Planes, Trains and Rickshaws

Sunday, May 30, 2010

This is our last night in Hong Kong and we leave for the States tomorrow!  This has been a trip of a life time and we have been lucky enough to have done it twice.  Once again, we are coming home with the ultimate souvenir, Evan.  I can hardly wait to get this next leg of our adventure done and over with.  We miss our home, friends, family and animals.  I know that I will be doing laundry for a week and probably won't be completely unpacked for at least two.  It will be good to get home and get us on a schedule once again.  We are flying with United and will arrive around 10:40pm on Monday, May 31st from Denver, Colorado.  It will be a long day tomorrow as we will leave Hong Kong around 11:45am and arrive in San Francisco about 8:45am (same day).  We will have a 5 hour lay over in Colorado before flying to Oklahoma City.  I have lots of benadryl and am charging the DVD player and lap top.  Hopefully we will all make it with our sanity in tack.

Our last day in Hong Kong was interesting to say the least.  We took a 45 minute train ride and 15 minute bus ride to our destination, Ocean Park.  I was told that it was like Sea World and I could see that but, Sea World is much better.  This park is built on the side of a mountain and it took us about an hour just to get to the attractions once we got into the park.  We had to take 5 massive escalators up the side of the mountain.  I am certain that it was a beautiful site but was unable to enjoy it because I had to hold Daniel in his stroller.  Brian had Evan.  Once we made it to the top we saw some seal lions and then started heading down the mountain to get some lunch at the McDonald's.  It was a pretty steep walk and after we got the food we walked back up the mountain and found a bench to enjoy our meal (I know I said "enjoy").  It was a cool spot when a heavy rain started.  We gathered up everything and headed for a show.  We stood in
the arena for approximately 20 minutes before they announced the show was "suspended".  One woman yelled "what the hell" and I thought I was back in Oklahoma when I heard that.  The entire arena booed as everyone left.  We headed to the aquarium which turned out to be a bad idea because everyone else went there too.  Inside the exhibit was beautiful but people pushed and shoved us.  People were crammed in like sardines and everyone wanted to see everything at the same time.  Daniel and Evan loved all of the fish, turtles and sting rays.  Brian put Evan on a large ledge close to the aquarium so he could see and got scared when a big fish approached him.  He laughed and clapped when he was excited by what he saw.  When we arrived at the exit, it was pouring rain and people were rushing to put on rain coats and get out their umbrellas.  We didn't have any of these things so we tried to rush past people to find shelter but there were so many
people that it was difficult.  We found another building to explore with the most fascinating Jelly Fishes.  Again people pushed and shoved us.  People who were part of a tour group were the worst, I suppose they didn't want to get separated from the rest so they didn't mind pushing a mother and her child around.  Even at the most crowded of places in China we were never pushed or shoved.  The people in China are also more friendly than they are here. 

After the Jelly house we took a cable car to the other side of the park which is at the bottom of the mountain.  This ride was awesome and so relaxing since it was just the four of us in our own car.  We had fantastic views of the water and the mountain.  We arrived at the other side and found that less people were on this side which was a relief to us.  The rain had stopped so we were able to enjoy some shows and rides.  They had a lot of kid rides that were perfect for Daniel.  Evan rode his first ride with his Daddy on a little train.  This side of the park was flat and that made it easier for us too.  I had no idea how difficult it is to push a stroller up the hill. 

To come home we took a city bus and then the train system.  It is pretty easy but one of the stations requires you to go up 5 floors or down 5 floors to get to your next train.  It doesn't sound too bad but you have to do this one floor at a time.  You go down/up one floor, get out of the elevator (in our case) or escalator and then find the next elevator/escalator and continue this process 4 more times each way.  By our trip home tonight I was about to collapse from exhaustion.  I hope that I have developed some new muscles with this workout.

Evan and Daniel are still getting a long well.  They have little fights but for the most part, Daniel is doing a great job as Big Brother.  Evan was wearing one of Daniel's favorite shirts today and he didn't even say a word.  Daniel shares his snacks with Evan and Evan has even shared some of his with Daniel.  Today when we were stuck in the arena, Evan's was parked in his stroller next to another girl in her stroller.  When Brian handed him a cookie he gave it to the little girl.  She reciprocated with some crackers for Evan. 

Evan is starting to let me hold him a little more each day.  He cries a lot and throws big tantrums when he doesn't get his way but he is also a happy little boy.  He loves to play peek-a-boo and wakes up in a good mood.  I think he and I will bond more when Brian is at work.  Right now he is very dependent on Brian.  Brian is doing an awesome job of caring for Evan.  He has to carry him everywhere and never complains.  You can tell that he is really enjoying having a 'Daddy's Boy' again.

