Before you can find faults with the title, let me put my point of view !
The trip I made on the Sunday, 25th of June, 2006 was from Shunde, in China via HongKong to Taipei in Taiwan. Now, your question could be - where are the 3 countries, they are all in China (and the Chinese politburo would love to hear that !). Well, I count the number of immigration counters I needed to pass through and you have the source of my title!
Shunde stay
Let me start by giving you some details about the city of Shunde, because its not a place you hear about in the news or normally visit ! Shunde City is situated in the middle of the fertile Pearl River Delta, between Guangzhou and Hong Kong. It is a medium sized city with one 5 star hotel (Hotel Marriott , where I stayed !) and a lot of yellow taxis driven very much like in India, but on broader roads and at higher speeds. The city has a number of parks and you find them filled with people in the evening who are walking, exercising or dancing ! Yes, they keep music playing on speakers and I saw two old ladies doing the jive ! I figured out that it must be something very normal as nobody else other than me was paying attention to them.
I took a day tour of the city on Saturday and visited a Chinese temple (with giant wooden idols 
of angry looking Gods), a convention centre (the size of maybe 50 football grounds! ) and the huge Mao Bo park (with many gardens and water canals filled with big red fishes and restaurants serving only Chinese cuisine), all on a very hot summer day. Yes, everything related to infrastructure in China is big.
of angry looking Gods), a convention centre (the size of maybe 50 football grounds! ) and the huge Mao Bo park (with many gardens and water canals filled with big red fishes and restaurants serving only Chinese cuisine), all on a very hot summer day. Yes, everything related to infrastructure in China is big.The Mao Bo park is definitely a must visit place and I and my friend Malli, had quite an interesting experience in a restaurant there. We entered a restaurant filled with lively people and found a table for us behind a group of old Chinese men deep in some discussion. The waitress came to take the orders, but she didn't speak a word of English ! The menu was a huge round mat on the table, all written in Chinese and no pictures to even suggest what it could possibly mean. That is when I figured out that a picture speaks a thousand words and all my acting experience is of no use when you had to act out dimsum or fried rice !
An old man in the other table realised our predicament and suggested in pure English (we later learnt that he was from HK) that we order a warm milk dish with ginger which he vouched was good. We did that and what came was something like a pudding, not very sweet, but definitely eatable. Well, that was definitely one of the things that I will remember from my Shunde visit.
The journey
It was the next day, on Sunday, that we commenced on the journey across the 3 countries! We had to leave Shunde for Taipei via HK. The trip started with a 20 minute bus trip, 
the courtesy service provided by the hotel, to the harbour in Shunde.The next leg was by a ship, called the Shun Jing, which ferried us through the Pearl river delta, to the Kowloon islands in HongKong in under 2 hours. We travelled in the 1st class cabin which was very much like a aeroplane cabin complete with a stewardess and TV screens. However our attempt to make it to the outside of the ship to do a "la Titanic" stunt (without a Kate ofcourse !) was politely refused by the stewardess. The ship journey culminated at the port and it was then the turn of the Airport express, a train that takes you from HK island to the Chek Lap Kok international airport in 30 minutes. A part of the rail route passes under the sea but we couldn't figure out which part ! Finally we took a 2 hour Cathay Pacific flight to Taipei and on reaching the hotel there, hit the bed dead tired !
the courtesy service provided by the hotel, to the harbour in Shunde.The next leg was by a ship, called the Shun Jing, which ferried us through the Pearl river delta, to the Kowloon islands in HongKong in under 2 hours. We travelled in the 1st class cabin which was very much like a aeroplane cabin complete with a stewardess and TV screens. However our attempt to make it to the outside of the ship to do a "la Titanic" stunt (without a Kate ofcourse !) was politely refused by the stewardess. The ship journey culminated at the port and it was then the turn of the Airport express, a train that takes you from HK island to the Chek Lap Kok international airport in 30 minutes. A part of the rail route passes under the sea but we couldn't figure out which part ! Finally we took a 2 hour Cathay Pacific flight to Taipei and on reaching the hotel there, hit the bed dead tired !You might be wondering what tired us as it just meant changing from one mode of transport to the other. But what I missed out in the description till now was the half day detour we took at HK to check out its sights and smells ! Karthik, a colleague of ours from Bangalore, who had since moved to HK was at the harbour to pick us up. The first thing to do was to dump the baggages at the city check-in counter and get our boarding cards. That's quite a facility that should be recommended for any big city. You can be a transit traveller with ease if you don't have to go to the airport hours in advance or keep lugging your baggages around the city.
