Anyhow, when you're flying, the amount of luggage isn't TOO big of a deal. You pack it in the car, then get a cart to wheel it all on once at the airport, then check it in at the gate. Done! We, however, traveled by train from Beijing to Tiayuan. So make a mental picture of Quin and I with our backpacks stuffed full each carting around two huge 50 pound bags and our kids with their own big backpacks rolling the carryons behind them all through the Beijing train station. As if we weren't spectacles enough! Plus the train stations are VERY Chinese. I think most tourists fly. I didn't see anyone other than Chinese people there. And do you think the Chinese have ever heard of an elevator? Certainly not in the train stations! At least there was an escalator, but have you ever tried hauling two big, heavy rolling suitcases at a time down a narrow escalator by yourself? No? Well, I don't recommend it. It's a challenge to say the least! And then when you finally make it on the train, you have to fight for a spot for the luggage. We weren't the first on the train, and all the spots were taken. It was a nightmare! The train workers had to ask people to move their luggage and find a spot for all our beastly suitcases! We're a practical circus freak show by this point! I have to say, though, that I know my prayers have been answered time and time again today. I was a nervous wreck about getting all this luggage from the hotel to the train station (we had two taxis, and the luggage was practically hanging out the window still) to the train and back to a hotel. Every step of the way worked out. I know we were being watched over today!
The train ride was great. The landscape changed from busy city to flat farmland to gorgeous mountains. Such fun to watch the world change as we near our son! The only damper on our great train ride was that right before we left Beijing, we realized there was a problem with our hotel reservation for Tiayuan. It's been a challenge to book hotel rooms for this trip because we are required to have TWO hotel rooms in every city. They don't have rooms like in the states that are two queen beds. It's a law that only two people (three at the most) can occupy a hotel room. So we, of course, want adjoining rooms. This is difficult to explain in English to native Chinese speakers over the phone. We spent many nights leading up to our trip doing just that, and we thought we were good. We realized literally minutes before we needed to leave our hotel room in Beijing that there was a problem with the room we booked in Tiayuan, and there was only one bed in the suite. Quin quickly called the hotel, and the price doubled with the dinky room they added on! It was going to be over $600 a night! We were so stressed out the whole train ride about what we were going to do! I was praying over and over and over that a solution would be found and that we would get a hotel room that would work for our family at a price that wouldn't cause us problems. As a sidenote, all spending in China has to be in cash. They don't accept credit cards here. So the cash we have is all we have to spend.
We arrived in Tiayuan and I knew our guide! She comes highly recommended from the Shanxi adoption Facebook group I'm in! I was so relieved. We quickly told her our hotel problem, and she was on the phone in seconds. She told us it was taken care of and we'd be staying at a different hotel than planned. We piled into a van and drove to the Kempinski Hotel. Our guide had to talk to several different people and had to get her boss on the phone with the Kempinski manager. I was still a nervous wreck! It took quite a while, but Quin finally gave me the thumbs up sign. We were taken care of! The adjoining rooms we needed were found and available! I'm SO relieved! I once again felt like our prayers were answered in a big way. We have an enormous suite and a huge adjoining room! And we are only paying $300 total a night, which is a major bargain for a nice, huge hotel room in China!
Here are some pictures of our massive room! This is the sectional couch in the living room of the executive suite!
This is the TV in the living room.
The powder room. Yeah, there's a powder room in our hotel room! We have a total of three toilets!
The kids' room. Seriously. Gorgeous and HUGE!
The kids' bathroom.
The bathtub in the kids' bathroom.
And the shower in their bathroom.
Another view from the living room.
The master suite!
Master bath. And there are two huge walk-in closets with and an additional smaller closet. I'm telling you, this place has more space than our house! It's AMAZING!!
We unpacked all of our bags since we've been living out of a suitcase for over a week now. It is so nice to have it all laid out and see what we brought and to be able to access everything. And even though hauling the luggage was a massive pain, I couldn't help but feel really grateful for the decision to bring it all! It's such a relief to still have so many clean clothes!! I would bring just as much again in a heartbeat!