I need to get to bed so I can get up and finish packing in the morning.  I won't have time to blog again until after we get home.  Thank you for following our trip and I hope you have enjoyed reading my entries.  Please remember us in your prayers tonight as we will be traveling while you are sleeping.

God Bless,

Brian, Kirsten, Daniel & Evan

1st Day in Hong Kong Pictures

We ate lunch at McDonald's and sat next to a man and his 4-year-old son, Masaki (not sure of the spelling).  They are from Japan and are living in Hong Kong.  Daniel and Masaki became fast friends while they played with their happy meal toys.

Lovin' us some Hong Kong

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Hong Kong is beautiful!  We were here before at the beginning of our trip but  stayed exclusively at the Disneyland Resort.  Now we are on a different Island and have seen a lot more of  Hong Kong. 

We arrived on Friday evening by train.  Because Guangzhou is host the Asia Games in October there is a lot of construction and changes to their travel security.   One passenger told me that it is different everythime he travels which is regularly.  In the train station we had to put all of our bags through the x-ray machine.  No big deal, usually, but here there was no single file line where people take turns.  Everyone was pushing, shoving and skipping in line.  We had 5 carry-on bags, two strollers and a small suitcase.  Brian threw his on first and I panicked a little when it was my turn to throw my computer and purse onto the conveyor belt.  I remembered that my friend warned my about watching my belongings while in the train station.  I quickly formed a plan and let time come by between Brian and myself.  He went first and I waited to let him grab his items before I sent mine.  I had Daniel's little backpack in the bottom of his
stroller but was not able to get it out so I just rolled through the metal detector.  It beeped and I looked back at the attendant and he said nothing, so I kept rolling.  My plan worked as Brian  scooped up all of our belongings.  From then on the rest of the trip was pretty boring compared the the adrenaline rush of their security.

With all of our stuff in tow we only got two seats for the 4 of us.  We crammed our stuff in anywhere that we could and relaxed before the train pulled away from the station.  Our two seats faced two seats and a man sat across from us.  Daniel asked me "what is his name"?  The man replied "Raj, what is your name"?  From then on we had a great visit with him.  Raj was originally from India but lived in Hong Kong most of his adult life.  He told us about the history of Hong Kong and what it was like living on an Island that has over 7 million people.  He asked about where we were staying and said that he had never heard of it but would call for us when we got into Hong Kong.  When he got off of the phone he told us that our hotel was in a factory district and we would be far away from any of the attractions we wanted to see.  He offered to help us get into a new hotel but I declined his offer since I had already paid in advance.  At first I was
confused because the website said they were close to so many things and then I worried that I had made a big mistake.  Raj told us not to worry as we could take a train, bus or taxi anywhere we wanted to go.  When we got to Hong Kong he helped us find our luggage and a taxi to our hotel.  Brian said tht he was a good ambassador for Hong Kong.

Our hotel is amazing!  It is a sky scrapper and they upgraded us, for free, to a suite!  We have almost an 180 degree view of the city and mountains and the water with floor to ceiling windows!  I can even see the view while I am in the shower.  Our bed faces the view and it is breath taking at night.  We have a fridge and a kitchen table.  I wish we had had all of this space while in China.  We are on the 61st floor and have to take one elevator up to the 41st floor get off and walk down a hallway to take another elevator up to our floor.  Needless to say, you need to remember everything before you leave for the day!  There is a mall, two playgrounds and a ferry right outside of the hotel.  The train station is also close by so it is not too bad.

Our first day here we took the train to another part of the island where we walked and walked.  They have many high end stores for shopping.  We rode a cable to car to the top of a mountain.  While up there we saw more stores and some beautiful views.  We came back down and headed towards the train station.  We stopped along the way to see an Anglican (Episcopal) church that was built in the 1800's.  Hong Kong had been leased to the British Government from the Chinese until a few years ago.  The Church too was beautiful and reminded me of a couple of my Grandfather's former Churches (he was an Episcopal priest).  It felt like home to me as I walked around looking at the ornate carvings and stained glass windows.  It is a Cathedral where they have services and is also open it to the public.

We had dinner and made it back to our hotel by 6:30pm with the intention to go to bed early.  I thought we could watch a movie and go to bed but that didn't exactly happen.  There was a problem with our TV and the hotel staff had to work on it for over an hour.  When they finished, the movie we wanted to watch wasn't available so we watched "The Incredibles" on our lap top.

Today we are heading to park that is similar to Sea World.  We are getting a later start than we had planned but we will get there, eventually.

