January 15 – 18
The past week was such an unexpected blur of events.
For starters, Schäfer and my visa was going to expire during the middle of the adoption so Hubs recommended we make a quick trip to Hong Kong to get updated visa’s. The visa website said that we could get new visa’s in one day.
Well, their website hasn’t been updated since April 2008.
Apparently the fastest service is next day and since we went on a Friday the earliest we could pick up our visa was on a Monday. So, we were stuck in Hong Kong over the weekend.
Which sounds like a pretty nice place to be stuck unless you’re NESTING and all you want to do is go home and clean out the corners of each room with a q-tip.
Also unless you’re in balmy Hong Kong wearing a flannel shirt with fleece lined jeans and no change of clothing.
Since our passports were turned into the visa office, there was nothing we could do except stay in Hong Kong. That afternoon, Hubs went to the embassy to get another adoption document notarized. (Schäfer and I couldn’t go because we didn’t have passports to get inside the Embassy.) While waiting inside the embassy, Hubs ran into some Americans we know so that made the weekend fun!
01.15.10
We arrived in Hong Kong via night train to Shenzhen. After dropping off our bags, we took a taxi to the China Visa office. I love how much leg room Hubs has in a Hong Kong taxi.
After dropping off our passports, we took the trolley to Great Food Hall.
We enjoyed our favorite Hong Kong meal: Triple O’s hamburgers!
Then we checked out “grEAT” grocery store which carries a lot of import products at import prices.
After the grocery store, Schäfer and I headed back to the flat for afternoon rest while Hubs went to the embassy. He unexpectedly ran into our friends and we ended up enjoying supper together that evening at Festival Walk. We enjoyed Italian at Amaroni’s and were really impressed with their pizza!
After supper, we stopped at Häagen-Daz for an ice cream. Doesn’t this fondue look incredible?
Hubs and Schäfer shared a waffle cone.
Well, I’m not sure how much Hubs got!
Hubs and our friend went to see Avatar. (It was Hubs 4th time to see it!) Meanwhile, the ladies & Schäfer went to Toys R Us. Schäfer played with Cranky the Crane for almost an hour. Too bad Cranky costs over $100 USD!
01.16.10
On Saturday, we rode the subway to Hong Kong Island to meet our friends for lunch.
Schäfer loved racing up the World’s Longest Escalator.
Somebody’s in the mood for Mexican!
Taco Loco makes us seriously happy.
Tucked quietly in the middle of Hong Kong Island is the beautiful Hong Kong Park complete with playground, aviary, coy pond, botanical garden and tea museum. Forget all those offerings, Schäfer could have played with this digger all day long.
You know you’re in Hong Kong when free parks are disinfected 4 times a day.
The aviary.
Sparkling flowers.
Coy pond with turtles.
Botanical gardens.
Such a wonderful Saturday.
Tea museum.
After the park, we decided to ride the bus to the peak for supper. Schäfer took a little nap while we waited at the bus stop.
We hadn’t eaten at Bubba Gump’s since the Nanamaw visited in ’07.
Their onion rings are memorable.
Hubs loves bread pudding.
The Peak has changed a bit since we were last there. The biggest change was that you now have to pay to go to the very top. There’s even a fee for kids! Also, they took an old trolley and made it a gift shop, but left a couple of chairs for photos.
01.17.10
On Sunday, we recovered from Saturday. We stayed at our flat most of the morning and made sure Schäfer got a much needed afternoon nap. He’s just not at the point where he can skip naps. He made it through yesterday just fine, but today we’re paying for it. For supper, we joined friends at CPK.
01.18.10
With what turned out to be my most bizarre idea ever, I suggested that we train to Guangzhou and then take the new 3 hour speed train to Wuhan. This idea was very logical and good until we arrived in Guangzhou. After we purchased our speed train tickets, we learned that the train was at Guangzhou Bei station.
We’d never been there before so we asked the ticket officer if we could take the subway. She told us we needed to take a taxi. We weren’t worried. We walked over to Ikea and enjoyed a nice lunch. Then, we got a taxi.
The taxi driver was very concerned when he heard we wanted to go to Guangzhou Bei. “What time is your train?” he asked anxiously. “In an hour and a half.” we replied. He told us that we absolutely could not get to Guangzhou Bei in less than 2 hours. It’s a new train station far outside of the city limits.
With no other option, we went back to Guangzhou East and returned our tickets for later tickets at no costs. Then, we took a taxi outside of Guangzhou and finally arrived at Guangzhou Bei. Apparently, in a few weeks the speed train will go into Guagnzhou Nan which is in the city, but they haven not completed the line yet.
After all of our effort, we were excited to ride the speed train.
First class wasn’t very crowded.
There was plenty of space in the dining cart.
Schäfer enjoyed Thomas.
Hubs and I noted that this would be our last time to read while traveling. After the adoption, we’ll be back to entertaining a little one. Until then, I enjoyed a Coke Zero and some good Amish fiction.
