The kiddos (and the parents too) were sick of the van. I'll do a post specifically about Tiany soon as there is so much to tell you, but she has started crawling everywhere and once started, certainly didn't want to be stuck in van all day where she couldn't flex her little muscles. She was crabby. Clio refused to nap and was really crabby. And mom was emotional and really really crabby.
At the airport we had our first real taste of trying to cart two kids plus luggage around. Not real fun. We said a sad goodbye to our guide Savor who had been with us for the whole week and we'd grown pretty close to. We frantically dumped out all our liquids prior to security, spilling a bottle of formula all over the airport floor, only to find out that China doesn't have the liquid restriction on in-country flights. Then Clio had a major meltdown in the middle of the security line and kneeled on the floor and refused to move. She refused to get in the stroller, so we had an empty stroller, 2 big carry ons and two screaming kids to contend with. Fun. Thank goodness Chinese security is pretty lax and we at least didn't have to remove shoes or laptops. I'm not sure we would have made it through and am still not quite sure how we did get through. It wasn't pretty to say the least.
Tian's first flight was not great. The flight attendants were overly helpful on the way into the plane and helped us with our luggage. Which was nice. Except that they put it all in overhead bins and we had no clue where it was. Including our bag with Clio's snacks and Tian's bottles. So the already cranky kids got even crankier and louder. Tian screamed most of the 2 hour flight and we were the most hated people on board. Dane tried to find the bag with their stuff and couldn't. The flight attendants kept passing him and making him move out of the aisle and no one was helping even though we obviously had a major kid issue happening. Our nice travel mates passed us some of their snacks and we tried to keep the kids happy with crackers. We got some food trays and I had Tian sucking on oranges...she clearly wanted her bottle. She calmed a bit, but then stated screaming again even louder. It was clear to the entire plane she wanted her bottle and wanted it NOW. I finally lost it and told Dane he had to find the bag NOW or I was coming over the seat and into the aisle myself. One of the flight attendants happened by and casually and so sweetly said, 'You bag is in that bin, I put some others on top of it. Good think I wasn't in the aisle. Like she couldn't have told us the at the first time we looked?
So we got a bottle and Clio finally fell asleep and things were OK. With the help of our travel mates, we drug two sleeping kids and the bags off the plane. I was really happy to finally be in Guangzhou! We weren't delighted to see another van to take us to the hotel, but there was no other way.
More van photos...
Saying goodbye to our guide and friend Savor.
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