It feels like summer here!!! - such a change from the cold temps of Beijing -- what a wonderful sight to see green and lots of it -- and flowers!! -- blooming pink bushes that made me think of blooming crab apple trees at home.
We are in Guilin in the province of Guangxi -- in a city of contrasts -- population 700,000 - small by China standards -- surrounded by mountains -- but mountains of a different sort -- hoping to get you some pictures by proxy -- (Lianne my IT support arrived yesterday and said the blocked photo thing is b/c we are in China mainland -- she had no problems in Hong Kong.)
The mounts look like a series of camel humps just plopped all down in a row or small groupings -- made of limestone our new province guide Becky tells us.
We had dinner at McFound last night -- an odd name -- an even odder experience --- quite a production to order as Julia said after it was done -- can you hear my voice there-- they had run out of vegetables -- seriously? - and had no cold drinks or water -- find for the adults as we cracked open a bottle of Red Stone wine from Chile to celebrate Family Day for Julia and me and the end of long day of traveling trials. The girls were served in very funky mugs warm -- rather -- steaming hot -- mango juice -- it tasted delicious once you got your head around the hot part. And the food when it came was the best I had had since we arrived-- wonderful noodles and rice -- rice is the specialty in Guilin we were told and it didn't disappoint -- spicy beef and yummy vegetable pancake wrap style thingys.
After dinner - we went for a walk around the lake by our hotel -- the walkway was decorated with coloured lights -- lovely and warm. And then to bed for our first real night of post jet lag sleep.
Breakfast today was a reunion of the whole group -- I was very relieved to see them when we didnt' see them last night -- and overwhelmed (aka cried) to know that we were all together now to share this next part of the journey. All Lianne's planning and scheduling with MaRui has paid off at our end.
Today we are off do some mountain climbing -- hmmm -- wonder what death defying feat I can master this time.
Julia is deligted to be in short sleeves and her light cotton pants -- with her fashion scarf tied in a jaunty-I'm-a-teenager kind of way.
morelater
A China Farewell
16 years ago
3 comments:
okay I think I am the first to post - Again. I just have to quit shaking because of my heroic adventure. Butterscotch escaped from his fricken ball - what is with this hamster? I went to get her to put back in the cage and found the ball in two pieces in the laundry room. After several sightings and acrobatics, I managed to get her and into the cage she went. Not sure I will let him out again. I was sooo paniked knowing tha twas Julia's biggest fear. Do not tell her until you are home and she is safely at your house. Anyway glad you met up with your buddies and glad the weather has changed for you. Can't wait until tomorrow's post.
Maureen
I am so happy that you, Lianne and the others have met up - and what a great way to celebrate Family Day! :)
What a change in weather! Maelyn's province is so close to where you are now...which has me thinking that if it is warm now, it is going to be HOT when we are there in June!
Hope you don't experience any more Olympic-type moments while mountain climbing! Although, if you do, I will enjoy reading about it! Hehe...
Hugs to all!
I too could npt wait to meet our friends this morning - wanted to run and skip and jump that we were together again.
With the help of friends at home we hope that we will soon have photos to share!
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