Greetings from Guangzhou

We arrived in Guangzhou late last night. It was one heck of a trip, let me tell you. Our flight had to be delayed because of bad weather. Max and Lucy were great travelers, so no problem there. But, it was an interesting trip. First of all there were around 1,000 babies on the flight. Okay, that's an exaggeration, there were about 22. Apparently it's not safe to take a flight with so many babies on board, I think it has to do with oxygen masks, if needed. Marc and I prefer to believe that the flight attendants would go nuts with more than 20 screaming babies on board, so that's why they have the limit. Regardless, the airport shared that 2 babies had to de-plane, but their parents got to go with them. Then after the 2 babies and parents de-planed, the flight attendants had to rearrange everyone's seats. That's when it got ugly. The Chinese are very passionate people so many of them started arguing. Then they began arguing with the flight attendants. It was very interesting, to say the least. After an hour or so, the plane pulled away from the loading dock, then just sat. Bad weather again, so we had to sit for another hour. The flight attendants passed our food and beverages, so it was alright. At 8:30 our flight finally departed for Guangzhou. Max and Lucy promptly fell asleep. We arrived in Guangzhou at 10:00 and Michael was there to pick us up. Awesome guy! He told us it is not uncommon for the Chinese to argue during a flight and do so often with flight attendants and pilots.

We are now staying at the Victory Hotel on Shamian Island in Guangzhou. After Nanchang, the island feels like a tranquil oasis. It has a feel of European Colonialism with old buildings and wonderful parks, and trees. We don't fear getting run over by cars or buses like in Nanchang. It is simply beautiful. Most of the people on the island speak English and there is plenty of shopping to do. Hurray! Some retail therapy!