On Shamian Island
August 11, 2007
Our plane into Guangzhou was delayed and we ended up
not getting to bed until 1:00 AM last night. This
morning we had to be in the hotel lobby at 8:30 AM
for the Shen's immigration medical examination. It
was raining really hard when we woke up and continued
to rain as we made our way to the medical clinic on
foot. It's close to our hotel so even in the rain it
was an easy walk. The place was packed with adoptive
families, which makes the "Quiet Please" notices on
the wall seem quite useless...
The examination, visa photos and paperwork session lasted long enough that both boys ended up passing out and getting some sleep in the middle of things, so when it was all over we took them to the little park in the middle of the island where there is playground and exercise equipment. Kai has taken to the island like a true alumni. He runs off ahead of us and is eager to explore. It's nice that the traffic is so light here that we aren't in constant fear for our lives when walking down the street! Kai played hard at the park...
Shen liked the exercise equipment that had chairs...
After the park we took them back to the hotel and swam them in the pool before having dinner at Cow & Bridge, the popular Thai restaurant on the island. This schedule was enough to put them down hard and fast this evening, which is good as they really need to catch up on their sleep.
We were a little disappointed that we didn't a room with a river view this trip, but we are situated at the very end of a hallway on the 10th floor. There is a fire exit we can step out on and it has a great view of the river. We are calling it our lanai. I tried taking a chair out there to sit on, but one of the floor attendants regretfully informed me that while we could step out there to enjoy the view, we are not allowed to sit there for a long time. It was funny how apologetic he was after the level of customer service we had gotten used to receiving at the last two hotels. This guy seemed to really feel bad telling me I couldn't block fire exits with chairs. Still it's a great view...
The examination, visa photos and paperwork session lasted long enough that both boys ended up passing out and getting some sleep in the middle of things, so when it was all over we took them to the little park in the middle of the island where there is playground and exercise equipment. Kai has taken to the island like a true alumni. He runs off ahead of us and is eager to explore. It's nice that the traffic is so light here that we aren't in constant fear for our lives when walking down the street! Kai played hard at the park...
Shen liked the exercise equipment that had chairs...
After the park we took them back to the hotel and swam them in the pool before having dinner at Cow & Bridge, the popular Thai restaurant on the island. This schedule was enough to put them down hard and fast this evening, which is good as they really need to catch up on their sleep.
We were a little disappointed that we didn't a room with a river view this trip, but we are situated at the very end of a hallway on the 10th floor. There is a fire exit we can step out on and it has a great view of the river. We are calling it our lanai. I tried taking a chair out there to sit on, but one of the floor attendants regretfully informed me that while we could step out there to enjoy the view, we are not allowed to sit there for a long time. It was funny how apologetic he was after the level of customer service we had gotten used to receiving at the last two hotels. This guy seemed to really feel bad telling me I couldn't block fire exits with chairs. Still it's a great view...