Sunday, December 21
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Warning to readers:
Today was not good, did not involve the beach, and was decidedly unpleasant for the most part.
Today we headed from Zhanjiang back to Hong Kong, via the bus ride from H.E.Double-Hockey-Sticks.
The bus was to depart at 8:30am so we had to be up very early. As soon as we woke Emily, we knew something wasn’t right, as the first thing she said was that her tummy hurt. Great.
Danny’s cousin picked us up and checked us out of the hotel. His lovely wife had already gone and got a table at a restaurant right where the bus would depart, so we could have dim sum before leaving. Unfortunately, Emily continued to tell us her tummy was hurting so she didn’t eat anything and mostly sat and whined. Stephanie was suffering sympathy behavior, so she didn’t eat much either. Danny and I ate, though, and we were standing outside with our suitcase when the bus arrived right on time.
It started out uneventfully enough. The buses in China, no matter how far or long you’re to travel, do not have washrooms. Digest that for a bit while you consider that we were expecting a six hour ride with two small kids.
You can see from the first photo of Emily that by the time we were on the bus, she clearly wasn’t well at all, so I tried to keep her quiet. She did not do too badly and when we stopped for lunch, she used the washroom (too much info, YES I KNOW) and we thought that might help. She seemed somewhat better afterwards, but still definitely not herself.
Back on the bus, and about an hour later, I had Emily sitting with me, watching a movie on her DVR when IT happened. Yes, she puked all over me, all over herself, all over the seat, all over everything.
Now, for those of you who followed our last trip to Hong Kong, this should harken back to the flight home when she puked all over me about 9 hours in!!!!!
Note for others—cleaning up puke, in a moving bus without a bathroom, with limited tissues, and wetnaps = NOT FUN. Or easy. Or pleasant. I have a weak stomach, so my participation in the cleanup of Emily was limited by that. Unfortunately, I was soaked in it so the rest of the ride passed in hours of nausea for me, too. Poor little Emily kept apologizing for making me feel so sick by being sick on me. It was terrible.
The 6 hour bus ride actually took 7.5 hours. Oh yes, when a ride goes bad, it really, really goes bad. And this was among the worst. Truly.
The border crossing we used this time was new and modern and we crossed really quickly, with virtually no questions asked. They didn’t even inquire whether or not we’d bought anything.
By the time we got back to Hong Kong it was 4pm, and then we had a long taxi ride back to this side of the island. It was after 5pm when we checked back into our hotel. As quickly as I could, I got the pukey clothes off and showered, then bathed Emily too. After that, we were both feeling a lot better.
Normally, after a day like this, we’d have hunkered down for the night, but today is Winter Solstice, so we had plans to go to Pok Hei’s house for dinner. His daughters Kweenie and Cindy are both home in Hong Kong for the holidays, since they go to school in Toronto, so it was quite festive. We had a great meal of homemade hotpot and headed home right afterwards.
We haven’t even unpacked our suitcases, so that will be a task for tomorrow. For tonight, I’m counting us lucky that we survived the bus ride. While we will definitely visit Zhanjiang again, we will not be taking the bus back. That was just too difficult and frankly put a damper on our entire visit.
Oh well, back to Hong Kong, in comfort again. The kids are asking for DisneyLand again, and I want to see Lantau Island and spend some time out on a ferry in the harbor, so we’ve got some plans. We may also take the train to Shenzhen, China. We have double entry visas, and it’s literally just across the border from Hong Kong. Pok Hei’s wife says there are some sights to see and some good shopping to be done…..I hear it calling my name!
