Goodbye Keith and Val

Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Mel - We were up at 7.30 but by the time breaky came around, Mum didn't feel like eating. Breaky costs $8.00 and she didn't think she'd eat that much. I went down to breaky with the others and came back to Mum with some toast and gossip. Keith has a very sore back and it has been getting worse. They have decided to go home on the next flight. After they finished breaky, we took the laptop to their room and emailed the travel agent. They were able to get a flight out tonight - leaving here at 9.05pm. Mum rang the airline and tried to upgrade their tickets to business class but it was going to cost them $1500 each. They will try again at the airport - maybe cheaper there. We spent the morning in the hotel trying to organise everything, get them packed and moved them into Nanas room for a few hours. Val wanted to go and look at computer things so Keith stayed in the hotel room while the rest of us went for a walk. We found a shop but the Nintendo looked fake. Pa, Mum and I walked to the White Swan Hotel - Nana and Val got Keith and luggage - and we had buffet afternoon tea. You could have nuggets, prawn sticks, fish (yuk), crab, noodles, more fish, beef, pizza dim sims...... then lots and lots of cakes and sandwiches and mousse and sago and biscuits....
After we finished Nana and Pa took Keith and Val to the airport . They were both upset at having to leave and both had tears in their eyes. Mum and I walked back to our hotel through the park. All around Guangzhou are these big statues - just near our hotel we must have seen 20 of them. Some were kids playing marbles, playing Paper, Scissors, rock and folding origami. There were statues of old men playing instruments, men taking photos, all sorts of different things. We then went back to the hotel room.


Kate - Poor Keith has been struggling on this trip – especially after the tractor ride back from the Li Dragon River trip. The jolting really hurt his back. They also went out on one of the days that Mel was sick on another boat ride and again had a bumpy ride home. It was all too much for him. He has been unwell before we left and has been fighting cancer for a few years. It was a marathon effort trying to contact the travel agent in Australia for them to get changed flights as well as contacting the airline to try to upgrade the seats and confirm everything. I did all the talking on the phone – not easy when talking to a 'foreigner' on the phone. Finally all organised.

The White Swan hotel was amazing. Nana and Pa used to stay here but found the Victory Hotel just around the corner which is just as good, has a similar buffet breaky (very important to Pa) and a lot cheaper. The foyer of the White Swan was amazing, with its lake and waterfall. You could walk behind the waterfall. The sheer size of it was amazing. The buffet afternoon tea was just heaven – more like a lunch with desserts. It was laid out in a fancy way and you could go back as many times as you wanted – we took full advantage of this!!
Other Entries

Comments

2025-02-08

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank