CHINA DIFFERENCES . . . .

If you remember awhile back, I was talking about some of the differences between here and home.  This last week, they've really been prominent!  We, of course, have 3 kids.  Which means there are 5 of us total.  We are planning on going to Hong Kong for Thanksgiving. We already have our plane tickets.  We booked them thinking they were such a good price and we wouldn't have any problems finding a hotel room.  WRONG!!!  

Again, remember there are 5 of us.  And we are in a country that only allows you to have 1 child, unless you own a farm, then you're allowed to have 2.  Well guess what, we have 3!  Finding a place that would let us stay more than 3 in a room was a JOKE!  I literally spent HOURS on the computer trying to find a place for us.  Everyone kept telling me to get used to it, that we would have to get 2 rooms.  REALLY??  I don't even want to pay for 1 room, much less 2.  Not to mention, unless you can get adjoining rooms, that would mean Ryan would be in 1 room with a kid or 2, and I would be in the other with the remaining brood.  Not much of a family vacation if we're all split up! 

After not having any luck, I finally starting e-mailing hotels that had suites.  Even though it kept telling me online that it was too many people, I was hoping someone would let us get a suite for all 5 of us.  We thought about not telling them how many kids we have, but we've been told that Hong Kong is pretty strict on that, so we didn't want to lie and then have it come back to bite us later.  So we told the truth.  Finally, we found a place.  The Ramada Inn Hong Kong has Harbor View Suites, which is what we wanted.  We are staying right on Victoria Harbor, so we wanted a place facing the water.  And it's not a bad price either.  So I guess my hours of research finally paid off!

I was actually thinking about sending Ryan and the kids and just staying home by myself. Now *that's* my idea of a vacation!