Pearl River Cruise and the Guangzhou Zoo

This whole plan of posting in the evening after the kids go to bed would be brilliant if Benjamin could figure out the concept of going to bed.  He won't sleep at all if he's not next to Brian, and wants to spend about 1.5-2 hours playing and kicking.  Any attempt to get him to sleep involves screaming at the top of his lungs.  Christopher is so overtired from being kept up til 10 or so every night that it's not funny.  Needless to say, this whole blog thing only gets to happen in spits and spurts.

So last night, we went on the Pearl River cruise.  For anyone coming to Guangzhou, it is totally worth it.  Even if your kids are up late, I would recommend it.  Benjamin spent the whole time just staring, and Christopher was bouncing out of his shoes trying to see everything, and tell us all about it.  It takes about 2 hours - the first 45 minutes or so is a buffet dinner while you cruise up the river.  The lights are starting to come on just as the boat turns around to come down the river.  It's absolutely amazing.  None of our pictures do it any justice at all.

After all the excitement of the cruise, and getting to bed super late, we decided to let the kids sleep in as long as possible in the morning.  No one woke up until about 8:30, which was a miracle (and much needed)

We had a free day from all the planned tours and actual adoption stuff.  The other families we're travelling with and us decided to go to the zoo.  Our guide told us it was very easy to get to, and she was right.  Us country folk managed to figure out the subway system in China, and we all got there without getting lost.

It's actually easier than the Metro in Montreal, and is probably the cleanest one I've ever been on.  We're planning on taking it tomorrow to go to Shamian Island.

The zoo was great, and all the kids had a great time.  The heat was again a killer, and most of the adults faded pretty quick.  For some reason, Christopher was like the Energizer Bunny, and ran all over the place.  If we walked a mile, he probably ran 2 miles.

There are tons of different animals, and a few we don't often see at zoos at home.  The red pandas are interesting - I think they look like funny colored, slightly larger racoons, but they are still interesting.  Benjamin was really excited to see most of the animals, particularly the deer.  Brian was wondering if it means he'll like to hunt.....

Benjamin really wanted to walk today and do everything that Christopher was doing.  It was pretty funny, as he'd try to repeat whatever Christopher told him, using the same tone of voice.  It was like copycat, with 2 kids speaking 2 different languages :)

We headed home just after lunchtime, as it was getting way too hot.  We tried getting both kids down for naps, but as anyone with more than one kid knows, that's a losing battle.  Benjamin actually fell asleep, and Christopher tried to sit quietly (aka - made a lot of noise and fidgeted, but no actual hollering)

Once everyone woke up, we packed up all of us and our bags for another trip to Trust Mart.  We found a shortcut across the main road that made it much easier for Mom.  If you take the bridge over the road, you have to climb about 2 flights of stairs with no railing, cross over the road, and then come down 2 flights of stairs with no railing.  She had a really hard time with it the last time we went.  If you cut through the subway station directly in front of the hotel, you just ride a bunch of escalators and walk across the station.  Brilliant!

Trust Mart is always an adventure - I really like going to see what you would buy in a typical Chinese store.  The prices crack me up as well - things here are so much cheaper than at home.  We started stocking up on food and some snack type things, as we'll be in Hong Kong for 2.5 days, and the prices there are significantly more than here.  We figured if we could bring as much with us as possible, it would probably be easier for us. 

We finished shopping, and headed to find a regular restaurant for supper.  The fast food thing is OK, but as long as I'm in China, I want to have real Chinese food.  The food here is amazing, but a bit different.  The English translations of some of the food is pretty interesting, and some of it you couldn't pay me enough to eat (goose intestine comes to mind, from tonight's menu).  Brian will try anything, and really actually liked the octopus in today's seafood rice.  For anyone coming to Guangzhou, try Nathan's Restaurant (on the right hand side of the road going up the road to Trust Mart).  The food was incredible, and pretty cheap.  For 6 of us for dinner (with 5 Cokes as well) was 172 yuan - not even $30.

Notice that Benjamin is too busy stuffing his face to face the camera :)  That kid eats more than the average adult.  I swear he's gained about 5 pounds since we got him.  He has definitely got more muscle tone, just from playing and walking all the time.

So here are the random cute pictures from yesterday and today.

Tomorrow we have to be up at the bum crack of dawn for Benjamin's consulate appointment, then we're hoping to get to Shamian Island.  Wednesday night will be our last night in Guangzhou, and then Thursday, we have to pack up this disaster of a hotel room.  The poor housekeeping staff will be so glad to see us leave.  I suppose since they have so many adoptive families here, they've probably seen worse, but it's still a horrow show :)