20 April 2019
The darkest of places
Day turns to night and the surprise used HiFi gear shopping centre
I think yesterday I wrote something like 'I bet it doesnt rain at all tomorrow'. Well I lost that bet. It rained and rained and rained, and I managed to get wetter than ever. I didnt even really go anywhere, but where I ended up was about 300 metres from a subway entrance. To get back to the entrance, after an hour or so of waiting under a bridge, required running through ankle deep water. Who knows what was in that water? My socks were crunchy afterwards.
Perhaps more impressive / depressive was just how dark it was. I dont think I have ever in my life seen it so dark in the middle of the day. This was just before the real rain started, I took some photos as you will see below of how bright the lights of shops appear compared to the outside light. I think the word I am looking for is contrast.
After returning to the hotel for a shower, change of clothes and an attempt to dry my shoes a bit with a hair dryer, it was time to head out and get something for lunch. Still raining! I managed to get soaked even getting across the road to get back to my hotel, shoes got soaked through again. So now I am washing all my wet clothes, drying my shoes, and contemplating purchasing a life raft (but I still wont use an umbrella!). I am sure I will only go to the underground mall place again tonight for yet more 'more of the same', thats unless its under water! The subway station into it last night had been sandbagged.
I didnt mention above, but I had an early morning trip first up to a train station to collect my ticket for tomorrow. This went about as well as it always does. I had to line up in 4 different lines for no reason, fight people trying to push in or pay someone else to buy a ticket for them. The issue is, the only people who actually have to use the line, have no bank account, have no ID, are being paid to collect tickets for someone else, have lost their tickets (so they claim) or are unable to use a computer. So you really get to hang out with some strange characters. The whole process took about an hour, security in the ticket hall is tight, the police told me not to take photos. As a foreigner, I have to show my passport and my confirmation number to collect a ticket, I cannot use a machine to do this, I must line up. Korea is better! I printed my Korean ticket in Australia.
Now I will attempt to explain how dark it was. Notice how bright the lights in those shops are compared to the buildings around it. This is the middle of the day.
Notice how the underside of the leaves are lit up by the shop lights.
Car lights lighting up the road at 11am.
Here is a clothing market about to open at 11am.
The clothing market went through many streets. Not quite raining yet.
If you need a xmas tree in Guangzhou in Late April, this place has you covered. Lots of places seem to just have permanent xmas decorations, malls, restaurants etc.
It was raining now, this overpass had a roof. Despite my experience yesterday, I was still in denial. I was already wet at this point, but at least my feet were still dry. Then the thunder and lightning started again.
The amount of water coming off the edge of that bridge was ridiculous, not captured well in the photo but I took a video.
My safe haven was under a bridge, where old ladies sung, and a couple of guys were fishing. They actually caught fish and were very excited when they did. They were about the size of a goldfish, only not gold.
Flood.
The stance! Its back for 2019. The camera hanging from the roof is awkwardly placed behind my head. This is just after I entered the subway soaking wet and the girl manning the security point burst out laughing at me.
After a change of clothes it was time to head out again. Still raining. Still raining as I type this too. It is a little brighter here though as you can see.
I was amused by this guy. Here we have a guy carrying various things in buckets slung over his shoulder with a bamboo pole, heading towards starbucks and mcdonalds.
The last few shots from today are from a nearby former mall that is now lots of junk shops. Many of them contain second hand, possibly stolen gear. There were literally hundereds of shops selling old hifi gear. First up, heres a stall selling only speaker cables and component interconnector cables.
Lots of places selling components to repair your speakers. There were also shops dedicated to electric typewriters? Who still has one of those? And also broken down laptops for parts. If you need a specific ribbon cable from under the keyboard of a 10 year old laptop, you can get it here.
More speaker repair shops, some were doing actual repairs in store, soldering. Also you can smoke in here, It was full of chokingly bad smoke a lot of the time. Wow, chokingly is a word! I thought I made that up for sure!
Everyone got rid of their hifis and just use their phones and a bluetooth speaker. In this giant complex lots of guys have decided this is a trend that will not last, so they have stocked up on huge old hifi amps and speakers.
There was some pro audio type of gear, but it was mainly aimed at the karaoke / p.a. market. No guitar gear at all. Thats all for now!