New York Fries, Chinese Water Slides, and our first Doctor Visit

A couple of weeks ago, the Galaxy Resort (pictured above at the top of the blog) opened up after years of construction and roadblocks. Prior to opening, the website listed the food court as having a New York Fries! You can't fathom the excitement and energy making its way through the expat community here in Macau. This was unbelievable news and we quickly had to make a trip to the new resort for some poutine! One evening we headed to the Galaxy (Un Ho) and Amanda, Kylisha, Carly and Kelly dipped into the poutine fairly quickly. Erin opted for some green curry (since she misses it so much) and I went with some Pho and spring rolls. I figure I have the rest of my life in North America to eat french fries! Kaidyn devoured the usual......some McDonalds! There is also a Subway opening up soon on our island! Gill announced that the sign is up, so it shouldn't be long before it opens!

Last weekend we headed to Zhuhai with the Hildefranklins to experience our first Chinese waterpark. I didn't even know there was one until earlier in the week, so I didn't know what to expect. I checked out the website earlier in the week and it looked pretty sweet, but pictures can be deceiving. We arrived at the park at around 11 AM and it was a scorcher already! We proceeded to get the lay of the land and search for some lounge chairs, but totally weird, there were only around 15 lounge chairs all together in the shade! Not very typical of a waterpark. Anyways we snagged 5 of them and hit the water as fast as we could.


The park itself was actually very nice. It consisted of a wavepool, lazy river and numerous slides that did not open when the park opened, because that would just make too much sense! The slides in fact opened a couple hours after we got there.

We spent much of the afternoon hitting the wave pool and the lazy river in the blistering heat. Kaidyn was not tall enough to ride any of the slides so that was a bummer, but he still had a blast. All of the girls hit the one slide that you rode down on a double tube. Amanda and Kirsten said they used some choice words on the way down as it was apparently quite the adventure down! Poor Dane....he attempted to hit the slide and was denied by the slide attendant...."Sir, can not slide...too big". Dane was heartbroken and it would have been fine if he was a behemoth, but he is average size and apparently the slide limit is 70 kg or around 155 lbs! Too funny.

If you were to go to a waterpark or beach back home, you would see swarms of girls in bikinis flaunting their assets, but China is definitely different. Most of the females were wearing one piece suits or else something that resembled a short tank top with a skirt bottom. I guess they are too afraid of the sun! Also the men wore either speedos or really tight shorts. There were also some young boys in briefs and smaller kids had absolutely nothing on!

I almost forgot......Nearing the end of our day, really loud Eurotrash dance music started blaring out of the speakers. It was so loud you could barely hear the person next to you! The staff started throwing masks and plastic bowls into the wave pool and us foreigners had no idea what the heck was going on. Some dude started barking orders in mandarin to the crowd and all chaos broke loose...people wearing masks, water being thrown in the air with the bowls and huge fountains of water shooting up into the air from spouts in the deck! Here's what we saw....


After 10 months here, we finally had to make a visit to the doctor. Kaidyn had a cold for about 2 weeks with a cough that just wouldn't go away. We thought that was enough and I took him to the Hope Clinic this morning. The Hope Clinic is a medical clinic with western doctors. The 2 of us arrived there and it was a breath of fresh air.....absolutely no one waiting ahead of us. I hate the clinics back home where you're crammed into the waiting room and forced to wait for what seems like forever. Our doctor was a girl from Ohio that had just come here a couple months ago. She was fantastic and we were out of there in 20 minutes. She prescribed the meds and we got them right there! For the consult, antibiotics and some cough syrup, it cost me 320 MOP which is $40 CAD. In the end she figured he had a bacterial thingy going on, so hopefully he comes around quickly, plus he loves the taste of his meds! Let's hope we stay healthy and not have to visit the doctor for anything serious!

busking, the amazing race and pooping anywhere

Recently Kaidyn has decided to take up busking. I blame this on my in-laws. For some reason they felt it would be a good idea to take him to a Harley Davidson in Hong Kong and buy him a hat. Apparently it is a busking hat. Once the hat was purchased Amanda and her parents and the kids hit the subway in Hong Kong in order to go to HK Disney. While waiting for the first train Kaidyn decided to use his new purchase to make some money. He put his hat down and started to dance. Anyone who has been to Hong Kong and has used the MTR knows that it is a busy place. So, needless to say, there were plenty of potential customers. Our entrepreneurial son danced his heart out and made about thirty dollars that day. From his family. Not a single stranger put money in that Harley hat. So, the next time you see a six year old dancing his heart out in the subway, give generously. You don't want to crush a young dancer's dreams. Video coming soon.....

