I'll preface this post by saying Syd has asked me not to post about our trip to her orphanage.
On Sunday, we flew from Chengdu to Guangzhou and then hit the road for the 5 hour drive to MaoMing. The drive wasn't bad at all, not very much traffic because it was Sunday afternoon. I fell asleep for a while and I woke to more beautiful China.
These pics are from a moving van so they really don't do justice to the beauty of the country side. There were rice paddies all along the highway complete with water buffalo here and there and in the distance, mountains. It really did remind me of Colorado along the front range, flat rising into foothills into mountains.
By the time we got to MaoMing it was starting to get dark and our driver drove around for an hour trying to find our hotel. I think we drove in some neighborhoods that we wouldn't normally have seen but I wish it had been a bit lighter out so we could really see the town. We passed many small shops and vendors set up along the road side, there were sections that looked like a trash dump with piles of trash along the road.
And the scooters!
There are a lot of cars but the amount of scooters on the road is amazing! We regularly saw scooters with 3, 4 and even 5 people on them. They zoom in and out of traffic, cutting off cars, vans and buses. I asked our guide if the scooters have to follow any traffic laws and he said "No, they have no rules, they do what they want". Scary, but we did see a lot of people wearing helmets which was surprising.
When we finally got to the hotel, it was gorgeous! A bit too Las Vegas for me but Syd loved it. And for some reason, these were in our room. I'm sure I don't want to know why it was necessary to have these sitting next to our beds :-)
We did go swimming one day in a very nice pool which had a big glass window where the checkout desk was, it made it easier for hotel employees to stop by and watch "the Caucasian lady with the red hair" swimming. That was Syd's nickname for me since she was amused that I was getting all the stares instead of her. Smart ass!
After our visit to the MaoMing SWI, we went to a beautiful park to walk around.
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| Our driver |
MaoMing has a very tropical feel, very green and wet. I was hoping we would be able to go to the beach, but our guide said it was too far away. It was actually only an hour away and we would have had plenty of time. Oh well.
We also had quite the adventure ordering room service at the hotel. MaoMing is definitely not a tourist town so there is little to no English spoken, which is surprising for a "small" Chinese city of 1 million. We finally got our sandwich, fries and dessert after a lot of confusion in the lobby, the restaurant, the room--it really was quite amusing. But sooo worth the wait, the fries were fantastic! The cheesecake, while pretty was pretty disgusting. It was consistency of Velveeta and was not made with cream cheese!
Syd really didn't want to venture out at all so we spent most of our time in the hotel just hanging out. I had wanted to explore more but wasn't sure what we could do that would be comfortable for Syd. Our driver and guide had never been to MaoMing before so they were really not helpful, I was pretty disappointed that we didn't have a local guide to show us around.
While this was the most physically relaxing of our trip I think it was the toughest on Syd emotionally. I'm glad we went, but I'm not quite sure how she feels about it. Knowing her, she'll stew on it for a while and bring it up when she's ready.
On the flight back home, Syd told me that she really wants to go back to China before Alex is old enough for a trip like this. She really loves China and being Chinese American, I can't wait for our next China adventure!
