type this Saturday night (which, by the way, is Saturday morning to you) and post it tomorrow
when we are better rested.
THe flight was great. It was very long (13 hours) but Denise did great and we got caught up on plenty of movies since they had about half the movies that were ever made as options on the seat tvs. We both watched Monsters Versus Aliens, and then I watched Kill Bill Parts 1 and 2, Pink PAnther 2, Race From Witch Mountain, an episode of 30 Rock, an about half of Godfather (the
first one). Denise watched the Hannah Montana Movie, 17 Again, Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Everybody Hates Chris. They also fed us constantly. A steak dinner with a salad, a couple of snacks, a very random delivery of a Hamburger and a small vanilla ice cream, and a "Chinese
Breakfast" which was dumplings,dim sum, a roll and cookie. Everything was good, except for the warm water they kept bringing us to drink. WE also had sodas and such, but they kept walking by with warm water for some reason.
Once we landed, everything went smoothly going through customs and such, although everyone was wearing face masks and they did have a group scanning us from about 50 yards away with some kind of infrared temperature scan to check our temperatures. Luckily, nobody on our plane seemed to have any issue. The only bad thing that happened was while I was getting our bags at the baggage pickup. One of the bags was stuck on a crate and, rather than be smart and let our bag go, I pulled it free and it snapped back and hit a young girl who was travelling in our group right in the face. She was defnitely hurt and, even though she seemed to feel better quickly, I still feel terrible about it. Not five minutes on foreign soil and I am attacking children with luggage.
WE have two very nice guides who will be with us, Tom and Vanessa. They
Sunday 7/19/09 3:53am From Denise: What an exhausting day we had yesterday! We collapsed about 9:00pm and woke up about 3:00am. Clearly Dan was so tired he stopped blogging mid-sentence. I guess his brain just couldn't handle anymore output. We did have a great flight as Dan mentioned. I took Bonine so that could have made the difference. I usually get very nauseous on short flights so was thrilled at how well I did!! I started getting queezy towards the end when they had us filling out health declaration forms and arrival and departure cards that we would need to leave the airport.
We were so amazed at how very, very quiet the airport was. It almost seemed like it must have been three in the morning but it was about 1:30 in the afternoon and really quiet! Like a
library kind of quiet. It just felt bizarre. I made sure I was first in line as our tour guide led us to the busses so I could get a front row seat. I didn't want to get motion sick on the
bus! I felt bad for everyone behind, me which was everyone, when we had to walk up 3 flights of stairs. Up on the right, down on the left! I stepped on each step with both feet because I can't step up on my left - bad knee. Going down I can't go down on my right. It's crazy but I'm grateful that if I have to have bad knees I at least have one good "up" knee and one good "down" knee!!
Our tour guide, Vanessa, is just great. She was able to get us our room keys in advance and
collected our passports and took care of having the hotel scan them or what ever it is they need to do with them. We were able to go right to our room and she brought them by shortly after.
We were very excited to have a room to go to immediately. We were so tired. We only slept
about four hours Thursday night and didn't sleep on the plane. I think Dan dozed off for a
little while but I just couldn't. We were hysterical about how much they fed us but everytime
they came by you could see everyone perk up and put their tray table down. There was excitement and anticipation in the air - I wonder what we're getting! Actually they gave us a menu when we first got on the plane but I thought it was a list you choose from and not that we were getting the entire page of food! LOL! Back to our room...it is very nice, except for the "wooden" bed! LOL!
We took a quick shower and a two hour nap before dinner which, of course, we were late for. The group was gone when we got down to the lobby. We thought we were eating in the hotel but there was a chinese restaurant (ha ha I guess they're all chinese restaurants here! do they just call them restaurants?) literally next door to the hotel. Several staff members helped us and they were all very nice. Dan went back to the room to get our tour guide's number and a staff member called her for us. Tour guide Tom came back for us. We were surprised to see it was right next door, happy but surprised! It worked out good because we got to sit at the table with our new friends Michelle, Jason (I think that's his name - too many new people with so MANY names to remember!), and the very sweet Sara whom Dan attacked with our luggage - I guess she'll always remember our names! ha ha! Cindy, our WHFC guide and the two tour guides Vanessa & Tom were at our table too. We got to ask all kinds of silly questions and get lots of tips. Dinner was very good. We tried just about everything. They served it family style on a big lazy suzy. White rice, steamed brocolli, chicken stirfry, beef & peppers, eggs & tomatoes (I didn't try that one - too runny looking), pork meatballs in a sweet sauce (I didn't like that one), french fries (seemed random), and other various chinese stirfry dishes.
After dinner we had a group meeting, got some Chinese money, and made new friends. A nice lady named Mary walked us next door to get a big jug of water. It cost 25 RMB. When the man came to bring us the adapter & extra pillows we didn't have any idea how much to give him and gave him 25 RMB - we really don't understand the conversion yet or if that was enough but figured at least we know he can buy a big jug of water and that seemed about right for three pillows??
We're such a mess! Everyone is very nice and we're looking forward to touring the city today.
We are jealous of the other half of the group that get to go to their province today and get
their babies today but we're happy not to have to get on another plane today. Tomorrow will come soon enough!
Ok, we're going to try to take a little nap as it is 4:40am and I'm starting to feel really sleepy again! Dan just put on Sumo Wrestling...how will I ever fall asleep now! LOL!
We're so happy to be able to update everyone on Facebook! And just love getting everyone's
comments. Even though the day has barely begun here I think we already have today's facebook
quote of the day - it comes from Anne - "You can sleep when you're dead! ;-) Enjoy the day!"
Sorry we can't get these blog entries updated quicker. We're typing them on our laptop when we can and will copy/paste into our blog when we have internet access.
7/19/09 8:00am From Denise: we just had a wonderful breakfast at the hotel and we're waiting for the rest of the group for today's fun tourist day to begin! Dan said that Dim Sum rules. He did not like the cognee though! I stuck with lo-carb options since we have a big walking day ahead of us and I don't want my feet to ache! We think we can access the internet from the lobby. We are leaving our laptop behind for the day though so if you want updates check facebook we're both updating our status throughout the day. Hopefully we'll have internet access on our phones throughout the day - so far, so good!
Can't log in to our blog on the laptop but Dan just got in on his phone!! Woohoo.
Love From China,
Denise & Dan
Sent on the Now Network� from my Sprint® BlackBerry
1 comment:
a great find for panda fanatic!
my roommate and i LOVE this bag
hkpanda.freetzi.com
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