Monday

After our usual amazing breakfast buffet, Helen, and our bus driver Joe, took us to a wholesale market to shop for silk, pearls, and jade. We spent most of the time walking with Ariel and squeaky shoes Willow. I had never seen so much jewelry in one building. It was all shiny and in many colors: light blue, dark blue, red, gold, silver, yellow, green, pink.

Then Helen took us to Shamian Island. We,dropped off laundry at the shop beside the White Swan and bought a few things from the nice man there. Sadly the White Swan, a large and ornate hotel on the Pearl River, is closed for renovation for 3 years. We will miss walking inside by the waterfall, ponds, and red couch. We all met for lunch at a Cantonese restaurant. Helen ordered mostly vegetarian dishes for all of us to share: noodles, rice with vegetables, sesame buns, snap peas with garlic, chili sauce, peppers, tea. We also tried Pearl River beer, the local brew - delicious!

The group departed for the hotel, but we stayed behind, entertaining the girls until they were tired. We watched a group of women dancing by the river. We bought a red Mei Yang Yang ball (the pretty goat.). Then we had foot massages at our favorite Chinese Medicine and Foot place. The girls rested while we enjoyed thorough foot soakings, upper body, and foot & leg massages. We watched Chinese TV and drank lemon water and ate orange slices in the reclining chairs. Ariel slept soundly, and Willow charmed the massage ladies until they "stole" her and played with her in the hall with the other employees. I was a little alarmed, but they were nice and eventually gave her back!

We rested and bathed in the hotel, and watched The Lost Boys (our Guangzhou Marriott tradition, since it was on TV a lot,last time here.). Jeff fed the girls French fries from the McDonald's next door. Everyone slept soundly. Today (Tuesday) is a free day!

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