Have child, will travel - our week in Guanxi province

Traveling with a little one in tow is a lot of work, especially when you are talking about planes and buses! Living in China, I don't want to be the family who doesn’t like to travel with kids. On the contrary, I want to be excited to travel with my child, even when it is a lot of work.

We recently took a trip to Guanxi province in Southern China, an area of China we have wanted to travel for a long time. Besides our trip back to the States over Christmas, it was the first time we really traveled with Atalie. And, it was the first time we have traveled together in China since moving here (trips to Shanghai excluded). Both Steven & I have made a few trips around China with friends in the three years we've lived here, but never together. I was excited to get out of our city for a bit and see a new side of China I hadn't experienced before. Plus, we would get to spend a whole week together!! That, in and of itself, is always the best reason to get away together. 

Our trip overall was amazing, we had some high highs and some low lows. Kind of like the mountains and rivers of the places we saw. I want to share more about Yangshuo in a separate post, but here I'll post some highlights & some hard spots. 

Selfie time at the riverfront park in Liuzhou

Highlight 1: Liuzhou

We got to visit our friend's hometown! Liuzhou is an ancient city with 18 bridges connecting the two sides across the river. Our sweet friend, Joy is from Liuzhou and it was fun to have her as tour guide. We got to see the riverfront, pick up a Starbucks mug (my souvenir of choice whenever we travel), and spend time with her family. Liuzhou is in the mountains and it was cool to see green and mountains peaking up through the city scape. The city also has a very different feel from what we are used to in Nanjing. Even though this time of year the temperatures are relatively the same, the people in Liuzhou dress more casually (women weren’t wearing hosiery, even in the heat of summer in Nanjing they all wear nylons) and it has more of an island or tropical feel to it. It was fun to see and experience!

Hard Spot 1: the bus rides

Atalie making friends on the airport bus back to Guilin

Liuzhou is in the mountains. I know. I already said that. We flew into Guilin, arriving at 9:30pm, and then we took the airport bus to Liuzhou...through the mountains. For two hours. That first night we didn't get to bed until 2am. The roads weren't in excellent condition either and bumpiness of the bus and the tired condition of the travelers made for an uncomfortable ride. We were traveling with another family who has two kids (1 & 3 years old). Considering how much time we were on a bus, the kids did great! Oh. We had our moments, like the day we left Liuzhou, traveled back to the airport at Guilin, picked up the rest of our traveling party and then took a private bus four hours in another direction into the mountains. One kid got sick, several adults were nauseous, and parts of the drive were a bit frightening. But we made it! We did it! With kiddos. High fives and fist bumps for everyone!

Highlight 2: The views!

Oh my. I have never seen more beautiful scenery in China. We really traveled off the beaten path, but it was gorgeous. To be surrounded by God's creation again was nourishing to my soul. Watching the mountains pass by outside the bus window made the long hours bearable. And the places we stayed had amazing views. After Liuzhou, we went to Jinxiu, an all inclusive Chinese resort village in the mountains. There was nothing else around. We were tucked in against a river and mountain sides. The air was clean & oh, the stars! Lovely. After Jinxiu we got back on the bus and spent our last two nights in Yangshuo. Amazing views of the mountains from our hotel. I didn't realize how much I missed the mountains.

The river at our resort in Jinxiu, and it was clean!

Driving through the mountains to and from Jinxiu

This was on the highway somewhere outside of Yangshuo

Hard Spot 2: Hard beds & squatty potties

A friendly host in our first room overlooking the river,
another good reason to change rooms!

At Jinxiu, our hotel was not what us spoiled Western travelers are used to. Actually, I’m not even sure how many Westerners had ever been to the hotel we stayed at. All the American kids attracted quite a bit of attention, Atalie included. At one point, she took pictures with several Chinese in a row! All it takes is one person to ask and then all their friends want a photo with the little white baby, too. I always wonder what they do with those photos…anyways, I digress. So the hotel was a bit off the beaten path, I won't go into details, but at first we were given a room overlooking the river with no A/C. Thankfully, one of our friends traveling with us negotiated with the manager and got our family and themselves rooms in the main building. So, we got the A/C, but with it came very hard beds and a squatty potty with shower combo! I share this as a hard spot because the second night I was already sore from sleeping on the bed the first night and could hardly sleep. But at least I wasn't sweating!! I'm glad I didn't know it would be like this. We just all had to grin and bear it. When traveling in China, it is best to be flexible and willing to go with the flow. We brought our own travel bed for Atalie, she definitely had the most comfortable place to sleep. 

Highlight 3: Taking Atalie swimming

At Jinxiu, we went swimming with Atalie in the river and our hotel in Yangshuo had a swimming pool. She loved it. I'm so glad she enjoyed the water! It was fun to splash around with her and I'm excited for when our pool here in our complex opens on July 1st!!

