March 25 & 26, 2005 Hello everyone. We finally made it to Nanchang. We are in a different hotel than we originally thought. We are now in the Lake View Hotel. It is pretty nice, though the air conditioner is questionable, at best. We do have internet access, but it is not free, nor is it in the room, but we will survive. It was quite an adventure getting here with the near theft of my laptop on the plane and the experience with the Chinese Police (very stern young men). Heidi was sure that I had been hauled off to the Chinese pokey :-). We also almost died three times on the ride to the hotel. The driver was night blind, I think, and would have mowed down a group of pedestrians had I not yelled. The expressway lanes are very narrow, and it seems that most people drive in the middle and straddle the line. There is a lot of horn blowing and flashing of lights when you try to pass. The roads are very dark, as everything is except for the billboards, and none of the signs are in English. The food is not great. I think I might actually lose some weight on this trip. We did eat at the McDonald's at the Hong Kong airport, and man, was it good. I never thought that I would look that forward to a Big Mac. On the flight to Guangzhou, we were surrounded by a lot of Middle Eastern men from Iran, Syria, and Jordan. A guy from Toronto asked if we were Americans, and the guys from the Middle East did not look very pleased with our response, especially when we broke into a chorus of "God Bless America" (just kidding). Just one more adventure in a string of adventures to come. We are, as a whole, doing well. The rest of the group is not here yet. We are looking forward to seeing them. It will be nice to chat with someone that understands what I am saying. As we have traveled further into China, the ability of the people to understand English has significantly declined. It is rather unusual. Our driver that picked us at the airport did not speak a bit of English. That was a bit strange--going into a very dark city rather late at night with someone that we had no ability to communicate with. I think that he did understand when I yelled WHOAAA as we were charging the pedestrians in our VW. The buildings and everything here are mostly non-descript, and there are a lot of people everywhere. We have posted some pictures of us in Hong Kong with Joyce Quan and her family, who were nice enough to show us around. They were very nice, and Joyce's husband and I had some interesting discussions about Hong Kong. We had a good time and greatly appreciate their hospitality. Heidi wanted to go crazy at the Stanley Market, but we are carry-on only and don't have any room in our luggage. Well we had better be going. We will not get Baby Leah today, but she should be with us in the morning (Easter in the U.S.). Happy Easter! And thanks for all of your prayers and support.   Heidi and Rich in Front of Statue Commemorating Hong Kong's Reunification with China     Rich and Heidi in Front of Hong Kong Skyline   Joyce and Family with Rich     Sign for Pawn Shop     Tallest Building in Hong Kong     This page hosted by