25 may - orphanage visit

(photos are not in correct chronological order, cannot fix that because I upload my blog by e-mail). 

Today we went to the orphanage to deliver the gifts, and hopefully talk to the director. After a night with more sleep than before, I felt much better. I didn't know jetlag could be so bad! We had a roomservice breakfast (for the last time), continental type, with toast and marmelade, and went to our guide Jasmine. We prepared the visit, she had no knowledge about orphanages and how adoptions are handled, and I told her what I wanted to know if possible. But also that she had to handle this very carefully. Off we went. It was a 15 minute taxi ride to the orphanage. We then searched for the director, and finally found her on the 4^th floor. She sent us to the administrative officie nextdoor. We where greeted by the head of administration, who immediately recognized Shen and was very happy to see us. We had to sit on a couch, got tea, and Shen got candy (which he ate immediately of course) and within no time his 3 ayi's where there and they where so happy to see him. It was so touching to meet these ladies (whos photos are in Shen's lifebook) and to see how they remembered him. Shen showed them the pictures of our house, his room, his papa and sister Mean, we tried to sing Mama Hao but he didn't want to so I stopped. I gave the ayi's a photo of Shen (recent one, with his name in characters on the backside, I asked my guide to do that). I showed them the photobook of Dutch kids adopted from Shenzhen and they loved it. They only remembered the children adopted from my travel group, because they didn't take care of the others. But they loved to see the recent pictures of the boy and girls (they look so beautiful and happy, they said). I gave the photobook and the other presents to the head of administration. I also gave the letter with recent photos of a US girl which I took with me, and the ayi's where pleasantly surprised and also remembered her. I gave the letter and photos to the head of administration.

They asked me if I wanted to know anything, if I had any questions. I asked about the records of Shen, and they said that they couldn't show them immediately, because it was lunch break, but we could make another appointment for tomorrow at 3 PM. They would have the records of Shen available by then. They also offered to send the records to me by e-mail. So, tomorrow we'll go back.

After the orphanage visit we went shopping with our guide and had lunch at the Pizza Hut (something new for us, there is no Pizza Hut anywhere near us). It was my first real lunch/dinner with a normal portion in China. Shen and I shared a pizza. Then we went for more shopping, and at 3 PM we went back to our hotel. At that moment the rain stopped, and it looked even a bit sunny (through the clouds). Oh, how nice! We dropped off everything in our room, packed the backpack again and went to Lizhi park by taxi. I had never been to a Chinese park before, but wanted very badly, so this was such a nice trip! Shen thought so too, we had so much fun talking about what we saw, people playing games, dancing, fishing, we loved it!

We had trouble getting a taxi back (traffic hour I guess) but arrived at 7 at our room. Shen was hungry he said, so went to the restaurant (Greenery's) under the hotel. It was a buffet restaurant, and it was very good. Teppanyaki, Hot Pot, more than you could eat. Shen loved the Hot Pot corn on a stick, so he ate two of them. It was already 9 PM when we where back! He brushed his teeth and jumped into bed (and is sound asleep by now). What a great day!

Tomorrow (if the weather is not too bad) I want to go to Splendid China, a themepark on the metro line. Should be easy to go to. Hopefully the weather will be good!

More about our second orphanage visit tomorrow!

orphanage visit

Went well. his ayi s remembered him and his "sisters" very well. they loved the photos. we go back tomorrow.

18 - 24 may

For those who know, this is last week's 365 layout. All about China of course.

24 may It's raining cats and dogs...

It's sunday today, but nobody notices that over here. In China everything goes on 24/7 (or almost). I had maybe 2 hours of sleep last night. Shen slept from 8.30 to 11 PM, and then woke until 2 AM.

I got out of bed at 7 or so, took some cereal as breakfast and took a bath. I woke Shen at 8 and at almost 9 we went down to the lobby. Our guide Jasmine arrived at 9 and we first talked a bit. She is a nice lady I guess, helpful, but very young. As everything in this city is :-)

The weather is really, really bad, it's raining constantly, the streets are flooded with water, it's almost impossible to  walk across a street. Not what I imagined travelling here, I must admit. I checked the Wunderground website before, and this period of ime has been beautiful sunny weather for the last ten years. Too bad. This week it is raining. From the forecast at this moment this should be the worst day, let's hope so.

