Seeing a camera inspired John Francis to make funny faces.
"My brother is SO funny!"
While the kids took their nap, Hannah and I ate lunch. We ordered room service and then after an hour when it didn't show up, we called to check on it. Since they forgot about us, they said it would be complimentary. That made it taste even better.
We packed up our luggage, fed the kids a snack, and checked out of the hotel at 3 PM. We were able to leave the luggage with the concierge desk. It felt funny to be homeless for a few hours, since our van to Hong Kong was scheduled to arrive at 5. We knew we couldn't leave unless our guide was able to get the kids' passports back with their US visas, and I was a little stressed about that. Our guide said she should be able to get them to us about 4:30. We had a last playdate with Mike and Angie and their adorable new baby girl. The kids got filthy and hot and sweaty. It was so humid outside and the ground was damp from the little bit of rain earlier.
John Francis LOVED Angie. She is not only very nice and fun to be with, but she always had Gerber puffs with her.
Three hot and sweaty kids in the lobby after the playground. Therese's socks were so wet and dirty I just took them off and threw them in the trash can.
After the playdate we all waited in the lobby for the passports. All of us were very happy when our guide came just as she said, with all the passports in hand.
A last picture with Angie
A quick picture with our very capable and helpful guide.
Our van showed up promptly. It was funny because the van came from Hong Kong, so the driver was sitting on the wrong side of the van.
Loading up our huge pile of luggage.
John Francis was a little unsure as we left, and he clung closely to his new Mama.
Soon he relaxed and was the happy guy we all know and love. He still held my hand most of the trip.
The drive was rather scenic, but it was hard to take pictures because our driver drove VERY fast. It was pretty scary to be whipping in and out of traffic, and he also used the shoulder on the right side of the road as a passing lane. I think it was the craziest driving we experienced in our whole trip. Chinese driving is normally pretty crazy, but in the cities you just can't drive very fast. I think we were driving at least 80 most of the time on this trip.
We drove through some mountains and saw some agricultural areas, then we got to the factory heart of China. It is probably the factory center of the whole world--Dongguan and Shenzen. There were huge buildings with dormitories built right next to them. Sometimes there were fields and little huts right next to a high-rise factory.
We hit Shenzen just in time for rush hour, so we spent some time locked in bumper to bumper. We got to the border as it was getting dark. It was too dark to take pictures and I'm not sure it would have been a good idea anyway. The crossing was interesting. First we went through a checkpoint to leave China, then we drove about 100 feet to the checkpoint to enter Hong Kong. At both, the driver handed out our passports, and the official had to see each face. We had to hold up the kids so he could match them with their passport. At the Hong Kong side, a uniformed woman with a mask pointed some kind of temperature gun at each person in the van, to make sure no one was sick. Overall, even though we had to sit in the line awhile, it was a pretty easy way to cross the border. We didn't have to get out of the van. The funny thing was seeing other vans, with other families who had been staying at our hotel, all in lines behind and around us. Our driver had driven so fast that even though he stopped once for gas, we were in line ahead of other families who left 15-30 minutes before we did.
Once we crossed into Hong Kong our driver was able to switch back to his normal side of the road, which to us is the wrong side of the road. Hong Kong was very impressive and modern. The skyscrapers were very tall, and the buildings and bridges were lit with colored lights. It was so dark and rainy and we were driving so fast, that we didn't get any pictures. We arrived at our hotel, the Hollywood hotel at Disney, just as they were doing their fireworks display. The grounds were so immaculate with palm trees and clean streets, and the fireworks gave it an unreal appearance. Therese loved the fireworks. Her mouth was open in a huge OHHH. John Francis was asleep and he woke up when we stopped at the door. The van door opened just as the firework finale was going off. It was very bright and noisy and the poor guy had no idea what kind of terrible place we had brought him to, and burst into inconsolable sobs. We got the van unloaded and some hotel employees gave the kids some Disney character stickers. John Francis stopped crying and both kids were very pleased about our choice of accomodations after that.
Check in was easy--we didn't even have to use Special English. We did have to pay something like 16 dollars so we could have internet in the room, which is rather a lot when you are only going to be in a place for about 11 hours, but we were too tired to consider going to the lobby for free wifi. We made sandwiches with the rest of our supplies and the kids ate supper. We got the computer going and let our families know we made it safely, before getting everyone bathed and to bed. The plan was for the kids to sleep in one of the doubles, but when Therese went to sleep she ended up with half her body hanging off the bed. Clearly she was not used to sleeping in a bed, so I moved her to the floor on the Mickey Mouse decorative quilt.
