It was time for another one of our adventures, so this time we traveled to CHINA!! I was a little short on time, so my research was not as extensive as in previous trips, but things still turned out ok. A couple things happened initially, that sprouted a twinge of doubt that our trip would be perfect. For starters, I was not feeling well, no problem that tons of Motrin and Tylenol wouldn't cover, to ensure I wasn't detected for a fever. Secondly, we almost didn't make it on the plane. I almost had to break out the Immodium for that little mishap. You see, when stationed in Japan and traveling outside of the country, you need a cute little stamp placed in your passport that allows you re-entry into the country! It was on my mental to-do list, but never made the actual done list. With 25 minutes to spare, I remembered that we had a copy of Dan's original orders for us to accompany him to Japan. We were saved! Once we were on the plane, I felt that things could only get better. Everything was going smoothly and we arrived in Guilin very late. In the morning, Dan went to exchange some of our American money for Yuan - no go! We had "dirty" money (a little marker on some of the bills), so the hotel wouldn't make the exchange. With very little Chinese money on hand, we began our tour of the beautiful Li River. It was the whole reason we wanted to travel to this southern part of China, and it turned out to be very enjoyable and picturesque. The mountains were beautiful and unique, and even though it was cloudy, we got to experience the quiet of China's farmland. We disembarked in Yangshou, which is a tiny village upstream. We stayed here for two nights touring the various sights and shopping on West Street. Turns out Dan was the pro at bargaining - I was way too soft. He purchased three North Face jackets for us for under $80, a couple North Face backpacks and some LeSportSac purses, some art and trinkets . . . I've never seen him enjoy shopping so much!! I thought we were going to kill ourselves on a bike ride - hundreds of bikes and cars with no recognizable traffic rules. I don't think I had been on a bike in about 10 years, so I was scared. Once we were out of the city limits, we had a relaxing time peddling through the farms and mountains. It was awesome! We really enjoyed this part of China, despite some high pressure sales women on our hike up Moon Hill. We thought it was really cute that these two old ladies wanted to hike up the mountain with us. Our guide failed to explain that they would try to sell us drinks, books, and postcards, once we reached the top . . . wow! They turned evil! We ended up buying 2 drinks for about $7! Rip off!! They were furious with our guide that we didn't buy anything else. Oh well! We ran into that a couple times - taking us to nice tea demonstrations and then expecting us to buy $100 tea! Get real! I lost my cool at that location . . . the guide knew it, so we didn't visit any more of those places with him! :) Overall, we really enjoyed this part of China and the experiences we had. Look to the next post for the Beijing write up!
