We woke early to the sound of cars, but easily ignored the noise to get a few more minutes of sleep. At 9:00 a.m. we went to a Chinese-style breakfast place around the corner from the hotel. Next, we wandered to the Potala Palace to stand in line and buy our tickets. The sun was intense; every minute without sunscreen felt like another minute closer to a burn. After a short wait, Mei and Kwon returned from buying train tickets. The line was massive, stretching along a wall and out into the open. Luckily, we were able to find some shade.

Early in the morning, at 6:00am, we arrived in Guangzhou. Can you guess what we did? We ate rice balls, of course. Perhaps I should explain: although Taiwan prepares rice balls differently, those in Guangzhou usually come in a dark sesame paste or soup and are filled with peanut butter. Yum.

I awoke at 8:00 and went to breakfast. At 10:00 I rented a bike (a tandem!) and started biking to Moon Hill. The traffic was pretty dense, so I needed to be careful, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless. Halfway up the road I paused for a break, and an older woman approached me to ask if I wanted to buy postcards. Since they were cheaper than in town (about 70 US cents), I bought a pack. The hunt was on, and all the other vendors surrounded me. Yelling “go away, go away” had no effect, if they understood it at all. I cycled across the bridge and took my rest.

Our boat to Yangshuo left at 09:00, so we needed to wake reasonably early. We ate some local Guilin noodles and met a French couple who were also travelling up the river. By 09:30, we were on our way along the Li River. The boat ride was beautiful. Although some rubbish floating downstream revealed the river’s pollution, the surrounding hills were remarkable. The same landscape appears on the back of the 20-yuan note, and I now have a photograph of it too. By 12:30, we had arrived in Yangshuo, a town popular with tourists and nestled among the hills. We had only a few things planned, so we decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. We sat beside the river chatting for some time, then collected our …

The bus arrived at about 4:00am, a little too early for me. I slept terribly; the road was in poor condition, and the bus driver drove rather recklessly. In fact, whenever I woke up, I kept saying, “I love you, I love you,” because I didn’t know whether each time I fell asleep would be my last. But I made it, somehow, and had to find my hostel. I walked out of the train station and headed in the general direction of my hostel. I asked a member of the cleaning staff, who simply replied, “That way.” A couple gave me more detailed directions, and I finally found it. By 5:30, I was knocking on the front door, and a man drinking beer let me in. I checked into my dorm and fell asleep.

I decided to sleep in and woke at nearly 11:00. I ate breakfast at a nearby bao shop and checked out at 13:00. My first stop was the bus station, where I tried to decide where to go next. Ultimately, I chose Guilin, about a day’s journey northwest of Guangzhou. After buying some rice balls, I took the MRT to another bus station and bought my ticket. The bus didn’t leave until 20:00, so I ate fried rice and sat in a small “reading bar” for a few hours, mostly reading and playing cards. I checked my email one last time in perhaps the most run-down internet cafe I had ever visited, then went to the bus. Guilin, here I come!

We woke at the ripe hour of 5:00am and were at the airport by 5:30. By 10:00 we were in Hong Kong, and by noon we were at the visa office on the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border. I had travelled this route before, so I knew getting a visa should not be a problem. However, to our dismay, the visa office closed for “lunch” from noon until 2:30pm every day. Luckily, the staff member returned around 1:00pm and processed my visa. We crossed the border by 2:30pm and went in search of funds. A Bank of China ATM, hidden in an apartment building a few blocks away, provided what we needed. Two thousand RMB later, we were at the train station buying tickets to Guangzhou, and by 4:30pm we were on the train. We arrived …

Alas, it is finally time for me to say goodbye to Taiwan. Yesterday I spent a few hours cutting and pasting my “Unlonely Planet guide,” a collection of freely available information in English and Chinese. I even designed a little cover logo; I find parodies quite humorous. Last night, after sending some rather important emails, I packed my laptop. I didn’t go to bed until 3:00 a.m., even though I had basically finished packing last week. I woke up at 7:30 a.m. and started taking the boxes to the local post office, which isn’t particularly close. I borrowed a dolly from the breakfast place, but I still had to carry four 20 kg boxes down five flights of stairs, in the Taipei heat no less. …

One of the biggest things I regret is not utilizing Xen more. I’ve finally been admitted to Amazon’s EC2 Limited Beta, just two days before I leave, so not enough time to actually do anything fun. However, I think Xen is an ideal infrastructure aid for SMEs in particular. The cost of technology is continuing to decrease, which means bigger servers cost less. This is great for the small/branch office. Let me explain.

This will be my last post from Taiwan, and I’m placing it in my tech section. Shortly I will be flying to Hong Kong, and then traveling into China. I’m not bringing my laptop with me. I’m always a little wary of using public computers, especially in many of the poorly run internet cafes. Often the logged in user is the administrator, and we all know the computers are obviously crawling with worms and keyloggers. What can I do?