Day 7, Pearl Market Sucked, Great Friends Rock, and some good poo-poo
Ok, so the pearl market was a bust. This place is like a mini-indoor mall. 5 or 6 floors of semi precious stones (no diamonds) all the same all in large plastic bags with guys sleeping on the bags in some stores. Supposedly this is the wholesale market for all the pearls in China. The river by the island is called the Pearl River. I can’t figure out if it’s because of this mall or the mall has its name because of the river. Either way it was really a waste of time with the exception that Christe found one of jingly bell bracelets that she wanted for London.
When we landed yesterday the tarmac looked wet. As a matter of fact, the whole countryside looked wet. We had been told it had been raining and that the heat was supposed to have cooled off by about 10-15 degrees F. We’ve been lucky since our last day in Beijing, we really haven’t seen much rain. We were told that we are in the rainy season, which amounts to the last two weeks in July and the first two weeks in August. Do we have great timing or what?
Just prior to leaving everyone going said, “hey don’t forget your umbrellas” so I went to the concierge to borrow two very nice umbrellas from the hotel. When I got back downstairs our local guide said you don’t need those the pearl market is indoors. So I left ours on the bus.
When it was time to go, we all met at the requested spot and we were to walk back to the bus. This of course was 600 yards from the front door of the mall to the bus, and it was pouring rain. This was not like the constant solid rain we saw in Beijing. This was typhoon strong pouring rain. All of the locals seemed to be waiting out under awnings watching the foreign idiots walking back to their bus.
Which brings me to the part about the stroller. We were told, AND IT’S TRUE, you can litterly walk out the back of the hotel onto a street where there are a half dozen shops with names like Linda’s or Kelley’s or Kristen’s and the like. Here you just walk in (you don’t have to buy anything – they do like when you bring your laundry to them –) and ask to borrow a stroller. They say sure, hook you up with one and you are on your way.
Sidebar, I don’t suggest you bring a stroller with you to China, spend the first week just carrying or hip hammock-ing your baby about, then when it’s time to shop, get a stroller. Some of the girls loved ‘em and others really didn’t like them. Peggy (our coordinator) said that the Chinese don’t put their babies in strollers so it’s just one more way you will stick out. I don’t feel like I stick out as much here in Guangzhou.
Now back to the rain. Luckily someone in the group had an extra umbrella with them, so Christe and baby had one. Little good it did though, this rain was blinding. Back at the hotel (it has stopped raining during the ten minute ride back) it was off with the wet clothes. I had carried the stroller in the rain and this thing was soaked. I took it back to Jennifer’s and said “This stroller is all wet, can I have another one?” they said yes and I gave them my laundry. Them seemed very happy for the exchange.
For those of you who don’t quite know how to pick out the perfect stroller, don’t worry it’s easy. With all the choices you’re presented with, just follow a few simple rules. Number One, look for one with wheels. Wheels make the ‘strolling’ part of the stroller work. Number two; get one with some sort of handle on top, close to your waist. This will enable you to push the stroller, rather than you having to lean down and pull the thing, which I find very uncomfortable. Most important is Number Three, which is selecting the best brand. The brands are very different in China. They have Goodbaby in several different Chinese spellings but from my experience don’t worry about the brand. Just look for the big tag with a baby in a bowler. Because nothing says “This is the best damn stroller money can buy!” like a baby in a bowler! Everyone knows a smart baby wears a bowler. A baby with a bowler is very worldly. He’s traveled. He knows his hat choices and he chose the bowler! That’s right, you know the jingle, sing along, “For a great stroller, just look for the baby with a bowler…………bowler hat on that is!”
On a more serious note, Christe and I fell victim to our first Chinese scheme. Since the day we got London we’ve been listening to the other parents in the group tell us horror stories. Three babies had to go to the hospital in Changsha and get IV’s (in their head!). And most of them were told by the hospital to come back 2 more times, for a total of 3 trips for 3 IV’s and I guess it takes about 3 hours per IV. Then when we got to Guangzhou another few couples told us they took their kids to the clinic in the hotel (very much recommended over a trip to the hospital – traveler take note!) and their babies have bronchitis and then another mother or two told us their girls have pink eye! London had some eye redness and a cough and looked thirsty and her shoes were too big and she doesn’t like her daddy as well as her mommy so that’s it! WE WENT TO THE CLINIC!
