12/7/13: Tianhe Pools

Katie and I awoke early on Saturday, ready to head off to Tianhe pools at nine. We got dressed, packed some money, grabbed chocolates we had bought for them, and headed up to the school. Now we had arranged it to arrive a few minutes early again… except they were waiting for us already! Kind of a bummer, us trying to be early. Oh well…

Still, it was good to see these lovely people again!

We talked with Jerry in the backseat for a good hour or two as we headed through town through some sketchy areas, lost and trying to find the park! Lots of traffic jams followed in our wake, unfortunately, but we eventually got to the right parking lot! Didn’t look like much but there was a big sign that stated where we were, so yay!

Worked on getting the tickets while we took a few pictures and realized just how cold the day really was. It wasn’t too pretty until we passed part of the drive way, empty streets and food booths- and then we were inside the beautiful park!

So  much lovely greenery! It was a bit smaller than expected- you could see the majority of the park right then, it wasn’t super huge. But it was definitely bigger than most parks around. You could see the zipline, a few waterfalls, a few buildings- and at an angle you couldn’t really see behind a building- would be the water lake and caves. It was so stunning and beautiful!

We spent the starter time trying to ignore the cold, of course, but we couldn’t help but enjoy ourselves as well. We had a lot of fun taking different paths by the ponds and waterfalls- we were taking so many pictures! There was the incense wheel, water wheel, and other waterfalls. It was so awesome and beautiful!

However since I had woken up, I felt like crap. Which is why I tried not to have too many pictures of myself taken, because you can kinda tell by the look on my face that I felt terrible. Feverish aches and pains and I had a hard time concentrating. Luckily for me Katie was around to pick up my slack and so it was hard to tell anything was wrong.

After venturing most of the paths, we eventually found our way to the boats! It was so incredible, I loved it! So did Katie! Jerry was pretty nervous, gripping hands for most of the way but that was kind of cute as well. The guide led us through a small opening in the caves, and there were colored lights everywhere to add light in the darkness. There were a few dragon carvings in there, which was so awesome. All of it was amazing! 

And it was decently long, too. The final trip out was through this tiny hallway… it was pretty epic!

We finally came around in a circle, back to the dock. And next to it was another trail inside to see more of the caves on foot! So that’s what we did. I had a hard time keeping up because there were so many stairs- it seemed endless! Variations of rooms with colored lights and more. We had to be careful because the whole place was damp, but the entirety made it worth every minute and every step. It was incredible! Then there was a little cave hallway we walked through, covered in lights- Katie raced Jerry through there, that was pretty cute. And so beautiful!

After the caves, we passed through on the Lover’s Bridge. The unsteadiness of it scared Jerry again, which much to our shame, us four adults sort of laughed about it and wiggled it to and fro to scare him. Admittedly, his mom was doing it just as much as us- well, Katie- so we just had a fun time there for a bit. There’s also all these old locks on the sides, where couples make promises and leave the locks there to symbolize their promises and such. Super cute- and the view from the bridge is amazing!

And the bridge led to the zipline! Yay! Awesome!

Although turns out, it basically leads the way out of the park, which meant we had to be done for the day. At first we were all pretty bummed… but by that time we had seen everything in the park and we’d been there for a few decent hours, so we were okay with that after all. However, Jerry refused to do it. We’d scared him enough for the day and he wasn’t going to do this after all, even though he could ride with either of his parents.

Finally, his mom agreed not to go and to walk back with him. So Katie, Jerry’s father and I got belted up for the zipline. I was first, scarily enough! They had me strapped up and hooked to the line before I even knew what the brake was- which made me very nervous because it’s my job to stop myself! Anyways, Katie pointed it out and I grudgingly got tossed into the air!

Which was freaking awesome! I yelled but apparently no one ended up hearing me, haha. Of course, Katie screamed when she went but I didn’t hear her- although the others said they did. Anyways, it was fun, although it seemed super short. Still, the view was decent from what I recall seeing- and then suddenly I was heading into an alcove and braking- although I think I did it a little early, I was just so nervous!

