At 6:10 AM we were whisked by our guide, ‘Bing’ to the Guilin airport to catch a 9:20 flight to Guangzhou. Transit was uneventful and we made it in plenty of time, munching on boxed breakfasts prepared by the Sheraton. In Guangzhou we were met by our guide, ‘Philip’ who took us through the free market. The sights and smells were as overwhelming as they were 10 years ago, though there were far fewer beggars and animals were primarily sold as pets – not food (though we cringed at the small cages holding upwards of 15 puppies in a hot cage with no water). We had lunch at a restaurant famous for its moon cakes, then were whisked to the train station for the 6-hour trip to Maoming (where I got caught up on my writing!).
In Maoming we were picked up by our guide, Ben, and our driver, “Mr. O.” – both of whom were exceedingly nice. We are staying in the International Hotel of Maoming, which has a beautiful lobby but very 1970-esque rooms…and I’m pretty sure that it’s frequented by prostitutes, as well as business clientele. We were exhausted and went to sleep early for our big day tomorrow!
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