Samuel slept until 10 am. We enjoyed a slow moving morning and had breakfast in the room. We had to stay in the room from 9:30-11:30 because our guides took our paperwork to the Consulates office for us. They represented us, but in case something was wrong, they needed to be able to reach us. Our paperwork went thru fine.
Our guide recommended we go shopping at Beijing road, so off SK, Samuel & I went. Cole had enough shopping the day before, so he stayed in the room and read. We were disappointed in the shopping on Beijing Rd. It was packed with the local Chinese shoppers and was not the type items we wanted to purchase. SK did find some gifts for her friends though. We decided we wanted to head back the island (where we shopped yesterday) to shop some more, but couldn’t get the taxi driver to understand. We went back to the hotel, instead, and checked on Cole. Since he was content in the room, we headed off to the island, with help from the concierge (he wrote where we wanted to go in Chinese so we could give it to the taxi driver). We tried to leave Samuel with Cole, but as soon as we were out the door he was screaming, so back we went for Samuel. We picked up a few more gifts and looked around the White Swan Hotel and then headed back.
We ordered room service for SK and Samuel while Cole and I went downstairs and had dinner alone. Cole ordered a steak that came with a side of potatoes. When he asked what his choices were our waiter began listing them. One of the options was mushroom potatoes. Unsure of what these were, Cole inquired. Our waiter then got the manager who clarified that it was mashed potatoes. It’s funny how things are confused in translation. It was a nice dinner, but long. I was ready for bed. We got back to the room around 9 pm. SK was working on homework and Samuel was asleep. Another day down and one more day closer to home!!!