It's almost 6 here in Guangzhou, where the sun and the haze have a special, longterm relationship.
My daughters have fallen asleep for late afternoon naps, my HSH is down in the gym, because he if he is to single-handedly bring sexy back, he's got to be up to the challenge. Zee and Smiley are next door, probably contemplating a trip to a discotheque or to a traditional Chinese medicine estabishment where they can get full-body massages with all their clothes on.
(Tip to Western travellers: Don't take off your clothes when the masseuse enters the room, because you will frighten her or him.)
Today was a free day - a sight-seeing day. I will let HSH post the photos to his podcasty bloggy thing, and I'll link to it later. But we had so much fun.
Our guide Lucia - a 20-something superstylish woman with the aforementioned sparkly jeans and two or three cellphones - took us to Six Banyan Tree temple, a Buddhist temple in Guangzhou that features the largest Buddha in Guangdong Province. And there are three of those Buddhas - Sakyamuni Past, Sakyamuni Present, and Sakyamuni Future, like the Buddhist ghosts that famously visited Ebenezer Scrooge on the eve of Chinese New Year.
As we did when we adopted Bee, we asked the monk on duty to give us a blessing. HSH, Bee, Miao-Miao and I took off our shoes (MM was fast asleep, actually, and did not take off her shoes) and we followed the monk to the carpet in front of Sakyamuni, where we knelt down. He stood by the altar and drummed on a little wooden instrument and chanted a blessing. Bee was a little worried that the giant Buddhas might fall on us, but I assured her they wouldn't.
It was a moving and very spiritual experience - right up until the moment the monk's cell phone rang, and he turned and told us the blessing was over. Then the experience became moving, spiritual and completely awesome.
After the temple, we went to a local supermarket (Carrefour) to buy fruit (HSH and Smiley) and shampoo (Zee) and glittery pink lipstick (Me - if my comparatively giant American pants can't sparkle, at least my lips can).
Then we all piled back into the van to make our reservations at a very popular local restaurant, where we had a room reserved and we ordered traditional Cantonese dishes. The chicken and the fish both appeared at the table with their heads intact. Thankfully, the spicy beef and pepper dish was head-free. The brocolli and mushroom and noodle dishes Lucia ordered for my sake were very delicious. I also enjoyed some of the peppers from the beef dish.
Back at the hotel, HSH took Bee to the pool, and the rest of us ventured off to the Guangzhou version of Starbucks, which is called Blendz. Zee and Smiley checked their email, and MM and I ate tiramisu and drank mochaccino (me) and practiced wobbly walking (her).
MM is even more insistent today that she maintain bodily contact with me at all times. As long as she has that, she is happy. She's not comfortable with the use of strollers, high chairs or other (white) people to entertain her, although she will happy allow Chinese women to hold her for brief periods before she wants to come back to me.
She is warming up more to HSH. He fed her this morning, and she spent an extended period of time with him at breakfast.
She has been a little more fussy today, which may mean she's getting more comfortable with us. Or it may mean she's getting more constipated.
But even so, she is just dreamy. She smiles all the time and plays games and gives high fives. This morning, she blew a kiss to HSH.
She's just amazing and beautiful and funny and completely irresistible.
And this trip has been so much fun.
Tomorrow, we go to a children's park in Guangzhou, a department store for shoes for the girls, and to the pearl market, where we can be hounded by merchants.
Annika loved the hand sanitizer photos! She has that exact same kind, which is like the Chanel no. 5 of the germ-free hands world. According to Anni. Plus, everyone is adorable. Baby and New Big Sis especially.
Posted by: moreena | December 08, 2006 at 11:10 PM