Swimming in the river at Jinxiu on Father’s Day (she wasn’t so sure about it at first)

Taking advantage of the pool at The Giggling Tree in Yangshuo

Hard Spot 3: Sickness

The day after we got back I was really sick. I finally threw up and then felt better. The next day, Steven got sick. Then, Atalie had diarrhea. That's what happens when you travel! We think we pinpointed the culprit, but it's not unusual to get sick when traveling in Asia. Thankfully, it was after we got home and not while on the plane!

Highlight 4: Yangshuo

The last two nights we spent in Yangshuo at a place called The Giggling Tree. I'll share more in another post, but this was definitely the highlight of the whole trip. It was a little oasis in China, good food, comfortable beds and gorgeous scenery. I hope we go back someday!

We went for a 3 hour bike ride through villages and rice patties with amazing views.  Atalie is in the carrier on Steven’s back.

I actually don't think I have a fourth "hard spot" to share. More highlights than hard spots! I’ll take it. Overall, it was an amazing week and we enjoyed time together as a family and the time with friends. I would travel again with them all any day - especially with kids! :-) 

The best shot we got of all of us! I guess that’s what happens when you travel with 11 adults and 4 kids.

Photo Recap - How we spent our time in the States

We made it back! The plane ride was a little harder returning to China. On the way over, with the benefit of the jet stream, the flight from Shanghai to Seattle was just over 9 hours. On the return, we were stuck on that plane for 12 hours! That's a long flight. Atalie did great though. A little fussy the last hour, but overall did well. At one point I finally put her in the Moby wrap to sleep and then stretched out across the row to sleep. Yes, a whole row. The plane was almost empty and almost everyone had a whole row to themselves. Note to self, fly on a Tuesday!

And, for as much as we drug Atalie around everywhere while in the States, she did great! What a trooper. Most days had no semblance of a routine, however, she pulled through. And I can't even tell you how many hours she spent in the carseat (that she hated). She was definitely along for the ride and handled it so well. It actually makes me more confident in her ability to handle change. Though she does nap better and get more rest with more consistency in her day, she can handle a chaotic day here and there and still be her sweet and silly self. 

It would be a worthy cause to detail out a recap of the six weeks we spent with friends and family. All the people we saw, doctors visits, road trips and food we ate. However, even if I had the time (which I'm not sure I do), I don't have the energy. Or something like that. Anyways, I can recap in pictures! And I can say that it was an awesome six weeks. We were a little too busy to relax or rest, but hey, why rest when you can visit all your friends and hang out with family you haven't seen in 18 months. 

Hanging out in the Pudong airport waiting for our flight

Do you think they are smitten?

Meeting Nana (Jessica's Grandma)

2am visits with the Christmas tree - fun for everyone (not)

Christmas Eve

Opening presents, kind of

Christmas Day (I'm a bad mom and the only picture I have of Atalie on Christmas is this one, that Kelly took)

We went to Arizona and made new friends

And rode ATV's with family

Atalie helped Steven scan over 3,000 family pictures. Yes, 3,000.

It snowed in Arizona! What?!?

Taking in the sunsets

We had fun at Grandma and Grandpa Wallace's house

 

We took mirror selfies

And family pictures

We took a day trip to Spokane to see friends, including these awesome people!

My family threw a baby shower for Atalie! Complete with Chinese themed cupcakes and lanterns. 

Grandma Stevens got to meet Atalie. She's 97 years old!!! 

We got to see many good friends (like Kyle & Mallory!)

Aunt Shannon introduced Atalie to Ms. Frizzle

While back in the States, Atalie started solid foods! Big milestone.

Atalie also made a new friend. Lucy enjoyed giving lots of kisses and packing around Atalie's toys.

Atalie got some good piano time in. She's a fast learner!

And, of course, we read lots of stories.

We had a marvelous time back in the States. Sorry for the novel of pictures. To be honest, I had a lot more I wanted to post and had to be choosy. I have a hard time making decisions...

Singapore

We took some R&R earlier this month, heading south for warmer weather. Classes ended January 3rd, and since the official Chinese New Year holiday doesn't start until tomorrow (January 31st), we'd thought we'd go early and beat any CNY crowds also traveling. It was a good call. 

Singapore was the vacation spot of choice, and it was a very good choice. What an amazing city! It's Asian and foreigner friendly. The official language is English, so everyone speaks English and all the signs are in English making it easy to get around and use public transportation. I had to keep doing double takes hearing so many Chinese speak in English to each other. 

There were some other surprising things about Singapore. The first night we stayed in a budget hotel in an area of town that had a lot of budget hotels. I'm now fairly certain it was some sort of "red light" district (though no one confirmed that). What the hotel receptionist did confirm was that all those ladies (in the below picture, some with umbrellas) standing outside the hotel were prostitutes. So sad. They were in front of every hotel and almost on every corner. This was taken at 10am. For some reason I didn't expect to see this in Singapore - or at least see it so blatantly advertised.