Pictures from our final two days in China

Our last days in China

Friday, May 28, 2010

Thursday was much better than Wednesday as both boys were in a much better mood and consequently so was Mama and Dad.  We didn't have to be at the American Consulate until 3pm so we had plenty of time to eat breakfast and play.  We spent about an hour in the "Swan Room" which is Mattel/Fischer Price playroom at our hotel.  Daniel has not wanted to play in the room but Evan was happy to be there.  He ran around and tried out the different toys.  I finally convinced Daniel to come in when I saw some Lightning McQueen cars in a locked glass cabinet.  After that, he had a fantastic time.  Other families came in and we enjoyed visiting with them.  There are a lot of families that have adopted "waiting children" which are children with some form of a special need.  Most are mild to moderate and some are severe.  The other families that were here adopting children waited four years for their referrals.  I did not have the patience to wait and in fact
we would still be waiting for our first child if we had not decided to adopt our boys from the "waiting" list.

After a quick lunch in our room we got ready to meet our guide to go to the American Consulate for our Oath Taking Ceremony.  We rode on a big bus with other families and it was fun to finally be riding with other people besides ourselves.  Once we arrived we had to go up 5 floors and wait in a large room for them to call Evan's Chinese name, Pan Sheng.  It was hard to hear because all of the children were loud and the announcers had thick Chinese accents.  While we waited Daniel and Evan played with other kids in the back of the room where they had some toys.  They had a play house that all of the kids enjoyed including Daniel.  I watched him sit inside with some girls and I could see that he was telling them something.  He held up his left hand and he always does when he is trying to tell a story.  It was pretty cute until the girls decided that the house was for girls only.  That did not sit well with Daniel and he got into a physical and
verbal fight with girls that were at least 3 years his senior.  One little girl told me that I need to get my son away from her because she is tired.  I just walked away and kept Daniel away from them.  Evan tried to open the window of the little house and another girl about his age approached him and he hit her in the face.  She got in a couple of good hits on him before we could put a stop to it. 

The ceremony started (informal) and the woman gave us instructions and some statistics about adoption.  There were 37 families there to adopt 40 children.  3 families adopted 2 children all of which were older kids.  They also announced the May birthdays as we clapped for them.  They had everyone stand and hold up their right hand to repeat the oath.  When it was over we all boarded the bus to head back to our hotel.  We decided to go to dinner at Lucy's again for one last meal.  We sat outside so Daniel could use his bubble gun and play in the garden.  He saw a man playing hacky sack and wanted to join him.  The man didn't let him so he went and sat on a bench next to another man and watched him as he played on his phone.  Our new friends from Ohio came to eat as well so we stayed and visited with them before we left for another adventure on the streets of Guangzhou.

We headed in the same direction as before but took some different streets to see other stores.  I am amazed at how late all of the shops stay open and how many people are still on the streets at 8pm each night.  Because Guangzhou is getting ready to host the 2010 Asia games in October, there is a lot of construction and that has closed down some shops.  We ended up heading towards the mall area we visited a couple nights ago to find dental floss.  We purchased a few items along the way before making it to the Mall square.  We are running out of baby wipes so we were looking for drug store and while we were looking for one we stopped to look around at our surroundings.  About 5 women stopped to look at the boys and ask us questions.  Unfortunately we couldn't understand them but we held up fingers and pointed at the boys to show them their age.  They kept talking to us as we smiled and shook our heads "yes".  As they were looking at the boys we
started to get a crowd.  More and more people came over to see us which confirmed for me that people will look at anything when there is a crowd!  I would estimate about 100 people formed a ring around us to see.  One man who spoke English asked to take our picture.  I took all of their pictures too because I didn't have video camera. Eventually our latest fan base thinned out and we continued with the rest of our shopping.  We walked back to the hotel and made it there about 9pm. 

The Chinese children that are in high school go to school about 8am and finish around 8-9pm at night.  They have classes 6 days a week and still have homework to do when they get home.  Our guide in Hohhot said that it is the same for students attending the Universities.  He said it is hard on the kids because they don't get much free time.  I think the same is for a lot of the workers in China, especially the shop owners.  They seem to always be in their shops.

Today we are leaving China and heading for Hong Kong to spend the weekend before we fly home on Monday.  We really wish that we were flying home today but I am sure we will have a good time in Hong Kong.  We are taking the train and it will be about 2 hour ride to HK.  Daniel is looking forward to the train.

