When we started planning for this trip. The idea of traveling with seven people by plane and train and fourteen suitcases sounded a bit daunting. Then I posed the possibility of traveling carry-on-only. Could we? When I mentioned it to others, some opened their eyes wide and laughed, other said it was the only way to go.
We did it...at least to get here. We will most likely need to buy a suitcase to bring home the treasures that have been heaped upon us. Shekinah was gifted one of those gourd flutes from her orphanage and I can't see it fitting in our current bags. We also ended up with two bags of moon cakes for Mid-Autumn Festival.
Anyway, back to the packing thing....Travel knit!! If you notice on posted photos we are mostly in black or gray dresses. I bought travel knit from Hobby Lobby, I don't know if it is a certain brand for only their store,but it is a totally comfortable knit...and this from a "cotton-only" girl. It washes in the sink and hangs to dry almost overnight...if you really need it in the morning, only the bottom few inches will be wet and the hair dryer takes care of that. The new synthetic undies don't do bad with sink washing and bathroom-line drying. The best thing is that you can squoosh them up in a very small package. We added easy dry t-shirts to go over our "sack dresses". The only complaint I have about knit dresses is that pockets don't work well with this fabric.
The other thing I like that I did on the last few trips is to make a travel binder. I printed out our itinerary, all our hotels reservations- with the addresses, copies of our passports and the kids' certificates of citizenship.
The thing we are learning this time with visiting the orphanages is that none of them do things the same, even tho they supposedly receive the same orders from above. One did not allow us to take photos of some of the paperwork, one did not allow us to even see her file, another walked out of the room and left us and our guide look at every scrap. Be flexible and remember that you are a guest.
Practice using chopsticks! :) So far we've not resorted to forks, but I will say that I've lifted the dish to my mouth and shoveled it in like I see some of the locals do...for those last bits of "yumminess" on the plate.
Use Duolingo and learn some Mandarin! I'm glad for every bit that I can remember. Also download the offline version of Google Translate. Don't count on your VPN always working or the internet at the hotels being all that prompt. Everyone here uses their phones for everything, but we got Google Fi for using on our phones and it works so-so. It has worked when we needed it, so I guess that's all that mattered.
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