Safari Park

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

This was our last official tourist trip before we leave for Hong Kong on Friday evening.  We saved the best for last as we went to the most amazing animal park I have ever visited.  The Safari Park gave us upclose interaction with all kinds of animals including the Giant Panda, Koalas and Tigers.  My favorite animal since I was eight-years-old has been the Koala.  This park had 16 Koalas and several of them were awake.  They even have the only set of Koala twins in the world!  For about $5.00 Daniel and I had our picture taken with a baby Bengal Tiger and I fed a giraffe!  We could have had our picture taken with a Python but we decided to pass on that one.

The first part of the tour of this park was on a tram.  We rode through the park getting very close to all kinds of animals including Zebras, Giraffes, Deer and Camels to name a few.  The rest of the day we were on foot.  We walked through the "Secret Garden" where we were greeted by two small monkeys that were being fed by some other visitors.  They got very close to Daniel and he loved it.  I was a little nervous about Daniel being so close but it was fine.  We also visited the nursery where they had baby tigers, lions, a bear, deer and monkeys.  All were so cute and little.  I have never seen a zoological park with so many of the same kind of animals.  They also had a lot of babies.  We visited the Giant Pandas and were able to see them enjoy a meal of vegetables and bamboo.  They were so cute and Evan absolutely loved them.  He was holding his snack cup filled with Cheerios and tried to throw them to the Pandas.  He was laughing and
jumping up and down in his stroller.  When we left, he threw a huge tantrum (something he is very good at doing).  Now we know that Pandas are his favorite animal.

Daniel loved the park too.  Towards the end of our visit he asked to go home to Oklahoma.  He wanted to know where our cars where and wanted to ride in Mama's car.  Last night he told me that he missed his cats, dogs and friends.  He said he missed his best friend, Nathan, school Max, China Max, Kason and Abberly.  He has even been praying for all of his friends too.  His sadness didn't last long when he became distracted by some more animals.  The park was beautiful and a wonderful experience. 

 After the park we headed to a local restaurant where our guide ordered us a "Dim Sum" lunch.  Most of the Chinese restaurants open at 11am and stop serving lunch at 2pm.  After two you can order only Dim Sum.  It was delicious and a lot of  fun trying some new dishes.  They served tea but no cold water or other drinks.  We were dying for something cold to drink.  While in Inner Mongolia we discovered that many Chinese people do not drink cold water but hot water.  Our guide told us that many people think drinking cold water will hurt their body so they drink it warm.  I don't know if that is just an Inner Mongolia thing or all over China.  On the way back to the hotel, Daniel complained that his mouth was hot and he needed cold water.  We assured him that we needed it too and as soon as we arrived at the hotel we rushed to our room to get our one cold bottle of water out of the fridge.

We went swimming tonight in one of the two pools that our hotel has for it's guests.  I knew about the first pool but we were never able to swim before because it was too cold the last time we were here.  We were told by the hotel employee that there was another pool behind a tree.  It was like a secret pool because we couldn't see it and had to walk a good distance down a flower lined path to find the pool.  As we rounded the corner we saw a beautiful waterfall and crystal clear pool with a children's pool.  Daniel was thrilled as he entered the pool.  It was the perfect size for him to play and practice his swimming skills.  Evan took his time to enter the pool and once he did he enjoyed splashing his brother.  We went swimming once in Hohhut and it was an indoor pool with a kiddie pool too.  Evan and Daniel had a great time playing with Dad while I hopped into the grown up pool.  I swam a couple of laps before I rejoined them.  While I was
swimming I kept hearing hacking sounds.  At first I didn't pay much attention to it and then the noises got louder and louder.  I finally looked over an realized that every guest in the pool was spitting and hacking into the pool.  One man even blew his nose into the pool while another gargled with water and spit back into the pool.  I honestly almost gaged myself and had to concentrate so I wouldn't vomit beside the pool.  Needless to say, we never went back.  This time we were the only ones in the pool and it was peaceful and relaxing.

Brian was working on the computer this morning so I got myself and the boys ready to go on our day trip.  I also took both of them to the restaurant for breakfast by myself.  At first I thought, I can't take both of them and then I remembered that this is my new reality and I better get it into gear.  So, I took both boys to breakfast and navigated the buffet line pretty good.  For some reason I thought it was a good idea to let Daniel hold his own plate.  A couple of minutes later it shattered onto the marble floor.  Oops!  Brian went to play basketball tonight with our driver.  Once again I took care of both of the boys.  I bathed, dressed, fed, read bedtime story and got both to sleep.  It was awesome!  Evan sleeps in a crib and putting him to sleep was so easy.  Daniel has never been easy to put to bed, it has always been a major struggle with him.  Even tonight I had to lay down the law with him to get him to be quiet and go to sleep. 
I am feeling a little more confident that I could actually raise two little boys successfully!

Tomorrow I have to head to the American Consolute by myself.  I failed to get a document notarized before we left the US and the only one who can officially notarize this particular document is at the consulate.  I am meeting our guide there tomorrow and I have to be on the shuttle bus by 8:10am.  I have a post it note with "American Consulate" written in Chinese to give to my driver.  Wish me luck.

One last thing...actually two last things....I found my missing dental floss.  The other is tonight Daniel spoke some Chinese to two women at a local restaurant.  They both laughed and we had no idea what it was that he said.  As we walked back to our hotel I stopped to ask a shop girl, who speaks good English, what the phrase meant and she said "hello everybody".  I swear I never heard that phrase before and I don't know who taught it to him.  He claims that he learned it at school but I doubt that Waterloo Road Mother's Day Out teaches Mandarin.  He is so smart!