Friday Travels

We woke up Friday morning and enjoyed our last buffet breakfast in Chongqing. Again they brought us the egg custard and again Shiloh loved it! After breakfast we went back to the room to pack. While Todd was packing (yes, he’s a much better packer than I) Shiloh and I went upstairs to drop something off with the Sheltons. While we were there another family, the Dirks, returned from a shopping outing. The three girls sat in the hall and played with one another. It was so fun to see them start to interact with each other!

After we (read: Todd) finished packing, we went out in search of lunch. Another dad from our group showed us the way to a dumpling place they had tried early. After picking up the piping hot dumplings (10 for a $1) we went to the grocery store to get noodle bowls to eat with them. While Shiloh took a nap we ate our lunch. The dumplings were very good!

At 3:30 we met the group downstairs and headed to the Chongqing airport. I will preface our flying adventures with a word to the wise: Don’t fly Sichaun Airlines! It took forever to get checked in. Todd was one of the last three and they said there were no lap tickets for those three families in the system (or rather they could see it but not print it) so the group leader needed to purchase new tickets. Todd finally got our tickets but then the last family was not able to get a ticket at all on this flight because they had maxed out their quota of oxygen masks so at the last minute the dad had to stay with their baby while the rest of the family (Mom, Grandma, and three other kids) flew on with us. Then, as we went through security they stopped us because the system had randomly given names to the lap infants of other adults in the group. There was lots of yelling in Chinese between our guide and the security before we were finally able to get through. Then we went to the gate and discovered they had changed the gate. We were the last ones on the plane. We also discovered that Todd had been given a first class seat (really only a little more leg room on Sichaun Air) but they wouldn’t let me sit there with the baby instead because of the oxygen masks I suppose so I ended up sitting between two guys—one of whom was very nice and the other who looked at Shiloh like she had the plague—you could just see him thinking “great, I’m stuck next to a baby” even though he was sitting in my seat! Anyway, when all was said and done we got to Guangzhou (and so did the dad and baby who only had to stay an extra hour or so in Chongqing) and finally into our hotel room by 11:15 or so and received our luggage a little after midnight.

On a positive note, Shiloh did great! She only fussed once or twice for a minute or two and was content the rest of the flight. We are getting anxious to go home and are getting a little tired of living in a hotel out of a suitcase. We will finish the US Immigration requirements here in Guangzhou and then will begin our trip home on Tuesday with a bus ride to Hong Kong and then a Wed. morning flight home.