China welcomed us with birdsong
We’re here for 9 days, backpacks only.
Plan: Guangzhou, Yangshuo, Guilin.
Since I’m taking a mental break from poker, this week turns into travel-blog mode.
Day 1: harder than expected.
Before leaving Vietnam, they almost didn’t let us board because we had no ticket out of China or back to Vietnam.
I had researched it before, and everything suggested we wouldn’t need one. So we didn’t buy it — partly because we wanted flexibility in case we met friends in China and decided later where to go next (wrong move).
The guy at check-in wasn’t impressed by that story.
So we ended up buying return tickets to Vietnam right there online.
From Guangzhou airport, we took the metro.
Mistake. We were exhausted.
Then we step out into the city center… and both of us are stunned.
Huge crowds, cars everywhere, scooters and e-bikes moving through sidewalks — but silence.
That’s what shocked me most.
In that level of chaos… complete silence.
No engine noise. No aggressive soundscape. Just this strange, almost musical calm.
I’ve never experienced that anywhere else in the world.
For the first time, a crowded city itself felt relaxing.
Landed in China at 3:30 PM.
Checked into the hotel at 9:00 PM.
Full quest mode.
First, I completely messed up the hotel address 😄
We arrived at the wrong one. Then missed again.
And somehow failed a third time too.
Only after asking a local to type the exact address did we finally make it.
Problem was simple: way too many “CityNote” hotels across Guangzhou.
Usually, almost nothing throws me off — not at the poker table, not in life.
Stress, chaos, stacked problems — I’m generally steady.
But this trip made me appreciate my girl even more.
A lot of people start breaking down in situations like that.
Complaining. Snapping. Looking for someone to blame.
She wasn’t that person.
She stayed calm, took responsibility, adapted, and helped solve problems instead of adding to them.
She trusts me, handles mistakes well, and doesn’t mentally collapse when things go sideways.
She says poker would drive her insane…
But honestly, after meeting plenty of poker players with analytical minds and emotional control — she has both. Maybe even more than some of them.
Day 2: full tourist mode.
Walking through temples, parks, and new parts of the city.
Right now I’m writing this from a Harry Potter-style Starbucks that feels straight out of Hogwarts. Photos later.
I’ll keep sharing first impressions of China — especially the details that stand out to me as a poker player thinking not just about travel, but about what life here could actually feel like.