We were almost detained on our way home from Xi'an at the beginning of May. That might be a bit of an exaggeration. But, here's the story:

We have 6 month multi-entry visas for China. You don't need visas to go to Hong Kong or Macau (as Canadian citizens), but you do need a visa to go to China. So, we have 6 month visas in our passports and go to Zhuhai regularly. When we were planning our Easter vacation to China we heard from many people that it is way cheaper to cross the border into China in order to fly to other parts of China. It changes an International flight into a domestic flight.

So, Amanda booked our flights from Shenzhen. Shenzhen is a ferry ride away from Macau (and it connected to Hong Kong by land). You can actually take a ferry directly from Macau to the Shenzhen airport. Piece of cake. Several weeks before our departure Amanda was checking out ferry times and realized that the last ferry back from Shenzhen to Macau would be WAY after our 10 p.m. arrival time into Shenzhen from Xi'an at the end of our trip.

So, we booked a hotel in Shenzhen. We planned to arrive in Shenzhen from Xi'an at 10:30, go to our hotel for the night and then spend the following day shopping there before taking a ferry back to Macau. No problem.

But, there was a problem. We didn't realize it, but we are only allowed to stay in China for 7 days (according to our visas). Luckily we noticed this the week before we left. Our trip was to start on Saturday, April 23 and end Saturday, April 30. At first we figured that would be fine. That is a full week (7 days, right)? But, as we talked to people we started to get worried. Apparently it doesn't go by FULL 24 hour increments. It goes by the calendar days you are actually standing in their country. So, April 30th would be our 8th day in China. We had a problem.

Luckily, we had a solution. Our flight would land at 10:30 p.m. and we would take a cab to the Shenzhen/Hong Kong border. We heard it was about a 45 minute drive. It would be tight, but we could pick up our bags and make it to Hong Kong before midnight. Then we would catch a ferry from Hong Kong to Macau and be home in bed by 1 a.m. It would be rushed, but feasible.


Then the gong show started. Our flight from Xi'an was delayed! By an hour. When we finally arrived at the Shenzhen airport it was ten to twelve. We had 10 minutes to make it to the border (and it was a 45 minute drive).

Then we went out to catch a taxi and there were 3000 people ahead of us. Starting to panic. Wondered if we could trade one of the kids at the border to guarantee freedom for the rest. Or maybe they'd take Amanda's dad? He's a hard worker. He lifts heavy crap.

We get to the border and we have to carry ALL our luggage up the largest staircase known to man. There is no elevator. Or escalator. That would make too much sense. There were 8 of us (counting Kaid) and 10 large suitcases and 9 carry-ons. No one was crabby.

We came around the corner and assessed the situation. Two immigration officers. One male, one female. Easy choice-we picked the man. NEVER pick the woman! EVER! They are too thorough and right now we needed the OPPOSITE of thorough. As we stood in the immigration line we all said our good-byes to each other and prayed we would only be detained for a few months. Maybe we'd get a last telephone call before they took us to our cells. Or some dumplings. I hoped for dumplings, as it was now past 1 a.m. and I was starving!

Amanda went first. It made sense. If she was detained I could leave the bags and run with the kids. We could live underground in China forever. Kaidyn could busk and I could be a Filipina helper.

The guy took a long time. He looked at her passport, then at her. Back to the passport. Back to her. Flipped through the pages. Typed something into his computer. After what seemed like an eternity, he let her through. And then he let the kids and I through too.

So, we were officially out of China. But then we had to take a bus through no-mans land to get to the HK border crossing. After that we needed to get 3 taxis to the ferry terminal. The last ferry (we thought) left for Macau at 2 a.m. We got there at 2:01 a.m. No one was jolly at this point (except for Kaid). Thankfully, there was a 2:45 a.m. ferry (and the next one would have been at 4 a.m.)! So, we got home at almost 4 a.m. but were thankful to be home. As Amanda was putting Kaid to bed that night/morning he said it had been the best day of his life and he wished he could do it again. Lesson learned-get a visa in Canada BEFORE coming to China. Amanda's parents had visas that allowed them to stay for up to 30 days at a time! So-guess how thrilled they were to be joining us on our Amazing Race when they didn't even need to!

Kids in China don't wear diapers. Instead they wear pants with giant slits in the crotch. When a non-potty trained child needs to "go" they can conveniently squat anywhere. Brilliant. Or is it? There are a lot of kids in China who are not toilet trained. This makes for messy sidewalks. The best was at the airport in Xi'an. We were waiting at our gate and a little girl (three years old or so) walked over to the wall, squatted down and left her number one and two right there on the ground. Kaidyn was shocked. He had to go over and investigate. Then he said something that expressed how the rest of us were feeling, "Mom, why didn't that girl walk over there to the toilet?" The bathroom was literally about 10 meters away.

