On A Whim - Asian Games!!! - Part 2

We didn't know it at the time, but Shang Xia Jiu, the well-known bazaar cum mall cum street food paradise cum shopping complex, was nearby to Shamian Island, so I took my Dad for a look, even though I had been there but two weeks ago.

All I can say is that the place is more thronging and crowded in the late afternoon on a Saturday than perhaps anytime of the week.




My Dad was hoping to find cheap T-shirts of the short-sleeved variety but could not find any. Winter was just at the door-step after all. It was on that note that we decided to give Carrefour a try, since they seemed to have everything the last time I visited them at Shenzhen.

Carrefour Guangzhou had almost everything but alas, not cheap short-sleeved T-shirts. (Dad, if you are reading, I assure you it was only because winter was impending and not a result of divine conspiracy.)

My Dad, who had been anxious to leave and catch the night's badminton on our rooms giant TV screen, was finally jolted into a buying spree when he saw the 'Discount Section' along the escalator.




I thought it was really intelligent of those people at Carrefour Guangzhou to place exceedingly cheap stuff along the aisles of a moving escalator to induce people into making snap buys. My Dad told me that he'd seen the same thing in Singapore (was it Giant?) but I certainly haven't. Anyway, we went up and down the escalator 4 times.

Anyhow, by the time we finished shopping at Carrefour, it was peak hour, which meant no taxis and - horror of horrors - that the only means of transport back to the hotel was the Guangzhou MTR. I had written about it in an earlier post so will not say too much here, only that I had earnestly hoped not to put my 72-year-old Dad through the ordeal and further that this time, unlike the last, I got to take some pictures of the crowd at the platform.




And that was about it for the trip to Guangzhou, for the next day, we rose early to catch a taxi to the airport, pictures of which I had already posted earlier.

I did take a few pictures at the Games Park in the early morning which I thought would be very nice, if not for the confounded fog/smog/mist which had enveloped the city.




Oh, and at the airport, after we had cleared immigration, my Dad was asked if he wanted to ride in a buggy. Well, nobody turns down free rides. So he said 'Yes', only to discover that it wasn't a free ride but 20 Yuan per person. That said, our departure gate was quite far away and it was very cool having the wind blow in your face in the airport....