Speaking of Wei Wei, she is battling a mean tummy bubble right now - poor little girl. Mom has her more relaxed and comfortable - at least the screaming is over.
Today we were treated to a sunny day and almost clear skies. Being such a large city, Guangzhou is frequently smoggy - and yes, China's environmental controls are not the best. So we climbed up to the roof of the Holiday Inn to take in the view:
We then headed out for some Saturday shopping - along with thousands of other people!
This is out the left of the hotel entrance into the "mall" area that is built into the base of the building which houses the Holiday Inn:
Today's special tables were hot steamed crabs and crawfish for snacking on one side and bras (3 for about $1.50 - I now have Lisa's next 57 birthday presents all covered!) on the other side.
If you turn right out the main entrance of the hotel, you have "pet alley" and the DVD stands (Slumdog Millionaire is available despite still being in theatres!).
Pet alley is huge. There must be 50 shops and umbrella stands down this zigzagging road (zigs to the right in the below picture) selling dogs, cats, fish, turtles, and birds. I took this view from the 12th floor of the hotel:
Also note the basketball court at the lower right of the picture. Basketball courts are EVERYWHERE thanks to Yao Ming.
And trust me, these are PETS...the foodstuffs are a few blocks away (e.g. larger turtles there, to go with dried seahorses, dried/skewered lizards, snakeskins, starfish, various fungi...all this makes for a fascinating bowl of soup, I am sure).
We hit a nice restaurant for lunch and were the only non-asians in there. They were very friendly and accommodating people and actually produced a menu with pictures and some English words!
It was a lot of fun but I admit we were not terribly brave and went with fried noodles and cashew shrimp (some of their chicken dishes feature the fried head - it seems to be common in these neighborhoods). They kindly kept our tea cups full of hot jasmine tea which really refreshes the palate.
Wei Wei likes fried noodles! Come to think of it - I hope that is not why her tummy was upset?
She is sleeping soundly now (so is mom).
Now, in my comments, I do not intend to make fun of Chinese cuisine but rather to point out the variation in tastes. I am sure that "nachos" must be considered quite weird to some cultures - but I love them! And only in the USA do you find fried twinkies...and what other culture would touch even the unfried twinkies!? So, please believe me that I do not want to be hypocritical.
Reminds me that Lisa and I had bowls of soup the other day in that the broth tasted good - but we had no idea what was on the bottom of the bowl. It was big colored lumps...I got no clue! So, I admit again I was not brave enough to try but we finished the fine broth. Lisa has really stretched herself on this trip - I have been impressed.
My personal rule is that if I ask someone what it is - I am then committed to tasting it to avoid offense. Sometimes they answer and I still don't know - and I taste it anyway. Some of the dumplings are a little different but taste pretty good. If it is in a steamer and wrapped in dough - how bad could it be! But yes, I have seen some things that I was too cowardly to ask about.
We got through to the boys (with Grandpa's help) on Skype today. The big brothers were all calling out to Wei Wei in hopes of getting her to respond but she just wanted to push buttons on the laptop. Thad asked three times when we were bringing "my baby sister" home. We may have a problem!
Jeremiah gave me grief for trying the fried squid with orange sauce the other night - without him. That's my boy!
It was a great visit and made us feel much better as we've been worried about the younger two boys and missing all three terribly.
The haggling was somewhat successful today in that the boys now have a few treats in our suitcase. I can't say what it is because Seth (who's doing a great job looking after his brothers) has been reading this blog.
good night from Guangzhou,
the three of us
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