2 Nights in Phoenix

Thursday night we raced out the door with our sleepy kids, but not fast enough, because we arrived at the boarding gate too late. The train was still there, but the platform is closed four minutes prior to the scheduled departure time. We missed the train.

This incident landed itself a place among the top five Life Moments When You Feel Like A Complete Idiot.

So we spun around and took our children back home, re-tucking them in at 11pm. Bringing your babies to the train station in the middle of their sleep for no reason is not exactly what you’d call a ‘fun family outing’ but they were totally cool about it.

Thankfully the railway allowed us to change our tickets to Friday night free of charge. Whew!

We had a great time playing together for a weekend in Fenghuang (literally, Phoenix), Hunan, China.

welcome aboard the open bunk car

this is the third bunk

mother bear successfully kept her two baby bears from falling off

father bear also succeeded in preventing preschooler bear from falling

hours of actual sleep negligible

then we transferred to an 80-minute tour bus up a mountain road to Fenghuang

the view was spectacular with rice paddies, deep river valleys and rural villages

the roads were under construction

it felt like Minnesota

anyway, Fenghuang, what a gorgeous old city

home of the Hmong ethnic minority

temporary quarters of a zillion Chinese tourists

(I did not expect it to be sooo touristy)

 

ginger candy, the local speciality

it's spicy but so tasty

the other unique local fare is snails and hot peppers in blood soup

declined to try

we did ride boats however

and walk all around that town

the little boys swam naked

all the other kids were swimming naked so we decided to follow suit

or rather, no suit

the water was not what you might call 'clean'

but that didn't stop us from living a little bit

there was some street style BBQ that also must not have been clean

because three hours later our bodies cast it out

and we felt much better after that

hundreds of Hmong grannies sell their crafts to tourists

I do not like to snap pictures of human beings as if they are zoo animals

but we talked with this beautiful Hmong grandma, more than 80 years old

she was so warm and nice to chat with

she reminded me a little of what I remember my Grandma Pauline to be like

I asked if we might take her photo

and I think she felt that we had given her dignity

the return bus ride was amusing or extremely frustrating, it could have gone either way

we decided to go with amusing

remember there was road construction?

a huge piece of equipment broke and blocked the road

the workers spent the rest of the day trying to direct traffic with zero organization

we're talking miles of backed up cars, dump trucks, and tour buses

turn off your engine and get out kinda traffic jam

big jam 2 occurred when a black sports car tried to pass a bus on a narrow bridge

that driver also won a place in the top five Life Moments When You Are a Complete Idiot

killin' some time before boarding the train

first there was lego fire truck assembly at a kfc dining table

then a couple hours at an indoor play area

Drew went nuts

One parting thought for those who are still listening to me jabber. I was unusually snippy with curious strangers. I guess I expected our little vacation to be free from folks forming conjectures amongst themselves about our children, free from folks grabbing our kids for a picture. In Changsha I can handle these situations with grace by engaging the gossipers and grabbers and building a connection based on our shared humanity, community and language. Suddenly we're no longer freaks but friends. However, in the cavalier tourist environment of Fenghuang, people seemed to have no inhibitions in talking about us (they must assume we can't understand...) and approaching us in a way that felt exceptionally rude. And I seemed to have no inhibitions about letting them know how annoyed I felt. I lashed out on a couple surprised violaters...sorry guys. The lesson: Expect increased bombardment while on vacation, and notch up the grace Rach.

Despite that, it was a fantastic time together! We enjoyed each other's company so much as we traveled, played and explored a new place.