Guiilin  is a small city with around 5 million living in and around the city. The landscape is marked by beautiful rivers, picaresque mountains, and, nearby, legendary rice terraces. And, what better way to start this adventure then with a sketchy, although cheaper ( we saved $1.50) taxi ride, in a car that resembled a shittier version of Mom’s/Paige’s Mazda (before Paige totaled it),  from airport to city. After the taxi driver and I discussed the two possible routes, the first, the new airport speedway with a 10 yuan toll, or the back way that (with *hand motion resembling snake movement*) goes the back way. I, being the college student I am, chose the back way because it saved me (actually mom) $1.50. So  its half gravel, half concrete with huge potholes, windy, narrow, and we go completely out of sight of any lights multiple times.  We wove through shacks and swampy areas, every time we slowed down to make a 90 degree turn Mom would squeeze me thinking someone was going to rip the door open and we would be kidnapped. But alas, we made it to the hostel.

Since the hostel lead tours  worked out so well in Xi’an we decided that someone figuring out transportation, tickets, and food for us was a good way to go.  First  official day in Guilin we went to Longsheng to see the long hair tribe, these women cut their hair between 16-18 then don’t again for the rest of their life, as it long hair will represent long life, then up to the legendary Longji rice terraces.

The 2 hour ride to the terraces and Longsheng village was almost worth the entire trip, the landscape was breath taking, and what was a really cool part of this leg of the trip was the people we met. This day we met a Swedish couple and they were really awesome. We were van buddies.  The first part of tour was the village.

 

We got to see a show about their traditions and watch them put up their hair.

And after lunch.......

It was Terrace Time!!!!

Then we walked through the village a little bit more, it was kind of sad to see, there were so many hotels/hostels going up and they don’t really depend on working the paddies for livelihood anymore, just tourism. Which felt like a recurring theme in these areas.

The next day. We decided to take a boat down the Li river to stay the night in Yangshuo, this is mountains that you see in ancient Chinese paintings. We met this older couple from Richfield, Washington who were doing the China tour after visiting their daughter in Taiwan. Dad you would of loved this guy. 

 

Can you find the 9 horses on this wall? If you get more than 3 you are better than Bill Clinton.

It was about a 4 hour cruise down the river, and while all the Chinese people got tired and went down into the AC galley, all the westerners stay on the deck looking at the unreal scenery. Mom got to see her first Chinese princess. Who despite all the efforts of her boyfriend was very unhappy for having to be on a boat, “honey do you want anything to eat or drink?” “NO NO NO NO” , “okay, do you want to go up on the deck and look at the mountaints?” “ NO I just want to stay here” and…. So she did

From the recommendation of the Swedish couple, we participated in the second half of the tour, which  was a fishing village outside of Yangshuo where we go pushed around on bamboo rafts.

 

Watched a Cormorant fish 

 And play with water buffalo,

*** Pictures in this section were taken at opportune times***

*** end section ***

Mom loves water buffalo.

After the tour ended and we were taken back to town we spend a lovely 1.5 mile walk with all of our shit in the 90+ degree weather in the most humid of humid to find our hostel. Clean up, rent bikes and head into town to, what Momma J voted as the best meal she has had in China. It was a vegetarian restaurant, don’t look at me, with delicious, no grease, no oil ... food.

The next morning we woke up and got an early start to a really fun, easy-going bike ride around the outskirts of town.

 

 

 

Also these trucks were everywhere.

Yangshuo is very geared towards tourism, everything they try and get you to pay for, even go to this little parking lot to see the moon hill.

It was 15 yuan each !! what is this shit. To walk into a parking lot, well the homie at the ticket counter wasn't there, so mom and I play the dumb Westerner card and just walk in and take a picture(Actually two) before they knew what had happened, then “oh sorry, I didn't know I couldn't do that.”  Works every time….

The afternoon we round two'ed the previous nights' vegetarian restaurant then  took a  bus back to Guilin and stayed in a very convenient Chinese  hotel, convenient  in the fact that we could walk downstairs and catch the airport express in the morning. This place was awful. After checking in and down a very American thing while on vacation, go to a movie, we come back , Mom needs to go to the bathroom and discovers a giant cockroach on the ground. Well, she yells for me to come kill it. I come over thinking it will be nothing. It was something. 

-I scream when i see it, and run to my bed

-Mom yells for me to come back and kill it

-so i come with a book and DROP it on it

-Mom STOMPS  on the book

-we lift up the book

-it is still alive and skitters around

-so then, Mom STOMPS on the bug directly and smushes it

- it is twitching now

-Mom leaves, and says " there I killed, you clean it up."

- I poke it, and it flips up(half of the body still flattened

- and it starts moving towards a hole or something

-I yell at mom to get in,

- She tells me to stop being a pussy

- I run to the bed and get in fetal position

Recover

come back

-Mom trys to pick it up

-it darts away

-she screams, then picks it up and throws it into the toilet, flushes 

In the end, we couldn't kill it, it refused to die. 

A great beginning and end to the Guilin leg. Now (3 days ago) off to Hong Kong! And then………. Home!!

Other things that happened:

+Pictures of mom trying to cross a wooden swinging bridge and brushing her hair in the middle of  a KFC

+Trolling Chinese vendors trying to sell me watches when i was wearing one

+Constant entertainment of Momma Jolley's chopstick skills

Hong Kong will be up soon!

See you all soon.