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Zoltan
June 27 | Comments (0)
If you're ever looking to buy a small painting in China with your name or a loved one's name on it in English and Chinese, a word of advice - John, Paul, Clare, Sarah or Becky may not be suitable choices anymore. Instead, consider a name change or naming your child something more typical such as Cowgirl or Zoltan, you'll have more choices.
Feelin' hot hot hot
June 25 | Comments (0)
Day 3 and I think we've lost at least a stone (14lbs for you non-Brits) in sweat - needed to know that didn't you! It's 20:30 and it's at least 30 celcius - frosty!
Whilst the visit was short, we really enjoyed Hong Kong. We had some fantastic food (fresh Lychees - yum), saw some great sights (Victoria Peak, dragon boat races, live fish flapping for it's life on the floor of the grocery store) and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere Hong Kong has to offer.
Today we got up early to catch a train to Guangzhou (1hr 45min north of Hong Kong). We're staying on Shamian Island which was one of the first places the Westerners were allowed to trade from on mainland China. These days you see Americans, mostly, visiting with the sole purpose of adopting a Chinese baby, it's definitely the place to go if that's what you want.
We enjoyed some Chinese bureaucracy this afternoon as we waited for 1hr to change 500 Hong Kong dollars (that's not much more than 32GBP) into Yuan. You wouldn't believe how many forms we had to fill out and they even took Jared's passport away for some sort of inspection - ahhh, keeps people busy and employed I guess.
We'll be taking some trips outside Guangzhou over the next few days and then taking a sleeper train to Guilin on Thursday night. This travelling stuff, I think I could get used to it.
And so the adventure begins...
June 23 | Comments (0)
The finality of our departure hit us as our plane left the runway and took to the sky - a few tears were shed whilst we looked back on the 'green green grass of (our former) home'. We'll miss you London.
A sad time but excitement was only 12 hours away!
A relatively smooth flight into Hong Kong saw us touch down at 2pm and, in true Folkmann style, we went to the hotel (Lanson Place Hotel), freshened up, went up to the Peak, took in the beautiful view and walked all the way back down - our thighs and calves won't be thanking us in the morning.
We finished the day off with a fabulous hot pot - Kelly & Francois, fear not, there are pictures!
We're off to browse the night market and go back to the hotel for some well deserved rest. Tomorrow, dragon boat races and a walk through Kowloon.