http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/fnd.htm

We went of to the metro, and went to the big bookstore near the city hall. I wanted to buy a photo book about Shenzhen, a map and maybe some other stuff. The ride was great, the metro very clean and everything went well. At  the  book store it was not so clear where to buy the desired goods.We eventually found a map with  English signs on it too, a book I promised to buy for M (Shopping in Shenzhen) when I encountered it and a photo book about China. Then we ate some bread at a bakery, Shen loved that. He is so much into food here, he wants to eat all the time. We wanted to go and walk to the Childrens Palace, a scientific center with activities for kids, but it rained heavily at that moment. We eventually went, and got poured. On the pictures you can see how wet Shen's trousers are. At about 1 PM I didn't feel too well again (no wonder) and we went back  to the metro through rivers of water and drove back to the hotel. The rain was still there when we arrived above the ground, and it got even worse, so we hopped in a mini McDonalds and gave Shen some Chicken Nuggets. He ate two portions :-) and then I decided we would go through the rain. The hotel was nearby, so dry clothes and a hot shower or bath also. So it's half past two and we're back in our  room. In the last metres we walkes some thief tried to  open my backpack  (I was too tired and didn't feel a thing), luckily our guide stopped her. There was nothing of value in the backpack, only the books and some water we bought.

Addition to previous post

Please look at the picture of the shop, the second displayed. When you click on it is displayed larger. Do you see wat they sell there? FATFOOD! I had to laugh when I saw that! It's across the street at our hotel. Sometimes things go wrong in the translation here :-). For people who don't get it, it should say "fastfood", but the fatfood suits too  I guess.

23 may

An update with some photos of today. It's 5 PM when I post this, so the day hasn't ended yet. About our trip. We started with a train trip from Leer to Bremen (Germany), then a flight with KLM Cityhopper from Bremen to Amsterdam, and then the flight from Amsterdam to Hong Kong. I didn't feel to well on that last trip, but Shen slept 8 out of 10 hours of it. My stomach is my weak point regarding to stress I think. I had all kinds of medication but nothing seemed to work. I was very worried for the health check that awaited us in Hong Kong and China. In Hong Kong everything went smooth. A very efficient airport. Health check (passed), passport control and customs, efficient. No waiting times. Then we went for the mainland coaches, we found them quickly. We booked one of them (150 HKD), Shen was free :-). It left 25 minutes later (again a temperature check of our foreheads), but I had to fill in new forms for the China border so that took up most of the time. The bus  trip to the border took about 1 hour. We went across the new bridge from Hong Kong to Shekou. The China border here is super efficient as well. We left the coach, and walked through everything. Health check, temperature control, passport control, luggage scan, so easy. At the end the bus was standing there again and we where driven to a car park where we where split (according to the colour of the stickers on our shirts). We had the red sticker for the Century Plaza hotel and where put in a minivan with a couple. That ride took another hour or so, and we where dropped off at the hotel. Check in, go up to our room (oh yeah, we where upgraded, that seems to be standard at this hotel, we have a Japanese style room now) and check if the internet worked :-) We then ordered fried rice and a shrimp cocktail Mimosa from the room service, which  came quickly. Shen loved the meal!
Shen went to bed at 8.30 and I went at 9.30. At 11 PM we both where awake again. At 1 AM we got up and played a bit. I wrote my diary for the first days, Shen played his Nintendo. At 3 AM we tried to sleep again,which worked. I woke at 10.50 AM and took a relaxing bath. My stomach wasn't set until then, so I had to try to relax a bit. I ate some crackers (so happy I took plenty of home food with me!) and drank some water. I woke Shen at noon (much too late,I know, but well...) and he ate some cereals which I also  brought with me. We then prepared for a walk outside to the shopping centre (Luohu Shopping Centre). It's only 10 minutes walk, but it rained heavily. Shen had his raincoat and I an umbrella. It's about 28-30 Celcius so the temperature is fine. We walked through the metro station at LoWu station and arrived at the shopping centre. We didn't buy anything, except water which is expensive at the hotel, and some popcorn and sweets for Shen. Then we walked back and ate something at the Laurel restaurant. I had different dumplings (Dim Sum) and Shen rice with seefruit (he wanted to have some shrimp). My stomach is feeling better now, after the food. The only problem is that we ate at a strange time, but well. Hopefully we can get some earlier sleep this evening, because tomorrow we have booked a guide from 9 AM. We have to be ready by then. I think you  can add the photos to the text, don't know how they appear, but I can only update the blog through email, which is fine. I tried to login on Blogger but it didn't work (even through a web proxy). Okay, this is it for today I think. Bye!

21 and 22 may trip to China

Here are some photos of today. I'm too tired to write down the whole story of our trip, but it took a long time, and everything went well. Shen slept 8 out of 10 hours of the long flight from Amsterdam to Hong Kong.