We got all unpacked and settled, then noticed our son was more excited to spread out than any of us. He invented a game called "creeping". He was hiding in crazy spots and just waited for people to find him. It was so funny! And he'd do a weird pose in each spot. I had to take pictures :)
He's posing in this picture ^ like the boy Kung Fu monk from the Kung Fu show. Haha!
It gave us quite the giggle this afternoon!
The only downside to this hotel room is that it smells faintly of smoke. At first I didn't think that would be an issue, and it was such a hassle and ordeal to get the room in the first place that I didn't say anything. After being here a while, though, it's starting to give me quite a headache. I don't even know if non-smoking rooms exist here, though. Everywhere we've gone in Tiayuan has spelled of smoke. Even the lobby of the hotel. Yuck! There is no smell in the world I hate worse. It's starting to stick in the back of my throat and I can taste it. I need to just get over it, though, because there's nothing to be done about it at this point. I know we got a really good deal on the room through our guide, too, so I just need to suck it up and be thankful. Soon it will be just another funny memory of our experience in China!
Here is Ewan's stuff all ready to go!! I can't wait!!
We started to get hungry this evening and decided to go check out the executive lounge since we can eat there for free. All the lounges we've tried in the past in China have had a mix of Western and Chinese food. We got up there, though, and realized there was absolutely nothing we could eat. It was super awkward because we were the only ones there and the ladies working there were trying everything to make it great for us. They were so darling, and we felt awful not eating anything!! We got a few scoops of fried rice and hoped they wouldn't notice. Well, they did. We had to make up a lie about how we already ate and just wanted a snack. Even the kids kept saying they wish they could eat something so the nice ladies wouldn't feel bad! We left the lounge and realized we needed to change some money. Quin went to the lobby to do that, and by now it was getting pretty late. To be honest, we were all in the mood for American food. We just needed it. Quin looked up McDonald's online. It said there was one within 9 minutes walking distance. We left our hotel and my heart started racing. The traffic here is out of control and we had to cross a huge, busy street right off the bat. It was SO, SO scary!!! After heading in the direction we thought was right, we realized we were wrong. It was starting to get dark and late and we just needed some food. We went into a shopping center, and I again began praying that we would find something we could eat. We wandered around on several levels and it wasn't looking promising. I had a panic feeling in my gut. We brought snacks for such an occasion, but we hadn't had lunch either because we were on the train ride. We really needed a good meal. Just as my panic was really growing, I noticed a restaurant out of the corner of my eye. The only pictures it had on the outside were of Chinese food, so I was hesitant. I thought I heard the lady out front saying "pizza" in her thick Chinese accent, though. We asked to see a menu, and it was an Italian restaurant!!!! I can't even explain the relief! We were seated amidst many, many staring eyes. This is not a tourist area. It's just a random Chinese city, and they must not be used to seeing people from anywhere other than China. It felt like we were on show! The thing is, I didn't even care. My daughter ordered spaghetti, my son ordered lasagna, and Quin and I ordered a Hawaiian pizza (after we asked them to leave off the bananas that were in the picture). It was DELICIOUS!!! There was American music playing in the background, and it felt like home. It was such a nice getaway for a few minutes! Sometimes you just need something familiar, and this really hit the spot! I asked for bottled water, but they came back with boiling hot water like they drink here. Everyone else ordered a soda, but I haven't had soda in 8 months and I really don't want to start again now. I decided to just have no drink. We will for sure be going back to this restaurant, and now I'll know to bring along my own water bottle.
I wrote the rest of this post last night, and now it's Monday morning. Our guide is picking us at 2:00 pm to go meet Ewan. I am a bundle of nerves and excitement! I couldn't sleep past 5:00 am. I'm just too anxious! The next post will be our gotcha post!! EEEEKKKK!!!
awsome adventure ! ;)
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