Still, the guys helped me get unhooked all right.  A minute later, Katie was coming into view, and then Jerry’s father was there. We all got unstrapped, saw the pictures they took, didn’t buy them, and headed out.

It was going to be a while until we saw Jerry and his mom so we wandered around, tried to avoid the people selling horse rides and food, and Katie had us go back by the poet’s house and take lots of pictures. To be fair, it was a lovely little spot. And the sun had finally come out so we didn’t need to be as bundled up as before.

We walked around endlessly- and not tirelessly because I was a bit dizzy and still not feeling well. Luckily, Jerry and his mom took a little bus thing to get closer to us. We wandered a ways toward them until they showed up and hopped off- so we all walked back.

Tired, we sat down and Jerry had a ticket to watch a ‘5D’ movie- a Shrek piece that I think came from Universal Studios- the one where Lord Farquad is a ghost?- So he did that for a few minutes while we relaxed.

Afterwards, we hit up a little restaurant to eat lunch at. It was nearing 2 in the afternoon or so, if not closer to 3, so we were pretty hungry. We tried a few interesting dishes they picked for us- some bland jalapenos among other things. The rice came in an old fashioned wooden bucket which Katie just loved. We ate a bit, and I got attacked as usual for not eating very much. Although in my defense, I felt pretty crappy.

Since they paid for gas and our tickets, we offered to pay and they let us. This was a perfect reminder why we don’t go to super nice places, seeing as it cost us 155 RMB for all those dishes. It would be about 30 USD which I suppose isn’t too terrible, but still, it’s a lot! And it wasn’t even that nice of a restaurant.  Oh well… Still, it was nice to relax, I suppose.

We were heading back when Katie noticed how bad I was looking- and we were going to the parking lot to meet Jerry’s aunt and cousin. Katie brought up my condition, not too sure I’d be able to make it while shopping at a mall and staying active for the rest of the evening, and then the parents were concerned. Plans had been made and I felt really bad for breaking it up- but after some discussion, we decided to cut it short since I wasn’t doing so good.

Katie sat in the back of the car with Jerry and his cousin- they played games like thumb war and sang to Justin Bieber on the girl’s phone. Meanwhile I sat in front with Jack, Jerry’s dad. Lucy, Jerry’s mom and Jerry’s Aunt took another car back into town. I ended up dozing for most of the drive since my coughing was getting bad and I had nothing to really talk about.

They all gathered to drop us off at our house. They were pretty concerned, advising me to drink lots of water and do a lot of sleeping, maybe see a doctor. I thanked them for their advice, promised to follow some of it- then we thanked them for the wonderful and apologized for cutting it short before finally separating.

That’s how I wound up lying in bed for the next two hours, curled up and trying to sleep. I played some music quietly on and off to try and help me relax, but that never worked. However, it was very nice to stay in bed. I kept all my clothes on plus an extra pair of socks, and spend a while fiddling on the computer.

Soon it was a bit after seven, so Katie, bored, joined me on my bed for a Criminal Minds episode. Then we did our own thing for a short while before returning to the living room to watch another movie. We did that and after the movie we talked for a bit- but we only talked for a few minutes for me to mix up the day with D-Day, realize I mixed up Iwo Jima and Pearl Harbor, the movies. Also that I had not only seen the latter movie but I had even brought it with us.  To end the discussion, I called our couch a table. So that’s when we decided it was time for bed!

It was about that time that a fever started to build so I piled on as much as I could and even wore my hat to bed to keep anything from happening. The fever never had a chance and broke soon enough. Of course that still woke me up about one in the morning and it may have had to do with the fact we had just watched Prince of Persia, but I had some very solid thoughts while awake after midnight that I had to go somewhere to trade for a new horse carriage… I don’t remember what else, so I figured I’d go back to sleep. I woke up a few more times, feeling ill, but eventually it faded a bit and I got some decent rest.