We're in Guangzhou

We made it Guangzhou yesterday and are settled in our room at the White Swan. Yesterday was some kind of parenting test. Our flight from Kunming to Guangzhou was scheduled for 10:40. We left the hotel around 8:40. When we got to the airport with our travel mates and our guide we discovered that the babies had the wrong tickets. Our guide had to call our travel agency then run over to some other counter and fix the tickets. That got taken care of and then we discover that our travel agency never actually paid for Andrea and John's tickets so our guide tells us to stay at the check in counter and she goes, with all of our passports, to some other ticket counter and tries to get that straightened out. She comes back and says our family can check our bags but Andrea and John's situation still wasn't resolved. They told us to go ahead but we didn't want to leave them. About 9:50 and several phone calls later they get their tickets. We rush through security and guess who's the dumb *&^ that put scissors in her carry on? Yeah, that would be me. Now remember, I'm now on day 5 of a fever and probably bronchitis so I'm not all that sharp. In our packing frenzy the night before I did some rearranging and didn't realize I put them in the carryon. The good news is I'm not writing this from a Chinese prison. Actually it turned out to be not a big deal, they just confiscated them and let us go on our way.
We made the flight no problem. But it gets better.

It's supposed to be a 1 1/2 hour flight. After 2 hours they state that due to bad weather in Guangzhou they are going to divert and land in Shenshen. Um, ok. Where's Shenshen and what about the guide that's meeting us in Guangzhou? We're resourceful people, we've traveled a fair amount but the idea of landing somewhere unscheduled where we're lucky if there's any signage in English is a little worrisome. So we land in Shenshen but don't deplane. We just sit on the tarmac in the cargo area for over 2 hours. People are getting up and milling about, then without warning the plan starts backing up. None of that silly American type nonesense like take your seat and buckle up. No, we just start taxing then they say take a seat we're going to try for Guangzhou again.

So we make it Guangzhou around 4PM I think and our guide is nowhere to be found. We haven't eaten since breakfast other than some snacks, the babies are tired and cranky and I still feel like I've been run over by a semi. All our luggage made it though so we're thankful for small favors. I have the name and address of our hotel written in Chinese so we're not too worried. We figure we can get a cab or shuttle if need be but Holt always stresses that if your guide isn't there to meet you, you should call the contact and don't leave the airport. John makes the call and finds out that the guide is in the airport but has no idea our flight landed in Guangzhou. The screens all still say the flight was "alternated" so she thinks were in Shenshen.
After a little while we find her and our driver and we get to the hotel in one piece. We had dinner then crashed.
(Just a side note, I'm not a pilot or a meteorologist but the weather didn't seem that bad to me. We're pretty sure an American pilot would have been able to land in the first place. It was just a huge rainstorm.)

Today has been a better day. I still had a low fever this morning but right now, 9 PM, I'm feeling pretty good. I did have a couple Chinese beers with dinner so that may be helping :-)
We've met up with the rest of our Holt group that were all in different provinces for the past week and we got to meet all the kids and exchange stories. We had dinner at a place that has tanks full of creatures out front that you can choose from for your meal. Very interesting. I had rice again. If the scale in our hotel bathroom is accurate then I've lost about 10 pounds so far on this adventure. Being sick is part of that I'm sure as well as having to take turns with Michael to eat since one has to entertain and feed the Princess too :-) I forgot what it's like dining with a toddler. She is really doing great though. She also handled that flight and the delays really well. Being stuck on the plane like that could have been a real nightmare but it was ok, we survived.

I can't wait to really feel better so I can enjoy Guangzhou. There are all kinds of great shops to explore. Tomorrow we are going to the Jade and Pearl market so we can further hone our bartering skills and get more souveniers. I think tomorrow may be Alyson's Visa medical exam too. I don't have the schedule in front of me so I'm not sure.

Just a note for those waiting to travel to China, upgrading to the Jr suite at the White Swan is worth every penny. It is so nice to have some space. I was getting really claustrophobic in the Kunming hotel. (The beds are still like sleeping on concrete though.)

Here's few pictures from yesterday. They're out of order but I don't have the energy to fix them. Alyson has so many funny facial expressions, there's pictures of a few of them at the end.

Here's she's reading the yellow pages. We need to get her home to her proper book collection!
I know we're in China but it's still weird to see everything written in Chinese.

Done with the yellow pages, getting the newspaper out.

Hmm. Done with the paper. I'll just stash it in this cubby. She likes to hide stuff.

sleepy girl.

First plane ride.