You read correctly, we fell victim to the “my kid must be sick too” scam. I call it a scam because I think that when you are inundated with 8 of 11 families telling you their kid required medical treatment you MUST be a crap parent for not noticing all the things wrong with yours.
On the upside we saw a doctor (I think) and she said ours had bronchitis, as well and gave us some stuff (for lack of a better word) and Christe was able to ask about the baby poo-poo tea. The clinic had some and it works wonders! I guess it’s sweet and babies love it and so has London. She’s had two bottles and Christe says the poo is getting softer and more frequent.
Also the stuff we are giving London is supposed to be mixed up in some liquid and given all at once. I don’t however think the word ‘drugs’ in the USA really has the same meaning as in China when those ‘drugs’ come from the doctor but in China they liked to grind stuff up and fold them up into little paper envelopes and then give it to you in a little baggie, so I’ll just let draw your own conclusions.
Now for the cool part of the day, we finally met up with Tom, Andrea, Greg and Cami. We found that Lucy’s diner (pretty decent American food) had my wife’s favorite beer. It also has the best chicken congee ever. All the babies loved it. Not to go into to fine a detail on this but I grove on this group. They are phenomenal. Each of us bring something different table, and I didn’t realize how much I missed them last week.
The only bad part about having all six of us together is the six different opinions that arise as to what is the best to do for the night. I wanted to check out the hotel band. As a matter of fact I saw the picture and well I want to join this band. Clearly by their picture, they no how to ROCK! Or at least they know how to look like they know how to look when they are trying to look like they can rock!
Oh well on the way back I ran across my daily winner for the best footwear choice in China. I know I haven’t been putting these up because they require pictures to be appreciated and you can’t always run up behind someone and snap a shot of their footwear without drawing the wrong kind of attention. I know this is a bit blurry but this fine individual is wearing a pair of socks and some fine non matching shoes that look to be some sort of cow print. I do believe these are fuzzy as well.
So please enjoy the pic, marvel at it for hours but not to be outdone or at least not to have London not fit in, in her own home country, when we got home for the night we suited our girl up in some non matching socks as well.
Signing off from China, “Mr I don’t have a soar throat but now I have a real sneeze and cough”
P.S. Here is the picture of the poo-poo tea.
When we landed yesterday the tarmac looked wet. As a matter of fact, the whole countryside looked wet. We had been told it had been raining and that the heat was supposed to have cooled off by about 10-15 degrees F. We’ve been lucky since our last day in Beijing, we really haven’t seen much rain. We were told that we are in the rainy season, which amounts to the last two weeks in July and the first two weeks in August. Do we have great timing or what?
Just prior to leaving everyone going said, “hey don’t forget your umbrellas” so I went to the concierge to borrow two very nice umbrellas from the hotel. When I got back downstairs our local guide said you don’t need those the pearl market is indoors. So I left ours on the bus.
When it was time to go, we all met at the requested spot and we were to walk back to the bus. This of course was 600 yards from the front door of the mall to the bus, and it was pouring rain. This was not like the constant solid rain we saw in Beijing. This was typhoon strong pouring rain. All of the locals seemed to be waiting out under awnings watching the foreign idiots walking back to their bus.
Which brings me to the part about the stroller. We were told, AND IT’S TRUE, you can litterly walk out the back of the hotel onto a street where there are a half dozen shops with names like Linda’s or Kelley’s or Kristen’s and the like. Here you just walk in (you don’t have to buy anything – they do like when you bring your laundry to them –) and ask to borrow a stroller. They say sure, hook you up with one and you are on your way.
Sidebar, I don’t suggest you bring a stroller with you to China, spend the first week just carrying or hip hammock-ing your baby about, then when it’s time to shop, get a stroller. Some of the girls loved ‘em and others really didn’t like them. Peggy (our coordinator) said that the Chinese don’t put their babies in strollers so it’s just one more way you will stick out. I don’t feel like I stick out as much here in Guangzhou.
