Friday, February 27, 2009

Views of Guangzhou

These are just a few views from Guangzhou. We were so happy to get out of there. We were so bored. It's amazing. With Brynn's adoption, we were so excited to get there. Now, we couldn't wait to get out.

The Victory Hotel was horrible. It smelled musty the minute we hit the lobby. I don't have allergies and I sneezed the entire 53 hours we were there.

The medical appointment was done the minute we got to the island. We then walked to the Victory. We ate at Lucy's and Starbucks the majority of the time. We also ate at the Thai restaurant. It was so tasty.

Wednesday was our swearing in ceremony. We literally sat around the room until it was time to go. We didn't shop much this time. We just couldn't think of anything we had to have. That part was so different from last time.

After we finished our consulate ceremony, we were whisked away by private taxi to the China border. I swear it felt like we were running from the mob. Close to the border between China and Hong Kong, we turned off the highway and transferred our luggage to another van, filled out our immigration paperwork and were off again.

The border is very interesting. You go thru the China border, then drive about 50 yards and go thru Hong Kong immigration. The officials look at the passports and then you are allowed to go. The van took us directly to our hotel in Disney. If we were to do this trip again, we would do this part exactly the same. For about $200 US dollars, we didn't have to mess with our luggage, the train station, immigration, or a taxi. So worth it.





3 comments:

Vivian M said...

How interesting that it was so different the second time around. I always wondered what it would be like, that is until China changed the rules and we became ineligible.
I am so sorry the Victory did not turn out to be as nice!

Doug and Terrye said...

Love the pictures!!! It brings back such happy memories from 3 years ago...who knew it would be the beginning of something so wonderfu (oh yeah, I knew!!!)

Terrye in FL

Kristi said...

Julie,

We had the same exact doctor for the girls. Crazy. He's still sitting in that same little room almost four years later.

I so love Shamian Island. How disappointing that you just wanted to leave.

Kristi