Hockey Night in Macau

I find it funny that I grew up playing minor hockey, but have not played since high school. I move to Macau and all of a sudden I'm playing every week! Hockey Night in Macau is every Tuesday night and is very much anticipated by our full roster.
There are actually 2 ice rinks in Macau, but only one with ice all year round. The Future Bright Amusement Center (Gei Geng) is a multi-sport rec center with bowling, arcade and ice rink. You guys back home would laugh at this rink. It is definitely not regulation size as it is a lot smaller than your standard North American rink, which is fine with us as we get older and older.

Some of the expats here have been playing weekly hockey for several years now and on a good night we get around 15 guys out for the evening. Most of the players are associated with the school, but there are also teachers from other schools, pilots and performers from the House of Dancing Water show. We always have 2 goalies and play 3 on 3. When fewer guys show up, it definitely makes for a lot of skating!

After a good game, it is not very refreshing throwing on your shorts and walking out into the 30 degree weather at 11 pm! Despite the temperature, we make sure that we replenish our fluids (as any professional athletes would) and support the official beer of HNIM, Tsing Tao for some street beers before heading home.

28. Ride in a rickshaw

While we were in Beijing, one of our to-do's was to visit the Hutongs, which are the old narrow alleys and streets in the city centre. Many people live in the Hutongs and they are rapidly being demolished to pave way for new construction. As part of our itinerary, we took a rickshaw ride through the Hutongs and even got to visit a family that lived there and see where and how they live! It was one of the highlights for me!





46 down....54 to go

Taiwan

As you know, Amanda somehow ended up oaching the Sr. Girls' Soccer team once basketball was over. Most of the girls had never played soccer before, but worked hard to learn as much as they could. The team also went on a fund-raising spree in order to raise money to offset their trip to Taiwan for the championship tournament. Our good friend Dane joined Amanda and they taught the girls the basics.

About a month ago they headed to Taiwan for the big championship. They were playing two divisions higher than the division they are actually in. This made for an interesting weekend. They ended up not getting last place which was beyond their wildest dreams. Amanda and Dane also told the girls that their goal was to win the Sportsmanship trophy. And they did.

Here's a link to the latest school newsletter (may 13) with a write-up about the tournament if you are interested:

http://www.tis.edu.mo/pdfs/newsletters/about-news_events-newsletters.asp

Amanda (once again) can't stop talking about the wonderful girls on the team (most of who were also on the basketball team). She and Kylisha are already excited for next year's season.

5. Visit Tiananmen Square

In Beijing we knew we wanted to visit Tiananmen Square. It was interesting. Amanda's dad spent his time there counting the hundreds of surveillance cameras. Kaid spent his time counting the marching soldiers. I spent my time laughing while the girls were asked to pose for pictures with randoms. Good times.

The highlight- when Amanda asked our guide if she knew what had happened there in 1989. The guide said no. They weren't allowed to know. She then proceeded to ask us to tell her. Wow.
45 down....55 to go

89. Find cherry blossoms in the Spring

There were a lot of trees in blossom in Beijing when we went. I was actually pretty shocked that Beijing was so clean and beautiful. The Temple of Heaven was especially nice and full of trees in bloom.

44 down....56 to go

6. Take the tram up to the Peak in Hong Kong

One Sunday afternoon when Amanda's parents were here we headed to The Peak in HK. The tram ride up was pretty cool. It's pretty steep at times. Once at the top we did some shopping and had dinner at Bubba Gump. Because it was rainy it felt like we were inside a cloud. Unfortunately, this also meant that we couldn't properly see the skyline (which is generally the whole point of heading up there in the first place). Something tells me we'll be back...




43 done, 57 left...

4. Walk on the Great Wall

We spent Amanda's birthday on The Great Wall with her parents, her sister Carly and Carly's friends Erin. We ended up on the Mutianyu section after hearing that the Badaling section is too busy. We had a wonderful day hiking between the various towers. It was definitely windy up there and we were happy we brought our jackets.

Needless to say, Kaid loved the wall and fantasized that he was part of a battle. He found a stick that he used as a gun and was running up and down the wall looking for enemies. The best part about this is that recently Kaidyn has been giving his Scottish accent a go. This made for an entertaining afternoon.


The sledding down the side of the mountain on the metal track was a big highlight of the day. Safe? Not likely. Fun? Absolutely!


We had lunch at The Schoolhouse restaurant near the wall. It is a restaurant that used to be a school. Appropriate for Amanda's birthday lunch!

42 down...58 to go!

Patsy, T-Bone and CHINA

Amanda's parents just left yesterday after spending three weeks with us. We spent some time in Macau and Hong Kong (and Zhuhai for some massages), and then headed to Beijing and Xi'an for a week. Amanda's sister Carly and her best friend E-Cre joined us in Beijing. A great time was had by all and here are some pics from the last three weeks.

Also-it needs to be noted that my mother-in-law begged me for a country song to go along with the slideshow she knew would be put up here.

This one's for you, Patsy...







Also, Mandy misses you.