July 28, 2011

Time to leave Guangzhou!  We left our hotel at 9:00 am to get to the train station.  Have we mentioned there are people here in China?  Crowds everywhere!  So we had to go through immigration to leave Guangzhou.  Paying attention to what train was being loaded was a little stressful - but not bad.  A porter helped us find the right car and we were able to find a spot for the luggage.  The train was nice - a lot like Amtrak.  We settled in for the two hour ride.  We brought our sandwiches with so when Kristi started to complain about being hungry we brought out the food.  The views were interesting - such a mix of the modern and the primitive.  We had a half hour delay before we could get into the Hong Kong train station so parked in one spot for a while.  I think in the three hours we were on the train we probably visited the bathroom about 5 times (one of Kristi's favorite things to do when she is bored is to tell us she has to use the bathroom).  Once we arrived at the Hong Kong station, we had to go through immigration again.  Kristi put up a fuss about holding our hand walking from the train to immigration.  She does not think she should have to hold our hand - but with so many people crowding around, we insisted.  She was definitely less than polite with her response. 

Once through immigration, we exchanged money from yuan to the Hong Kong dollar and then stood in line for a taxi.  The views from the taxi as we drove through Hong Kong were fantastic.  Such a modern city - beautiful skyscrapers, harbors full of boats, and again more people!  The driving here was a little less chaotic - less cars randomly pulling over everywhere and no bikes in the traffic lanes.  The great spans of bridges were very impressive.  A support for one bridge was three card lengths wide.  After about a 40 minute taxi ride (during which Kristi fell asleep - a first for her!) we arrived at our hotel - the airport Marriott - around 3:00.  It was a gorgeous hotel set on the South Seas.  The view from our room was wonderful.

Later that afternoon we took the shuttle over to the airport to check out which terminal we were flying out of and to find the Delta desk.  Unfortunately we went during the black hour (4-5 pm) during which Kristi is never happy.  We again had a tantrum over holding hands and not buying snacks, so we headed back to the hotel.  We checked out the beautiful pool, but Kristi was adamant that she did not want to go swimming.  We had an early night in anticipation of our endless day of travel.