Adventures with the Cranky Brothers

Thursday, May 27, 2010
Yesterday the boys were cranky and threw many tantrums.  Evan is very good at this as he flings his head around like it's a weapon.  He kicks, stomps his feet and screams.  I try to console him and he wiggles out of my arm like a worm or a snake.  Daniel was not much better as he continuously disobeyed any instructions that we gave him.  It was exhausting and we are all ready to come home.  Today they are both much better and so is Mama.  I felt like "psycho mom" was going to make an appearance but fortunately the crisis was averted.
I rode to the American Consulate on the hotel shuttle bus.  My guide had given me a piece of paper with "American Consulate" written in Chinese on it to show the driver.  When I approached my bus, I saw two men standing by it that looked like they were dressed as pilots.  I approached them with my paper and they said "yes" so I got onto the bus.  About 5 minutes later the driver got in the bus and we were on our way.  15 minutes into the drive I realized that our driver was not either of the men that I spoke to prior to our departure.  My inward panic began to overtake me.  The traffic was tough so I didn't want to distract the driver while he was driving.  I was hoping we would stop at a light or stop due to a traffic jam but nothing.  More time went by and I had to tell myself that it would be alright.  Finally we came to a stop so I was able to approach the driver.  He read my letter and said "yes, yes" so I relaxed again. 
When we pulled up to the Consulate, I wasn't sure that was it because there were no flags or signs.  Another passenger heard where I was going and told me I should get off the bus and gave me directions into the building.  Once inside I had to go through security to get a form notarized.  While waiting for my guide I saw a man that looked like he was from Oklahoma or some other "cowboy" state.  He had a black cowboy hat, tank top, red converse shoes and a scruffy beard.  He had a country accent and looked very much out of place in China.  I couldn't take my eyes off of him as he used not one but two fingers to pick his nose and rub it onto his pants.  I thought to myself "I hope he is not an American that is so embarrassing".  Then I remembered that I was at the US consulate so of course he is American.
I took a taxi back to our hotel and was so happy to see my boys until I heard crying coming from our room as I walked down the hallway.  Evan was extremely unhappy about something and Daniel was whining about something else.  We had to wait in our room until our guide finished with our documents at the Consulate.  Evan finally fell asleep so that left the three of us to watch an old movie on HBO.  Daniel had one problem after another and wouldn't take a nap, wouldn't watch one of his movies or be quiet.  It was pretty frustrating because it could have been a relaxing time for all but it wasn't.
We got the call we were waiting for and we left our hotel room to eat lunch.  Our hotel is great but the rooms are small.  It is even smaller with all of our stuff cluttering up the place.  I am trying to keep it contained but it takes on a life of its own.  We ate lunch at a Subway, did some shopping and then went back to the swimming pool.  There were a few other families there and it was a lot of fun for all of us.  Daniel had two swimming mishaps that were pretty scary.  He was using an inner tube and it turned him over, forcing him under water.  I caught him but he was scared from the incident.  A while later he wanted to go to the big pool.  The pool has a ledge to sit on and I told Daniel to stay there while I got myself wet.  I moved about 5 feet from him and he jumped off of the ledge.   The water was deep so I had a hard time reaching him quickly and he went under water.  He tried to move his head upward, but it didn't work.  I
was able to reach him and we got out of the pool.  He cried and said "I love you, you saved me".  I told him that he should have stayed on the ledge and that is why he needs to follow our directions.  All that day it had been a struggle to get him to listen and do what we asked him to do.  He sat on my lap for a long time before trying the kiddy pool again.
We took a taxi to a restaurant that had been recommended to us by a friend and our guide for dinner.  It was a huge restaurant and they guided us to go to the second level.  Once we got there we were seated and presented with another beautiful picture menu.  Unfortunately, this time I could not find one thing that looked good to us.  The items were expensive as well as exotic.  I notice a card written in Chinese and realized that it was another menu.  Only one person could understand a little bit of English and she was not able to help us with translating the menu.  I started looking around the restaurant and saw some dishes on other customer's tables that looked good.  I had the waitress follow me around as I pointed to what I wanted to order.  We did receive one dish that we did not order, at least we didn't intend to order, and it was pretty good.   Daniel played with the Chopsticks by hitting the plates and cups as if they were
drums.  Evan cried and threw a tantrum every five minutes.  I took the chopsticks away from Daniel many times and even put him into time out.  It was so frustrating and I wanted to scream.  We got our bill and paid as quickly as possible to leave as fast as we could.  We decided that we really need a guide to help us when we attend different restaurants and maybe a babysitter too. 
After dinner we walked home and stopped in shops along the way.  One woman asked us "why are you so far away"?  I guess she knew where the adoptive families hang out.  Walking the streets was exhilarating.  We don't live in a big city not have we ever lived in a big city and we both enjoyed meeting all of the people and seeing how they live.  The Chinese people are friendly and I will miss them when we leave tomorrow.

Safari Park Pictures