May 14th - Off to the White Swan
We left Hefei around noon on the 14th of May to board a plain for Guangzhou, and the White Swan Hotel. It was a little tough to say goodbye to Hefei, after all, this was pretty close to where Bella started her life and spent the first 14 months. Not to mention the fact that we would miss strolling past Parksons, or looking out of our hotel windows at night to the light displays of the city. The one thing we would not miss was the traffic noise. At any given point in a 24 hour day you could always hear cars honking, tires screeching and general mayhem from below.
What do 21 families look like leaving a hotel in Hefei, China? Well, something like the above photo. I must say that it is a clear tribute to Chen to be able to keep us all organized, on track and happy as can be!
It was a two and a half hour flight from Hefei to Guangzhou. When we left Hefei it was about 74 degrees F, when we stepped off the plane in Guangzhou we were hit in the face with 90+ temperatures and humidity somewhere near 1000. It was quite a change!
Here's a picture of the White Swan Hotel taken from our airplane. Well, okay, it was a postcard. You can see the two pools outside. Nearest to the hotel is the adult pool, and furthest is the kiddie pool. Bella wasn't too thrilled about water in the first place. The first time she ever stood up on her own was when we attempted to submerge her feet in the kiddie pool, when she stood up and backed into Ben's lap.
Jenn standing in front of 'her' store.
Ben standing in front of 'his' store.
Arriving at the White Swan is something of an experience. We entered the first floor lobby, checked in and suddenly were in 'Babyland'. Where once there were 21 families now there were hundreds! It was exciting to be here, but at the same time we knew we would miss the intimacy of the Holiday Inn Hefei.
We arrived fairly late only to discover that Ben had run out of clean shirts, having soaked through his last T-shirt in the 90 degree weather. We quickly hit the first of many, many shops outside the 'back' door of the White Swan and bought a new T-shirt. We were a bit hungry as well, and just down the streets was a restaurant we'd been reading about for a while, Lucy's! Lucy's, we had read, was a great break from the traveling norm, and served a variety of western dishes. I will say this now to any future travelers - do not eat there! The service was awful, the food left very much to be desired and four people ended up getting very sick from it, Ben included!
There are plenty of other great places to eat in Guangzhou, including ordering from Danny's Bagels, which we did several times. Also there's the Cow and Bridge, a great Thai place. There's also a 7/11 right outside the hotel doors which offers bottled water and snacks of all sorts.
A typical street scene in Guangzhou, by the White Swan. If you step out the 'back' doors of the hotel, and cross the street, this is what you'll see!
We became quite friendly with Lisa, who ran the China Doll. We'd stop in every day just to chat and made quite a few purchases there. She would even remember our names and call hello to us as we walked past the shop each day. She's also quite the saleswoman! To Lisa's right is a woman working on a marble engraving.
Our first impressions of Guangzhou were shops, babies and 5 star hotel elegance. We'd never seen a 3 story indoor waterfall in a hotel before! Interestingly, our rooms were a bit smaller than in Hefei and instead of a king size bed we had two singles. At that point it didn't really matter to us much though, for the first time on our trip we had a hotel with a spectacular view, of the Pearl River.
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