4/29

Monday 4/29:

Monday Mikelle got up a little early to check and see if there were any tours available for the day going to the rice terraces and we discovered there were no english or chinese tours available. It was pouring rain outside so we spent a while at the hostel eating breakfast and trying to figure out what to do.

We ended up taking a taxi to the bus station where we paid for a bus to Longsheng and then got on another bus heading up to the actual terraces. Overall transportation and the fee for the terraces ended up costing less than 100 yuan as compared to the 300 for an english tour and 180 for a Chinese tour. Booyah!! If you can figure out how to do it on your own it is SO much better.

When we arrived at the terraces I had to pee something fierce and it didn't help that it was raining so I was constantly hearing the sound of rushing water. I know a grand total of about 5 words in Chinese other than numbers and have horrible trouble saying them so asking for a bathroom got me a lot of laughs and we finally decided there just wasn't anywhere there for us to go. So what did we do? We walked a little ways out and peed on a rice terrace. Can't wait to tell that story to my grandchildren.

It was seriously one of the best days of my life. There was a group of about 5 Asian guys our age that were there but other than that it was just us. It rained for the first half we were there which made everything beautiful and misty. There's a path through the terraces that you can hike on so we spent a couple hours hiking from one small village to another. Right before we got to the second village there were a couple side paths you could take for scenic views so Sam and I hiked up to those and then met the rest of the group at the bottom. There were a few vendors there and I bought a purse I'm in love with for 25 yuan before we all got in a van and rode back to Guilin.

Back at the hostel we were all starving since none of us had eaten all day and had been hiking so we ordered dinner there. A bunch of people got fried rice and I tried Sam's and it was super delicious. I ordered orange duck which took longer to prepare and it was pretty good. I made the mistake of not paying much attention to what I was eating and put a piece of orange in my mouth, thinking it was a potato. That's wasn't the most pleasant of surprises.

Cherish was sick and Jamie needed space so the other 5 of us tried to make plans for the next day. We wanted to go to the Reed Flute Cave in the morning where Cherish would switch groups and go with the head teachers and then we'd take a cruise down the Li River to get to Yangshuo. The problem was that all the cruises left early but we couldn't leave any earlier because we had to drop off Cherish. It turned into somewhat of a dead-end argument and I left to go shower. When I got back nothing had still been accomplished so we decided to walk around in the town for a little bit. Mikelle was upset over planning so she stayed at the hostel while Melanie, Geoff, Sam, and I walked down to the bank and then checked out what turned out to be an arcade called Mario World Game and then stopped at a bakery on the way back.

Back at the hostel Melanie went to bed and I talked to Geoff for a while while Sam played guitar. Eventually Geoff went to bed and I spent the rest of the night talking to Sam. Here's what Sam was so kind to write in this document about that night:

"He [Sam] looked super sexy with his blond hair and dashing good looks. He doesn't actually play the guitar or sing very well, but that's what makes it so entertaining. We stayed up in the lobby until late listening to the same American music that just seems to run on a loop here. Sam made one of the songs better than ever by changing the lyrics. Why do birds suddenly appear every time geoff is near? Just like me, they long to be, close to Geoff. Why do stars fall down from the sky every time Geoff walks by? You get the picture."

It was a really enjoyable way to end the night. We looked at pictures from the day on Sam's camera and then he told me about different types of return missionaries (A, B, BB, PF, F) which I'll explain to you some day if you'd like and then did some kind of personality test on me by having me create a story step by step about a warehouse. Super nice and how I'd like to spend more evenings of my life.