When we were on the plane on our way to Guangzhou, they handed out all these declaration and customs forms to fill out and one, in particular, wanting you to alert them to coughs, snivels or fevers in the past week or time spent near chickens. If you answered "yes" you would proceed to the "Quarantine Station" and be checked out. So I took one look at Jack, ordered him to blow his nose start practicing holding his breath, and I signed "no" to everything. I think my deodorant stopped working just as I was going through customs and I credit my smell with getting us past the seriously unfriendly agent and into the country just as Jack was about to cough and sneeze all over him!
The flight to Beijing was eventful in that Jack ordered a bowl of dubious looking brothy soup and ate it! He then proceeded to try some sesame seed covered shrimp ball (I think that's what it was) and some kiwi-tasting white fruit that was peppered with seeds. Who is this child and what has he done to my son? I think Jack is digging China.
Our bags came off the carousel without incident and our guide was right where we could see him when we came through the doors and were assaulted by hot, humid, and smoggy weather. Nevertheless, we breathed it all in with a huge sigh of relief and as soon as we were on the road, I whipped out my cell phone and dialed home. Cingular found a network, I dialed the "+" sign, country and area code and that was it! (I did call our cellular phone service before we left to be able to do this.) It worked! It was 9PM at home (yesterday) and almost noon local time. Jack commented that we never saw August 8, 2006. It vanished. Boy, were we happy to get my husband on the other end of the phone and let him know we were okay.
So the hotel is posh and modern and the service is excellent. As Jack put it so eloquently, "This is the life." He's presently sacked out and I'm going over the menu of services available and I'm tempted by the "Kidney Preservation" treatment but I think I'll pass on the "Ear treatment." I'll probably end up with the foot massage because that's all anyone ever talks about. Now, I have to figure out what to do with Jack...hmm. I wonder if the hotel offers babysitting..?
Emotional baggage part deux.
I had to document the number of bags I finally took with us: 2 carry-ons and 2 checked bags. Is, in Beijing.
No comments:
Post a Comment