Today was another travel day for us. Quite a whirlwind one, too. The Hyatt Regency Sha Tin was nice enough to give us a late checkout so we didn’t have to sit in the lobby for two hours awaiting the shuttle. After another generous helping of breakfast, we packed and left for the airport. Joey (pictured on the right) was there with the shuttle to check on us and give us our sendoff from Hong Kong. She’s a very nice lady.

Our next destination was Nanning, the capital city of Guangxi. This is the province that Alexis will come from. Her home town is about two and half hours outside of Nanning in a place called Yulin City. They consider it small since it only has about 1.5 million residents. Really? Small?

The Hong Kong Airlines flight was quick. We made it to Nanning in just a little over an hour. That was enough time to get some cookies and water on the flight. Not much else. We followed the crowd through immigration and then customs. Or was it the other way around. Regardless, we made it through. Our passports were checked twice and then while we were in line with our luggage awaiting the final scan to leave the airport, a guard came and checked them again. Guess we stood out a little in the crowd.

As soon as we got our luggage past the last scanners, we saw the smiling face of David, another CCAI employee. He was as excited to see us as we were to see him. He suggested on last restroom break before we took the 45 minute ride to the hotel. This was Monica’s first run-in with the dreaded “squatty potty.” She decided to stand in line and await the one western styled stall. I don’t blame her.

The drive to the hotel was a fairly quick one, but I have to say, that’s the most horn honking I’ve ever experienced on a road. I asked David would they be able to still drive if their horns broke. Laughing incredulously, David said it would be tough.  I believe him. Watching traffic here seems like a symphony of near misses, and nobody is mad about it. Interesting.

We had enough time to check into the hotel and meet the other family who is here to adopt a little boy from a nearby orphanage. It’s their second adoption from China. It wasn’t long before we headed off to dinner at McDonald’s.  It was about a 20 minute walk each way. We should have just stayed at the hotel. The jetlag combined with the day of travel and the heat and humidity of Nanning made me miserable. I ate my Big Mac (which didn’t have a familiar flavor) and fries and drank as much of the warm Coke (no ice since it is the not so good water system) that I could before realizing I needed a chocolate sundae to cool me off. That helped. It gave me enough of a boost to get back to the hotel anyway.

The hotel room air conditioning would not go below 25 degrees C. That’s about 77 F and the humidity made it seem hotter. That might explain these odd safety kits )pictured to the left) in the closet that seemed to protect you from either heat or a gas attack.  As tired as I am, though, I need to get in enough hours of sleep to make it through. Tomorrow is the big day: Gotcha Day.

I also have to do something about the AC, though.