Final day in GZ and travel to Hong Kong

Tuesday July 2nd was our final day in GZ, and we opted to not go to the Guangzhou Zoo. We had still not found any gift for the boys, and we knew we could not go home empty handed! Trevor and Evan really wanted us to find Plants vs Zombies things, but through out the trip, we could not find them. Another adoptive family told us about the toy market, so we decided we would spend Tuesday morning shopping. We took a taxi to One Link Plaza where the toy market is located. In addition to toys, there were also store upon store of home goods.

There were 7 levels, and we didn't have time to visit all the stores. The aisles were also not laid in a pattern that was easy to navigate. We would be like "did we already go down this aisle?" Like our other shopping excursions, it is just amazing the amount of stores here! I didn't take any pictures of the toy sellers as there weren't that many with the items we were looking for. We did find some Legos, Angry Birds games and Mario and Lugio toys. Even though we couldn't find Plants vs. Zombies, we knew the boys would be happy with the things we did get them.






We finished our shopping in about a little over an hour because we needed to head back to pack. We were taking the van with another family to Hong Kong in the late afternoon. As we were leaving the shopping market, we saw this man with a heavily loaded bike and this women selling street food.





After we got everything packed, we headed down to the lobby to get some pictures of Ava in her traditional silk dress. We also wanted to get some final pictures of the property since we hadn't had much time to explore. Unfortunately, we got caught in a monsoon downpour while we were up by the pool. We were soaked, and all our stuff was packed! Luckily I had packed an extra outfit for Ava in our backpack.

 

Here are some not so great pictures of us soaked.  The rain came in so fast, and we were drenched.

 


At 4:30 our guide Helen brought us back Ava's passport with her new visa and the brown envelope that we had to give to US Immigration when we arrived in the US. We were told that we could not open the brown envelope and to not loose it!

 

Unfortunately our van to Hong Kong was late in arriving. So Ava had her first playdate with our friend's daughter.


Ava did not have a good nap earlier in the day, and we hoped she would sleep in the van. Well she did, but then had a complete meltdown. Almost like a night terror. She finally settled down, but kept hiccupping from being so upset.  Poor thing!

The drive from GZ to Hong Kong was a little scary at times because our driver was going very fast (130 km=80 mph). Our children were not strapped into car seats, and there were several close calls with other crazy drivers including a large tour bus! There were several times where I just had to close my eyes! We got through the two customs areas with relative ease but were surprised at one point when the van doors opened and a woman with a large gun thermometer took all our temperatures from outside the van!

We were very happy to safely arrive at our final hotel in Hong Kong.

finally settled down

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