Day 4 - Tues., August 13, 2008
***FYI, posts could get tricky from here on out - limited internet access for time being***
Also, please pardon breaks in sentences, poor grammar and so on, the mere fact this is getting done is enough in itself! I love you Pops!
It’s about 7:00pm at night and we’re sitting in the Shenzen Airport waiting for our flight to Beijing. Truthfully I don’t even know where to start with today’s entry, partly because I can barely remember everything we did today or exactly in what order!
Here goes….Another early morning (I think we were all awake by 4:30am). I went to the hotel gym – I had to channel Stef’s energy to do it. It was especially nice to stretch after all the sitting on the airplane. The girls and Scott were in the hotel’s rooftop pool surrounded by skyscrapers by 7a.m. and by 8am, we were off and WALKING!
We decided to be mellow and head to Kowloon Park. I envisioned something similar to Balboa Park but this park was part zoo with exotic birds & fish ponds mixed with play areas for children, an exercise trail for adults and multiple pools for families to swim in. And all right in the middle of the city surrounded by sky scrapers!
The entrance to Kowloon Park. Maybe it's like Balboa Park?
That's some drying rack!
Humidity was at a crazy high with clear skies today. Sweat was getting to the best of us (and the worst of places) so we high tailed it for a double-decker bus ride back to our hotel. The girls loved the double-decker and now we know that once on, you should bee line for the top and grab the front seats!
Time to leave Kowloon: We thought we had a surefire plan to get to Shenzen which is 40 km from Kowloon. Get ourselves to the train and we’d be all set. That was the plan at least! First, we walked 5 busy blocks with suitcases in tow just to take an elevator to the subway, proceeded to back track underground, the 5 blocks we had just walked, and managed to walk in a complete circle trying to find the right train terminal only to find out it would take one train to Lo Wu to get ourselves to Shenzen.
Which way to the Subway station?
Finally on the subway, the first of many modes of transport today.
Thank goodness for Travel Hangman!
Shenzhen is a Chinese border city to Hong Kong province with 13 million people. Beijing has 15 million. Shenzhen has a number of U.S. companies that do manufacturing there. We arrived in Shenzen (finally), and were immediately bombarded by people offering to take us places, carry our bags, be our tour guide, you name it. We agreed to having a taxi driver load our bags with his young daughter trailing us, only to find out we were paying the guy to get our bags to the taxi area. Then things got interesting...
Scott planned for us to spend the afternoon at Splendid China – A Cultural Village – since we some hours to kill. We went back and forth about what to do with our luggage and ultimately said goodbye to our bags, temporarily, while we had them stored. We were told we couldn’t have a locker although we're still not sure why. We headed to the taxi area, still skeptical about our bags, only to find out no one knew English nor could understand where we wanted to go.
A local man took us under his wing for the next 1 ½ hours for a mere $12. First he got our bags back out of storage, after we kissed our $8 fee goodbye! I kept thinking he was just going to show us the next train to wait for and send us on our way. But when the doors opened he walked on with us. Then I thought he was going to help with the bags and say goodbye but not the case. He rode the entire train ride with us, then walked blocks to the Cultural Center and helped us get our bags stored there. He was our hero and for the bargain price of $12.00 which we are certain goes a long way for him.
At one point, I asked "our local" if he could drive us around and he said that if he were a Chinese man with a car, he’d be rich! Once he learned Syd was only 7, he carried her suitcase as he said his 12 year old wouldn’t even carry her own luggage so far. I was proud of my girl!
Our girls continue to amaze us! We have walked 5-8 miles per day and today was no exception! Today was different though because we were traveling to another province, there were long lines, crowded trains, 90% humidity, little food since morning, a lot of uncertainty on Mom & Dad’s part, NO ONE SPEAKING ENGLISH and yet, they were running from exhibit to exhibit at the cultural center and didn’t want to miss a thing. We saw replicas of many of the Chinese Wonders; Giant Buddha, Great Wall, Hanging Monastery, Terracotta Soldiers, Emperor’s Palace, and Forbidden City to name a few.
Just in case we don't get to see the real thing....
Our late lunch was plain rice for the girls. After watching their mother try to ask for “plain rice”, I think they understood how lucky they were to get plain rice since the language barrier was paramount. And I was proud of myself for marching to the noodle bar, pointing to the closest Pad Thai looking dish and crossing my fingers. It was great to seat and eat and all were happy!
"Plain rice. Plain rice please!?"
(Insert hand gestures with a lot of pointing to plates with rice)
Way to go Mom!
Today was one of those days, we weren’t sure if we’d get where we needed to go let alone on time, or if we could trust anyone we gave money to “help” us. Several times we weren’t sure if we’d see our luggage again and until we arrived at the airport we weren’t even sure that’s where we were being driven to!
This pretty much sums up the whole day!
Now as we wait for our flight, we can only hope the woman “Gwen” who’s apartment we’ve arranged to stay at picks us up like she offered to do and the apartment is everything we’re hoping it to be!
The lovely Gwen! Scott found her, and her apartment, on Craigslist.
Gwen, another hero! Gwen was at the airport as promised and had a taxi driver waiting to take us to her apartment. She's a 21-year old French gal that just finished her college studies in Beijing. Her first job out of college is with Omega – the official time keeper of the Olympics so she is busy running their venue inside Olympic Park. She speaks French, Chinese & English that we know of so far! She showed us around the apartment, all 300 sq. ft. of it, advised how to do laundry, where the grocery store was and then said goodbye. The girls were fast asleep when she left and we were not far behind!
Favorite Parts:
Shelby – Love seeing the replica of the Great Wall of China at the Shenzhen Cultural Center, playing our tour guide and the double decker bus ride.
Sydney – Loved the double decker bus. Her fav from yesterday, spending time in a book store. Jana’s favorite part, getting to watch some of Men’s Indoor Vball while on the train to the Cultural Center and sitting down to have lunch.
Scott - Visiting the Cultural Center and seeing the Chinese replicas, and finally landing in Beijing safe.
FUNNY FORTUNE STUFF:
Shelby trying to be our tour guide at the Cultural Center; “We’re probably somewhere over here…”
Being bum rushed for photo ops
Jana & the girls experiencing their first “Chinese” bathroom in the middle of it flooding.
SEEING THINGS DIFFERENTLY: We have left the comfort of Western toilets. (See photo below).The girls have been great at adapting and the toilet was no different. There were a few misses, on Shelby’s feet, my feet but we’re getting better and we always have our own toilet paper in hand!
Sidenote: Not a good sign that Gwen advised internet connection in her flat is lame. Our first attempts yielded no luck so we’ll see what that means for future posts!
The first bathroom we ventured into in Shenzen. No more Western toilets for us!
This little boy is wearing traditional "split" shorts.
They are open from front to back so they children are able to go to the bathroom when (and where!) they want.
Favorite sign of the day and ironically, it's the name of a restaurant.
And then it happened! We’d been warned, several time, that people would stare at the girls and want to have pictures taken with them. I was suspect it would really happen let alone that we would be bum rushed or that as I was taking a picture of my girls, strangers would hop in and have someone snap a pic behind me. Yes, all of these happened. And young girl’s even stopped Scott for photo ops with him alone. Not sure if it’s because he’s American or so tall? Maybe it was a combination of both!
I’ve never seen anything like it! You'd have to see it to believe it. Random people asking to take pictures with us and the girls handled it really well. It did get to be a bit much when we were interrupted a few times while eating for photo ops. What's really strange about it, is
there’s no conversation, just giggling on their part, lots of smiles and then awkward silence with a lot of touching of Shelby’s hair!
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