Baggages dumped, we headed for an Indian restaurant (you get plenty of them in HK, right from fast food types to upscale boutique restaurants). We had a sumptuous Indian lunch, which seemed to be the first Indian food we ate in ages after surviving on Chinese noodles and dim sums in Shunde for a week. Not that they were bad, but a tandoori roti and dal tadka is dearer to my taste buds any day ! Although it was Malli's first visit to HK and he wanted to make most out of it, the heat ouside made both of us wary of venturing out and we were pretty comfortable whiling away our time within the airconditioned confines of the restaurant. HK was celebrating "India Day" that very Sunday and Karthik had the passes for the event and we were game for it.
Baggages dumped, we headed for an Indian restaurant (you get plenty of them in HK, right from fast food types to upscale boutique restaurants). We had a sumptuous Indian lunch, which seemed to be the first Indian food we ate in ages after surviving on Chinese noodles and dim sums in Shunde for a week. Not that they were bad, but a tandoori roti and dal tadka is dearer to my taste buds any day ! Although it was Malli's first visit to HK and he wanted to make most out of it, the heat ouside made both of us wary of venturing out and we were pretty comfortable whiling away our time within the airconditioned confines of the restaurant. HK was celebrating "India Day" that very Sunday and Karthik had the passes for the event and we were game for it.
The event was organised by the HongKong Home Affairs Bureau and was 
part of a series of events called "Culture in Motion". It aimed at making the big Indian community feel a part of the HK mainstream (which they very much are ! ). There were events covering almost all corners of India - the bhangra troupe from Punjab, the Jhumur dance from Orissa (performed by HK school students !), the Kathakali and Kuchipudi from the South of India. It was quite an entertaining show and we almost lost count of time. Suddenly we realised that we have a flight to catch ! Malli and I bid our goodbyes to Karthik and caught a taxi to the Central station.
We reached the station just in time to catch the Airport Express. It was quite plush inside and was strangely empty. There were just 5 to 6 people in the compartment we were in. We took the seats close to a arc shaped display that showed the current position of the train by lighting up LEDs. Having nothing much to do for the 30 minute ride, I took out my camera and took some self shots of us making various faces (to the amusement of the couple in the next seat !).
part of a series of events called "Culture in Motion". It aimed at making the big Indian community feel a part of the HK mainstream (which they very much are ! ). There were events covering almost all corners of India - the bhangra troupe from Punjab, the Jhumur dance from Orissa (performed by HK school students !), the Kathakali and Kuchipudi from the South of India. It was quite an entertaining show and we almost lost count of time. Suddenly we realised that we have a flight to catch ! Malli and I bid our goodbyes to Karthik and caught a taxi to the Central station.We reached the station just in time to catch the Airport Express. It was quite plush inside and was strangely empty. There were just 5 to 6 people in the compartment we were in. We took the seats close to a arc shaped display that showed the current position of the train by lighting up LEDs. Having nothing much to do for the 30 minute ride, I took out my camera and took some self shots of us making various faces (to the amusement of the couple in the next seat !).
The train zoomed into the airport (trains no longer 'chug' into stations these days !) exactly in 30 minutes and we walked out into one of the levels of Chek Lap Kok International Airport of Hong Kong.
The Cathay Pacific flight to Taipei was comfortable but not eventful (fortunately !). We landed at Taipei Taoyuan International airport (also called Taipei CKS airport. There is another international airport at Taipei - Shongshan airport) at 6:30 in the evening and took a cab to the hotel in the centre of the city. The cab took around 40 minutes to reach the hotel and we almost dozed off in the car !
The hotel room was welcoming and the neatly laid out bed very inviting. I couldn't stay awake any further and dozed off for a good night's sleep. That was how an eventful summer day in which I travelled across 3 countries in a single day came to and end. The sights, sounds and smells of that day still lingers on in my mind as a beautiful memory.
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