Just returned home from a week's vacation in Guangzhou. It's the first time our family visited Guangzhou. First time hubby and the children visited China actually. It's a city that reminds me of Taiwan. The outstanding experience of course is that everything was paid using handphone. We downloaded Alipay but found there were a few eateries that used only WeChat pay. Shops closed around 10pm and it could be quite dark at night. Otherwise it appeared to be a safe place. I suppose paying by handphone eliminates the risk of cash theft or robbery. We travelled by Didi which has a system similar to Grab transport. I was impressed that the Didi cars were so readily available and always arrived so fast. We went to Guangzhou with a mother-daugther pair who were originally from Fujian and are now Singapore citizens. The mother told us Didi is cleaner than taxis. I can understand why, since the vehicle is basically the owner's beloved personal car. Probably due to the cool weather (around 24 degrees), the Didi drivers often drove with partially open windows. During a long night ride, Calder kept giggling. At first, I thought he found accelerating along the expressway thrilling. The laughing stopped when we closed the windows. We stayed in 3 hotels, the last one near the airport so we didn't have to wake up in the wee hours for our 8.15am flight home. When we travel, we like to stay at different hotels to try different accommodation and breakfast. On this trip, all the hotels offered buffet breakfasts (though we were not in time for the last one). Calder looked happiest at these meals because he would meet familiar foods like bread, cereal, cakes, pao, fruit juice etc. My Chinese friend wondered: How were we to enjoy dim sum breakfast if we had hotel buffet breakfast every morning? I told her dim sum could be eaten for lunch. In retrospect, her concern was valid because after a heavy buffet breakfast that included Chinese dumplings and paos and porridge, we did not find ourselves keen for dim sum lunch. Often , we would eat a light or late lunch. But I saw in this trip that it's wise to start with buffet breakfast because then Calder would not be hungry when we explored local cuisine for lunch or dinner. He did not take to new tastes readily and would spit out food that he disliked. He didn't like roasted goose and so we didn't offer him roasted pigeon. He refused to open his mouth big for tiger prawn wonton or blocks of meat (like black cha siew). We decided to buy a pair of scissors to cut food for him. The Caixin vegetable in Guangzhou (nice!) was often boiled in long stalks. This I cut for him too. We brought fork and spoon that came in handy because many eateries provided only chopsticks, though some may give soup spoons. So Calder would have a filling breakfast, light lunch (because he rejected many foods). In the evenings, if I saw that he'd eaten little after breakfast, I would pack him fried rice (familiar food) to fill him up again. Ethel found the fried rice in Guangzhou very delicious. Although Calder didn't seem to like hot pot or soup noodles, he was happy eating Japanese ramen and MacDonald's cheese burger. He sure looked happy when I gave him peeled roasted chestnuts - another familiar food that his late grandma liked and would feed him with. I was constantly looking out for bakeries to buy him supper. He found the version of Cheng Ting too sticky but finished his bowl of yam and sweet potato ball sago dessert. Calder was good natured during this trip, very patient in fact since he had to do a lot of waiting when his sister was taking photographs or shopping. The cool weather helped. Now Calder could stand still for photos, tilt his head as instructed and look into the camera. When out walking, he's always 20 steps ahead but we made a point to call him back in a light hearted manner so there was no cause for agitation. He slept very well, often the last one among us to wake up for breakfast. As for flight, the seats had limited space for his long legs. He's very happy when it's time to go to the toilet. He didn't know how to slide the lock all the way to light up the toilet though, so he was peeing in the dark. At least he could come out of the toilet (I was worried - what if he locked himself in). For the 3+ hour flight, I let him watch documentaries and listen to classical music. He did not like airplane meat and ate only the rice and bun (with butter and also sugar that we took from the hotels). He downed the juices quickly enough though. In this trip, I didn't have to distract him with snacks during takeoff or landing. Ethel's highlight of the trip was probably the S$100 photography package that included period costume, makeup and outdoor photography. Ethel was also happy shopping at 动漫星城 for its youthful apparel at cheap prices. We went to Baiyun mountain which was crowded. Took cable car up and the girls chose to visit a bird enclosure where we saw many peacocks. So much time was spent taking pictures and videos of the peacocks that it was soon dinner time. Instead of trekking, we took cable car down the mountain. We went to Foshan the next day and found it warm like Singapore there! Had wanted to ride bicycle around the lake but it was too hot during the day and by the time we finished more photography at Lingnan Tiandi, it would get dark too soon. Consequently, this trip was lacking in fun physical exertion that would have made the vacation more suitable for Calder. As for me, the highlight was finding that all the hotels provided free use of washing machines with washing detergent. They had dryers and even steam irons. (I discovered that compared to packing smelly clothes, I loved to do laundry during vacations!) Consequently our luggage was often carrying clean clothes, which made laundry so much lighter after the trip. I managed to try 螺蛳粉 (snail rice noodles), the controversial dish often discussed in variety shows - you either love it or hate it. I loved it! I also liked 椰子鸡 (coconut chicken) which is a hotpot of chicken cooked 4 mins in coconut water. The family enjoyed yam milk at Coco. The night before departure, we also discovered good 猪脚饭 (braised pork trotter rice). Guangzhou is very much a city. I would choose to include more nature in future trips. Nonetheless I'm thankful for the new foods we tried, for the efficient Didi, for washing machines, for good weather and most of all, for Calder's stability.
