I'm writing this from our gorgeous "Executive Room" at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. We have decided this is our most luxurious room of all. Mia and I are now on our own and tomorrow we begin our 24 hour journey home! We are more than ready. We have had a wonderful trip and seen a good variety of sites in China. We have soaked up our share of the local culture from North to South.......city, country and everything in between. We are loving being here tonight though because it is the most "Western" area we have been since we arrived and we needed it! We had an 8am flight from Zhanjiang which meant getting up at 5:45am. Everything went very smooth and our guide "Yorkie" got us to the airport and off without a hitch. I must say all the guides we have had through OCDF (the tour company) have been excellent and so accommodating and nice. I remember from my first trip to China how "service-oriented" the people are everywhere. That still holds true.
When we arrived in Guangzhou, we were met by our guide Ling and she took us on a tour of Guangzhou. I must admit the thought of another "city tour" was not exactly thrilling for Mia and I, but since it was already scheduled/paid for/planned, I didn't say anything and just went along. Mia gave me a look of "are you kidding me??????". But it actually turned out to be quick, painless and pretty interesting. We saw a beautiful park, a large pagoda (which I had visited and climbed on my first trip) and an art museum. They no longer allow you to climb the pagoda because it is now leaning to the left. The art museum was very interesting because it is outside and is over 100 years old. The structure is being restored because they are holding the Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010.
After the tour, we came to the hotel and we were both so hot and tired we just ordered room service and have not left the room! It is a very nice room and hotel. Everyone speaks very good English and we were thrilled to have a REAL Western lunch! Mia finally had spaghetti with actual tomato sauce. She was sooooo happy!!!! I had a delicious salmon steak and "jacket potato" (baked potato). I say "real" because on several occasions we have been told a restaurant serves "western" food and it is NOT our idea of western food. We are very tired of the food here and so ready to have the food we are used to! Mia liked the spaghetti so much, I let her get it again for dinner. They advise you not to eat any fresh vegetables that are not cooked due to the water issue, so I haven't had a fresh salad for almost two weeks and that is one of my favorite meals.
We are both excited and dreading tomorrow because we know it will be a LOOOOONG day of travel, but we are really anxious to get home. We are not relishing the 13 hour flight from Beijing to Chicago, but we'll make it. Hopefully all the flights will be on time!
Mia has really been a great traveler (for the most part....she's reading over my shoulder....LOL). I am very proud of her. At times, it was very physically demanding and not all of the activities were "kid-friendly". She informed me tonight that some of the tours were "boring" and frankly if I were 11 years old I would have thought they were boring too. And they definitely jammed a lot into a short amount of time. But overall, I'm very pleased with everything. Bottom line......we got what we came here for!!!!
Mia just said "It wasn't really a vacation, it was a tour". I asked her if she enjoyed it and she said "yes". She said her favorite part was "The Market" because "we got to buy things" and "people were all over you". That is true. I personally did not enjoy it. If you even looked at something, they would practically grab you and try hard to talk you into it. Of course, Mia didn't help matters, because she looks at and wants everything :) ! She enjoyed watching me negotiate for things, which is the process.
I'm attaching a few pictures that I found interesting such as the "Do Not Smoke In Bed" sign. Smoking over here is still very prevalent among men. I remember that was the case 10 years ago and it still is. It's interesting you do not see women smoking. I thought it was funny that it's OK to smoke in the room, but they ask you not to in the bed! There was also a sign in the Gao Zhou Hotel elevator that said "Please Don't Smoking". Sometimes something is literally lost in the translation. Also a picture is indeed worth a l000 words and until you see one of the "squat pots" you can't really appreciate them. These are the traditional Chinese toilets, however most of the time where we went you could find a Western toilet. But there were occasions when we had no choice but to do the Eastern thing. Mia tried to hold out as long as possible which I found amusing because she sits like that ALL the time at home while playing on the laptop, which we keep on the ottoman. I tried to drink so much water, I had to succumb pretty and after the first couple of times it's no big deal.
The girls got a big kick out of the "Wahaha Water". As most of you know, you have to drink bottled water while in China, so that became a staple while here and this was the most common water we drank.
On the road from Gaozhou back to Zhanjiang, we stopped and got some Longan fruit, which is similar to grapes. Mia loved this. You have to peel it, but the fruit inside is very good.
And yesterday we were so happy to see a McDonald's in Zhanjiang. Mia was excited to get chicken mcnuggets after all the chinese food she had been having. McDonald's isn't my favorite, but I got a double cheeseburger and just ate the meat and it tasted like a steak! We all got ice cream too. It's obvious all the franchises use the same formulas because everything tasted exactly the same in China as it does in the US. We even saw a Wal-Mart and I'm sure if my Mom had been with us, she would have wanted to stop :). Since I don't shop Wal-Mart at home, I had no desire to shop one in China!
As I mentioned, we are ready to get back to the conveniences and comforts of our homeland.....bathrooms with toilet paper, water you can drink right out of the faucet, napkins in the restaurants (you almost always have to ask), "normal" food, air conditioning you can control that truly cools you down, traffic lights and not feeling like you take your life in your hands every time you are in a motorized vehicle and most of all, it will be nice not to be constantly stared at! I knew we would be looked at some, but I was not prepared to literally be gawked at and then sometimes pointed at and pictures taken of ALL the time. Mia became very self conscious of it and I did too. I don't mind being a minority, but I do mind having my child stared at as though she was some type of weirdo. I honestly don't think it was meant that way, but it felt that way a lot of the time. Some people were friendly about it, but many people would literally just stare us down. They would be looking at us and whispering something to their companion. It seemed very rude. I had warned Mia beforehand that while the Chinese could be very friendly and service-oriented, the public at large lacked a lot of the social graces we as Americans take for granted. She was very grossed out by all the hacking and spitting she saw, both indoors and out! I guess due to the vast numbers of people they deal with on a regular basis, they do not think twice about bumping into you and they don't move to get out of the way. They are very aggressive when it comes to crowding and lines and as I just mentioned, they do not hesitate to stare when they see something they perceive as "different". The literature the tour company had given to us said that while some people in China are familiar with international adoption, there is a large portion of the population that is not, especially in the areas where we were going to be, so we should be prepared to be looked at and possibly questioned. But I was still a little taken aback. Mia didn't mind when we were in the group, but when it was just her and I, I could tell it bothered her.
So we are ready to click our heels and go home......thanks for following our journey!!!! Melinda and Mia
