Adventures in Guangzhou

On Monday, we had Phoebe's medical. She got her blood drawn to test for tuberculosis. She did amazing-not a tear! Today/Tuesday, the driver came and got us at 9am and we left for the Chimelong Safari Park, in a Typhoon! It was raining SO hard, with thunder, lightning, winds, and dark clouds. It's the rainy season here, but usually it's just a rain in the morning and a rain in the evening. This was different! I figured if we weren't able to go, or if we shouldn't be out in the crazy weather, someone would surely tell us (although our driver speaks no English). When we got there, it was still very close and I might have screamed once or twice when the thunder hit nearby. I hate being out in thunderstorms! We saw a few exhibits in the pouring rain-most of them were covered, so that was good. We had borrowed 2 umbrellas from our hotel and bought the girls each a raincoat. By 10:30, the rain had stopped. We took a train around one area of the park, which also allows regular cars to drive through. Sort of reminded me of Jurassic Park-some exhibits were not fenced in and the animals were roaming, while other exhibits were held back by very minimal electric fencing. After taking the train for a half hour, we fed some giraffes for about $4. The Panda House opened at 11:30 and we were the first (and only) people there! It was SO strange. The rain had stopped and must have kept all the tourists away! The girls fed some large fish, were sprayed by an elephant, and got to see a LOT of different animals. It was a great day! We were to meet our driver by the front gate at 3pm and when we got there, our guide was on the phone, telling us that we had to go back to the medical clinic to get Phoebe a chest xray. OH NO! We prayed on the way, that the xray would be negative for tuberculosis. Our guide met us there, we had to pay about $33 for the xray. We celebrated when it came back negative! Our driver took us back to the island to pick up laundry and we headed back to the hotel to celebrate our day with ice cream. We also had lunch today with the pandas! Yep-Panda viewing while eating a light lunch. Perfect! And guess who said she wanted to go swimming again???? Yep-Phoebe! Malia, the fish, is always wanting to swim, but Phoebe wanting to go is HUGE! The magic of Guangzhou!!