympathised with him but I also told him we'd paid for a room, we'd paid for electricity, we'd paid for a basic service that we weren't getting - we might as well be sleeping in the park. 11pm came, then he said it'd be 12am. By 12am, the manager had returned. His subordinate had gone for a cry and, magically, I managed to get the managers ear immediately. It's funny how just one white person can somehow get the manager's attention when there's a whole crowd of Chinese people who haven't been dealt with at all. There was another white man at the desk, I think he was Spanish, who was becoming quite loud and being gregarious in quite an intimidating way, and he was making a big show of leaving and everything. I wasn't sure why it'd be better to check out and find another place at 12am in the morning but he obviously needed to make a big song and dance out of leaving. I eventually managed to get the night refunded, and I heard another man who arrived with his girlfriend ask for the same thing I'd managed to get, so I felt pretty pleased with myself.

In the room it was warm but we tried to sleep. About an hour later our room burst into life; the extractor fan in the toilet buzzed into action, the lights came on, the telly lit up. They'd managed to turn the electricity back on, only eight hours after they'd originally promised. Great work lads!

Xie xie! Rob