Now back to the rain. Luckily someone in the group had an extra umbrella with them, so Christe and baby had one. Little good it did though, this rain was blinding. Back at the hotel (it has stopped raining during the ten minute ride back) it was off with the wet clothes. I had carried the stroller in the rain and this thing was soaked. I took it back to Jennifer’s and said “This stroller is all wet, can I have another one?” they said yes and I gave them my laundry. Them seemed very happy for the exchange.
For those of you who don’t quite know how to pick out the perfect stroller, don’t worry it’s easy. With all the choices you’re presented with, just follow a few simple rules. Number One, look for one with wheels. Wheels make the ‘strolling’ part of the stroller work. Number two; get one with some sort of handle on top, close to your waist. This will enable you to push the stroller, rather than you having to lean down and pull the thing, which I find very uncomfortable. Most important is Number Three, which is selecting the best brand. The brands are very different in China. They have Goodbaby in several different Chinese spellings but from my experience don’t worry about the brand. Just look for the big tag with a baby in a bowler. Because nothing says “This is the best damn stroller money can buy!” like a baby in a bowler! Everyone knows a smart baby wears a bowler. A baby with a bowler is very worldly. He’s traveled. He knows his hat choices and he chose the bowler! That’s right, you know the jingle, sing along, “For a great stroller, just look for the baby with a bowler…………bowler hat on that is!”
On a more serious note, Christe and I fell victim to our first Chinese scheme. Since the day we got London we’ve been listening to the other parents in the group tell us horror stories. Three babies had to go to the hospital in Changsha and get IV’s (in their head!). And most of them were told by the hospital to come back 2 more times, for a total of 3 trips for 3 IV’s and I guess it takes about 3 hours per IV. Then when we got to Guangzhou another few couples told us they took their kids to the clinic in the hotel (very much recommended over a trip to the hospital – traveler take note!) and their babies have bronchitis and then another mother or two told us their girls have pink eye! London had some eye redness and a cough and looked thirsty and her shoes were too big and she doesn’t like her daddy as well as her mommy so that’s it! WE WENT TO THE CLINIC!
You read correctly, we fell victim to the “my kid must be sick too” scam. I call it a scam because I think that when you are inundated with 8 of 11 families telling you their kid required medical treatment you MUST be a crap parent for not noticing all the things wrong with yours.
On the upside we saw a doctor (I think) and she said ours had bronchitis, as well and gave us some stuff (for lack of a better word) and Christe was able to ask about the baby poo-poo tea. The clinic had some and it works wonders! I guess it’s sweet and babies love it and so has London. She’s had two bottles and Christe says the poo is getting softer and more frequent.
Also the stuff we are giving London is supposed to be mixed up in some liquid and given all at once. I don’t however think the word ‘drugs’ in the USA really has the same meaning as in China when those ‘drugs’ come from the doctor but in China they liked to grind stuff up and fold them up into little paper envelopes and then give it to you in a little baggie, so I’ll just let draw your own conclusions.
Now for the cool part of the day, we finally met up with Tom, Andrea, Greg and Cami. We found that Lucy’s diner (pretty decent American food) had my wife’s favorite beer. It also has the best chicken congee ever. All the babies loved it. Not to go into to fine a detail on this but I grove on this group. They are phenomenal. Each of us bring something different table, and I didn’t realize how much I missed them last week.
The only bad part about having all six of us together is the six different opinions that arise as to what is the best to do for the night. I wanted to check out the hotel band. As a matter of fact I saw the picture and well I want to join this band. Clearly by their picture, they no how to ROCK! Or at least they know how to look like they know how to look when they are trying to look like they can rock!
Oh well on the way back I ran across my daily winner for the best footwear choice in China. I know I haven’t been putting these up because they require pictures to be appreciated and you can’t always run up behind someone and snap a shot of their footwear without drawing the wrong kind of attention. I know this is a bit blurry but this fine individual is wearing a pair of socks and some fine non matching shoes that look to be some sort of cow print. I do believe these are fuzzy as well.
So please enjoy the pic, marvel at it for hours but not to be outdone or at least not to have London not fit in, in her own home country, when we got home for the night we suited our girl up in some non matching socks as well.
Signing off from China, “Mr I don’t have a soar throat but now I have a real sneeze and cough”
P.S. Here is the picture of the poo-poo tea.
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