Day 12

Rain Yesterday a nice plane ride brought us to Guilin.  We took a cab to the Hotel which was interesting.  Usually I like to take  freeways that are finished but this driver had different ideas.  We found ourselves on all sorts of roads that weren't fished (and by the looks of some tbey weren't even started) but we finally arrived at the Eva Inn. Nice hotel.  Hard beds.  VERY hard beds.  Literally one-eigth inch thick foam over a board.  We had a snack in the hotel resturant.  They were very nice people, They said they would remember us for dinner and save a table for us.  Diane is "hooked" on dumplings I think.  Concieage walked us to the boat - you would not believe the heels this woman was wearing on these loose stone streets!   A beautifull evening boat ride took us through four lakes and under bridges.  There was one bridge that was made from glass.  Absolutally stunning!  The Pagoda there is a beautifull sight- especially when lit at night.  After the boat ride we went walking and shopping in the "pedestrian zone" although that doesn't stop the scooters from trying to run you over in there.  We ate dinner at the Hotel resturant and they were true to their word-they had a table saved especially for us!  Dumplings again. Diane did order a spaghetti that was the hit of the table.  She said  "you can't go wrong with spaghetti - must be the Italian in me" hmmmmm, no mention of the French side Larry... Then bed.  Beds VERY hard but slept somewhat well anyway. This morning i woke up to the "sound of rain gently tapping on the window".  Actually it was more like buckets of water being thrown against it.  It is POURING!  And today we are set to go down the Li river with 500 of our newest Chinese friends!  And it doesn't look like it's going to slow any either.  According to a waitress here in the resturant it is suppose to do this today and tomorrow.  I THINK that's what she said..... either that or the breakfast special is eggs sauted with pig intestine -I wasn't quite clear on it...  We left the hotel went to the boat via our local travel guide Tony and a van.  We ate lunch on the boat and.Diane ate too!  (She's doing so well with the food here!).  Took TONS of pictures.  Pete had a deck of Cards that had 53 cards in it,  I'm thinking "extra joker" but after 2 queen of spades, two ten of clubs and three jack of diamonds we figures it was a mixed deck.  I kept taking pics and trying to get other boats to wave but they were all stick in the MUDs.  But as everyone knows I don't give up easily and I finally succeed!.  Now there are those who will say I just annoyed them to a point where they just gave in but I would like to think I found some new friends.. At the end of the boat ride we arrived in  Yangshuo.  After checking into the Yongshou Regency Holiday Hotel  Diane had a last minute conference call so Pete, Diane and I went to the Silver Mine with Wendy (our Yangshuo guide).   Beautifull, lights, a reflecting pool that you could stare into for hours and ten thousand of our newest Chinese friends in a dark damp cave made for a hot and wet experience indeed..  Back at the hotel Diane introduced me to "Kui pitching".  It's where you stand on your balcony, wait for a "sea of umbrellas" to come by (it doesn't work with only one or two) and then pitch a 1RMB coin onto one of them.  Them you watch as it bounces off the umbrella, hits the ground and all the people behind the person with the umbrella you bounced it off of and that person grab for the coin and try to figure out where it came from.  "ah, Buddha smile on me on this rainy day!". It's great fun and something to do on a rainy day.  And besides, you are helping the economy! We walked and shopped and pissed off a few more Chinese vendors who sold us stuff without "makee no moneeee!!!" and then went to a wonderfull dinner. Ok, I know this is a long post but I HAVE to tell one last thing.  So there are these Chinese flutes that they sell here.  Spenser, you will think these are so cool!  Anyway, I have been wanting to buy one since the first time I saw them but haven't got the right price yet.  So, from our balcony dinner table we see this old Chinese guy with these things hanging from his belt and playing one while walking around.  The "group" convinces me to go and talk to him.  "Buy one from the nice old Chinese man" Diane says.  So off I go. By the time I get to where he is he's around the corner so I hurry to catch up.  He is just finishing with a customer and I notice a group of eight attractive chinese (what I am later to find out are students here on an outing) young ladies have gathered aroud him to watch him.  He has three sizes of these flutes and I ask the difference.  The young ladies get involved and between his and their broken English and my broken (more like "shattered") Chinese I get that one is a bass, one a mid-range and one is the higher scale.  This communication of mid-pronounced words and animated hand gestures has us all just howling!  I ask the man "duo shou kui?" and he tells me " ye ba wu".  I counter, he counters and we finally settle on a price.  The girls all laugh and clap and everyone is happy.  But instead of walking away the man wants to show me how to play it.  This draws another round of applause from the girls so what the hell.  He shows me how to hold it and where to put my fingers and I see it is somewhat similar to the recorders we used to play in school.  So I play a resounding round of "Mary had a little lamb" which draws delight from the man " very good grasshopper" and cheers from the young female students ("big tall American man play 'Mary had a little lamb'....yaaaaay!")  The man turns to leave and the tallest (and did i mention they were HOT college girls?) asked if I will have a picture taken with them and I say "of course!" which draws another consecutive "yaaaay" from them.  So here I am with eight young college ladies (did I mention they were all really HOT???) gathering around me, putting their arms around me, leaning into me and smiling and laughing and having a grand time and wanting their pictures taken with me..  Any idea where my ego is right about now? After pictures are taken I start to leave but they aren't moving.  The tall (HOT) college girl asks me "so are you here alone?".  ALLRIGHTY THEN...  "No, i'm here with people up there" and point towards the second floor of the resturant.  "Oh" she said, her smile turning into somewhat of a frown.  She said something to her friends and then to me she says "why does she leave you alone down here?" Excuse me, I just need to take a minute here...... (breathe.....) We said goodby and I returned to the resturant finding it very difficult to fit my head through the door. Oh Doug how I was wishing you were here!