Now in Hangzhou
The last day in Hong Kong was uneventual. We had a geography moment when we were trying to decide if we were going to an international terminal or domestic leaving Hong Kong, then we realized that EVERYTHING is international!
Our flight on China Eastern air was ok. The plane was a pretty run down 737. We had seats in row 32, which turned out to be row 6, or row 2 of economy. We are not sure why they started the numbering system at 31, but it was a nice surprise to see where we were. They were in an extreme hurry for service and by 26 minutes into the flight, our food service had been delivered and cleared. We had about 5-7min to eat our food. They did come around with drinks, but only offered them to the row in front and behind us, we were skipped. No big deal, just odd.
Our hotel here in Hangzhou (pronounced hung - joe) is nice – we are glad we are staying in Marriott properties. Because of the Marriott Rewards program, we get free room upgrades, free breakfast, and access to the Executive Lounge. All of these have been a great blessing. This morning while we were in the lounge talking with the concierge about maps and things to do – a guy walks in wearing slippers and his bath robe and seemingly not anything else…. I guess the hotel has made him feel very much at home! HA!
Today the goal was to find this children's store that the hotel told us about, We just wanted to see what options were available once we know sizes and such. We walked and walked and walked some more and could not find it. We were on the right street, but the numbers kept starting over… So counting down from one block we got to 285, then the next block the numbers started at 340? We were looking for 278, but never found it. We did find some markets, an expensive grocery store and other things.
After searching unsuccessfully for the children's store, we decided to recoup at the local McD's. I know, I know, we wimped out and should have tried the local fare, but it had already been an adventure and we just wanted to order by number :) However, once we got inside, there wasn't a number ordering system visable and all the menus were in Chinese, so we got out our Kwikpoint card (card with lots of different pictures on it for international travel) and were ready to order. As we got to the counter, the cashier pulled out a menu that we could point to. Whew! We have been to McD's in India and Ukraine (among other places) and each had numbered meals to choose from, but not this one. Rob had the spicy chicken sandwich (unknown at time of order), which he said they must have got the recipe from India as it was a SPICEY chicken sandwich.
Hangzhou is not nearly as easy to get around as Hong Kong. It was difficult to determine which street we were on or which direction we were traveling on it. After some time, we figured it out, but it is not obvious. The streets and sidewalks were pretty crowded. Scooters sometimes travel on the sidewalks and are all electric, which is cool, except you can't hear them coming. Cars all seem to obey the traffic rules and drive in their own lanes (unlike Ukraine or India). People seem to cross the street whenever and will do one lane at a time – sort of like frogger. After all the walking, we decided to hail a cab for the way back to the hotel and it ended up being less than $2, which made us wonder why we walked so far at the front end of the day!
Tomorrow is the big day – At 9am local time, we will meet our new daughter and bring her back to the hotel with us. We still don't have a clear understanding of our itinerary, but we think the business portion of the day will be short. We don't even know who will be there other than Ellie. Communication so far has not been great, but we hope to be more in the loop tomorrow. Our anxiety, fear, excitement, and joy have been all over the scales today. "Gotcha Day" is always exciting, but is always very hard as Ellie's world is getting turned upside down tomorrow. Please continue to pray for her and for us as we both start this new chapter of our lives together.
Plane to Hangzhou, china
Room at the Courtyard Hangzhou
Gas masks for fire, provided by the hotel,
Fun treats at the supermarket.
Street vendor -- Bunnies anyone?
Sidewalks in Hangzhou. It's like a mini sturgis rally
