Paradise Found: Change of plans

Day #6 Metro to Summer Palace, taxies back to hotel, taxies to airport, delayed flight to Guangzhou, bus to no where, ride to hotel from a stranger

We were flying from Beijing to Guangzhou in the afternoon. It rained early in the morning, but stopped long enough for us to hit another tourist destination and view the Summer Palace before catching our flight. The landscape was beautiful, but the battery on my Nikon died (and no charger), so most of the rest of my pictures were taken with my point and shoot or Xiaojun’s Canon.

Xiaojun and I didn’t plan this, but we love our boys in pink. (Miles’s shirt is from his Grandma, so he loves it too.)

Don’t ask. I don’t know what I was trying to tell our photographer to do.

Even the local security men have to pause and take notice of my gorgeous family.

Lars was getting the hang of sleeping-on-the-go, and Lyla learned to leave him alone long enough for him to get some good shut-eye.

Another taxi. Miles is a lover of all things that he can ride in, but even he was getting bored with all the taxies and subways.

Much of the food in China is cooked in peanut oil or has some form of nuts in the ingredients. My handsome and manly husband is deathly allergic to nuts. Once we made it to the airport, we searched for a safe place for him to have a bite to eat. The rest of us ate at a noodle joint. Luke wasn’t happy with anything he saw, so he decided to play it safe and eat his favorite thing… ice cream. We were just about to start boarding when Luke got the familiar tickling and throat swelling reaction that we know is caused by him ingesting a nut. The ice cream must have been contaminated by some form of nut. He raced to the bathroom to wash out his mouth (which does nothing at this point because it’s already in his blood stream). We had been smart enough to pack a few EpiPens and he was carrying one in our carry on backpack. He plunged the needle of epinephrine into is thigh, attempted to take a few deep breaths, and boarded our flight. It was a scary moment, but he avoided going into anaphylactic shock and didn’t need any other assistance, and we continued on our way.

We’ve been through this many times before when Luke accidentally ingests a nut. It happens far too often in my opinion. If he doesn’t have an EpiPen, we immediately need to get to a hospital where he gets emergency care and monitored for a day or 2. We’ve had to foot the bill too many times. We’ve learned that we can save ourselves time and money if we use the EpiPen ourselves and then wait it out. We know it’s risky, and I’m scared for him every time, but what could we do while in China?? We survived.

Our 3 hour flight turned into 4.5 hours because of rain in Guangzhou.

The delay ruined the rest of our travel plans for the night. It was late when we landed. We had hoped to take a shuttle to the train and on to Hong Kong. The shuttle didn’t run this late and there wasn’t anyway for us to make it to the Hong Kong customs office before they closed at midnight. So now what? It’s raining, after bedtime, and everyone is tired.

We found a bus that could get us close to the train station. Fingers crossed that when the bus dropped us off (it dropped us off at a curb, no building, no porch, nothing) we could then find a taxi to take us to a hotel for the night. It was pouring down rain!

No taxies. Nothing. But a stranger in a sedan. For the right price, he said he would take us to a hotel. He would have to make 2 trips to take all of us and our luggage. As Tommy and Luke sent Xiaojun and I and 4 of the kids off with this man, I was very hesitant. Really? You’re just going to let this stranger take off with your wife and kids?? We didn’t have any other option. We were soaking wet and had no other mode of transportation.

This is the car pulling up to the hotel with the 2nd load. This stranger did us a great favor and we compensated him well.