Saturday, January 08, 2005
Passegiatta Guangzhou
The Adventure begins!
In typical form it started out on Thursday night - I just finish painting Marinaâs room at 9:00PM then by 9:30 weâre off to the airport. Itâd already been one hell of a week. (Yes, I can say that after spending the night before in the hospital with Eliza) - but now the fun part begins. After 2 trips back, in which Iâve attempted to leave my jacket and those jeans that I was going to pack after they got out of the dryer, weâre off.
The flight was actually not too bad. We arrived in Hong Kong. At about 7ish after 15hrs of flying. Rhea was terrific. She slept for the first 6/7 hrs then enjoyed watching movies and playing leapster and travel Yahtzee
After we landed in HK we went thru passport control got our bags and had a little snack. Some Mango smoothies and a cake. Then weâre off to Guangzhou. Back thru passport control and off to ârealâ China. At the gate we met a number of other bay area adoptive parents. Weâre all looking haggard and tired but I am SO excited to be in China. Itâs just a fascinating place.
We arrive in GZ, a short 30min flight, and are met by Grace and Martin. They are very nice and whisk us off to the China Hotel. The Hotel is fancy. The downstairs shopping looks like 5th ave. But the hotel is clean and comfortable. The bad part is itâs a real effort to remember not to brush your teeth drink the water or go down and order a salad. Itâs so much like any western hotel that I have to constantly remind myself where I am and whatâs at stake. This is nothing like the places suz and I stayed when we were last in Asia.
Well, after bit of a slow check in. We make it to our rooms. I, of course, am immediately trying to set up the computer so we can call suz. That is, as opposed to feeding my daughter. Unfortunately, this turns into the typical 45min tech help assignment but in the end weâre up and running. At this point Rhea is dissolving with exhaustion and lack of food. So we zip down to the food court for our first of no doubt many Chinese meals.
After lunch we came back to the room, showered, finally called suz and considered falling asleep. But itâs a good thing we didnât because boy did we have fun!!!
We ended up going out because we were going to find this temple that Rhea had read about in Spring Pearl, a book about a girl in china in the 1800âs. So we took the subway down to the river but ended up just wandering around it was great. We walked thru a park and across a bridge and wound or way thru the streets. We saw live chickens and rabbits and these werenât for pets. We people selling theyâre wares on the street and then we stumbled into this labyrinth of little shops. It was a covered mall of sorts just piled high with decorations for Chinese New Year, which must be coming up soon. Rhea and I loved looking at all the ribbons, lanterns and tapestries that were all around. We just wandered thru these narrow alleys of shops with everything from shoes to flowers until it was almost dark. Then we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel. At this point Rhea was exhausted. Itâs about 6:30/7:00 which is almost 3AM back home and she just falls asleep in the car. So we come back grab a quick bite, decide to put off the foot massages till tomorrow and then head back to the room for bed.
Rheaâs asleep now and Iâm ready to be. But I promised suz pictures. So I thought Iâd get this blog started. It was a full and fun first day in China.
-steve
In typical form it started out on Thursday night - I just finish painting Marinaâs room at 9:00PM then by 9:30 weâre off to the airport. Itâd already been one hell of a week. (Yes, I can say that after spending the night before in the hospital with Eliza) - but now the fun part begins. After 2 trips back, in which Iâve attempted to leave my jacket and those jeans that I was going to pack after they got out of the dryer, weâre off.
The flight was actually not too bad. We arrived in Hong Kong. At about 7ish after 15hrs of flying. Rhea was terrific. She slept for the first 6/7 hrs then enjoyed watching movies and playing leapster and travel Yahtzee
After we landed in HK we went thru passport control got our bags and had a little snack. Some Mango smoothies and a cake. Then weâre off to Guangzhou. Back thru passport control and off to ârealâ China. At the gate we met a number of other bay area adoptive parents. Weâre all looking haggard and tired but I am SO excited to be in China. Itâs just a fascinating place.
We arrive in GZ, a short 30min flight, and are met by Grace and Martin. They are very nice and whisk us off to the China Hotel. The Hotel is fancy. The downstairs shopping looks like 5th ave. But the hotel is clean and comfortable. The bad part is itâs a real effort to remember not to brush your teeth drink the water or go down and order a salad. Itâs so much like any western hotel that I have to constantly remind myself where I am and whatâs at stake. This is nothing like the places suz and I stayed when we were last in Asia.
Well, after bit of a slow check in. We make it to our rooms. I, of course, am immediately trying to set up the computer so we can call suz. That is, as opposed to feeding my daughter. Unfortunately, this turns into the typical 45min tech help assignment but in the end weâre up and running. At this point Rhea is dissolving with exhaustion and lack of food. So we zip down to the food court for our first of no doubt many Chinese meals.
After lunch we came back to the room, showered, finally called suz and considered falling asleep. But itâs a good thing we didnât because boy did we have fun!!!
We ended up going out because we were going to find this temple that Rhea had read about in Spring Pearl, a book about a girl in china in the 1800âs. So we took the subway down to the river but ended up just wandering around it was great. We walked thru a park and across a bridge and wound or way thru the streets. We saw live chickens and rabbits and these werenât for pets. We people selling theyâre wares on the street and then we stumbled into this labyrinth of little shops. It was a covered mall of sorts just piled high with decorations for Chinese New Year, which must be coming up soon. Rhea and I loved looking at all the ribbons, lanterns and tapestries that were all around. We just wandered thru these narrow alleys of shops with everything from shoes to flowers until it was almost dark. Then we grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel. At this point Rhea was exhausted. Itâs about 6:30/7:00 which is almost 3AM back home and she just falls asleep in the car. So we come back grab a quick bite, decide to put off the foot massages till tomorrow and then head back to the room for bed.
Rheaâs asleep now and Iâm ready to be. But I promised suz pictures. So I thought Iâd get this blog started. It was a full and fun first day in China.
-steve
