Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Plane, Train or Van?

This morning we Skyped with Grandma Laura & Grandpa Dave and The Great-Grandparents Mullen.  Henry played along for the most part, but he was kind of busy during that time, so for part of the time he was all over the place. Also, Henry took a bath this morning without screaming. Sure, there was a little bit of fussing and crying, but nothing like what we've seen from him over the previous week.
The only thing on the agenda at the beginning of the day was a trip to the Pearl Market.  It's really a giant mall with lots of jewelry stores that mostly deal in bulk: pearls, jade, amythest, amber, etc.  And a reputation for pick-pockets.  Henry rode with me while Jenn shopped, and he did okay.  He was tired from being pretty restless last night, and then not taking his morning nap like he'd been indicating that he needed.  We came back to the hotel for a quick lunch, and he's down for his nap now.
Jenn and a few of the other ladies are going back to Shamian Island for massages.  I'm going to chill in the hotel as I've been doing around this time for the last two weeks.
On to some logistical info that may be helpful for the prospective adopting parents out there.  When we were making our travel plans in The States, our options for the Guangzhou to Hong Kong leg of the journey were three:
  1. plane - most costly, shortr trip but more time spent in airports, so not quicker in the grand scheme
  2. van - longest transit, mid-cost, but didn't sound as cool as a...
  3. train - least costly, we thought it would be cool to add a train to our China travel experience
But what we didn't know was that we'd have to go to the train station almost as early as we'd have to get to the airport, and we'd have to wait potentially several hours for the next train out.  We knew we'd be in charge of our luggage for the entire train trip, but we didn't know we'd have to lug it up four flights of stairs to purchase our tickets and the lug it back down to the platform.  Our guides told us that if we hired a van, the van would pick us up right after our US Consulate appointment and take us straight to Hong Kong.  On top of that, we'd be able to split the fee with our friends, the Indiana family.  So all things considered, we settled on the van over the plane and the train. And I can't finish the above discussion without at least sharing one clip from the classic Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

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