Needless to say, our budget hotel room was a glorified closet and we ended up going to stay the rest of our time at a guesthouse - which was great! It was located just three bus stops from the North end of Orchard Rd, the main shopping and restaurant area of the city, and near the metro which made it easy to get around town.  Our first day at the guesthouse, we ate lunch and then hopped on a bus to head to Orchard Rd where we found a movie theater online. After getting our tickets for The Hobbit (boo-yah), we had an hour and a half to kill before the movie started. We had three objectives: exchange money, buy a SIM card, get Steven a haircut. After living in China for over a year, we figured if we accomplished one of those tasks it would be success. Not only did we successfully do all three things, I also was able to purchase some beauty products at an import store and we got lost in the basement of a HUGE shopping center for 15 minutes which resulted in eating Krispy Kreme donuts. It all felt like a dream.

View of downtown behind us, taken on the skybridge at Gardens By the Bay

While in Singapore, we explored Orchard Rd, visited Sentosa Island and the aquarium, checked out Gardens By the Bay and the downtown area with friends, and went to a water park. We also ate amazing food (including fajitas which were super delicious), saw a few movies and became masters of the public transportation system. 

Sentosa Island

I don't really understand it, but not that long ago the area that is now Sentosa Island was underwater.  Singapore bought dirt from Malaysia and Indonesia and reclaimed land from the sea. Crazy, right? I guess this has also been done in Holland and other places, but I had never heard of it. Anyways, it resulted in Singapore creating this amazing tourist island called Sentosa. It has world class resorts, Universal Studios, beaches, Hard Rock Cafe, tons of shopping, an aquarium that was amazing and lots of other things to do. 

On Sentosa in front of the "Merlion" - Singapore's mascot

I was so impressed by the beaches. This island sits in the harbor of Singapore and just around the corner is the shipping yard.  There are large cargo ships sitting out in the bay in front of Sentosa Island. So I wasn't expecting the beaches to be nice. I wish we'd brought a few chairs and some sunscreen! The beaches were clean and the water was clear. 

Sentosa's beaches

We ventured out to the "Southernmost Point of Continental Asia" crossing this crazy suspension bridge. It was so idyllic (the island, not the bridge). Yeah, there was turf grass on that island, but it was peaceful. We visited on a Friday and there was almost no one out there. Notice in the above picture how there's almost no one on the beach. 

Crossing the suspension bridge

Bird's eye view of the bridge

See how clear the water looks? Ok, in this picture it looks a little green, but it was aqua blue and you could see fish swimming around. There was some debris (leaves, twigs, etc) on parts of the shore, but other than that it was clean. Singapore is really clean and their beaches are no exception (especially when compared to Thailand). 

We wandered around Sentosa a bit, getting lost at one point and having to figure out on the not-to-scale map how to get back to civilization. The only attraction on Sentosa we wanted to pay money for on this trip was the aquarium. There are so many things to do on Sentosa (have you clicked on the link yet?) we couldn't do them all. And it could quickly get expensive. So we opted for the aquarium. 

The aquarium was incredible. Very well done with lots of huge viewing tanks and the world's largest viewing panel! We really enjoyed taking our time in the aquarium. We even bought a tuna sandwich and sat in front of the viewing panel and had lunch. Quite appropriate, yes? 

The shipwreck tank

Seahorse

Mini squid that kept changing color

A pufferfish puffed up! 

Literally seconds before we saw the above pufferfish, Steven said "I've never seen one puff up before." Well, there you have it!

Jellies 

That is one big fish

The world's largest viewing panel

At the viewing panel, they had the coolest music playing. It felt like we were watching the fish do underwater ballet. There were two giant manta rays that were circling the tank and it seemed they had perfect timing with the music. I could've sat there for hours, except that it was only a five minute song on repeat. Twenty minutes ended up being long enough.

As you leave the aquarium, you walk through the shark tunnel. I think the below picture captures how most people feel walking through a tunnel of sharks. 

"Run for your lives!"

Cue Jaws music...

Gardens by the Bay

One of the other cool attractions we saw while in Singapore was the Gardens by the Bay. It's newer, only a few years old, and is free to enter the main garden. There are two domes that you have to pay extra to go into, we chose not to do that. As you walk around, there is a lot to see. We wandered through the Heritage Gardens for awhile where they feature different plants from all over the world, including cultural appreciation for certain species. 

The highlight was getting up on the Skyway bridge in the Supertree Grove. You had a great view of downtown and the bay area. Really cool. There is also a new hotel, the Marina Bay Sands, that has been featured on Discovery programs for it's unique features, and we had a great view of that from the skyway as well. 

On the Skyway bridge

Eventually, these "trees" will be completely covered by plants

The Marina Bay Sands hotel (the roof features an infinity pool and garden area)

To wrap up, we would call this one of our favorite vacations. It was relatively stress free and Singapore is just a great place to visit! It's modern and clean and there is so much to do. We really hope to make it back, especially now that we know there is a budget airline that flys direct from Nanjing to Singapore. 

I will leave you with some funny bathroom signs we saw while there. For the record, these might be funnier if you have previously visited or lived in Asia. :-) 

Seen at Gardens by the Bay

Seen on a university campus. Poor Auntie Mary!