Beautiful Guilin and the adventures of Yangshou

This was my little "pad" on the sleeper bus.  NOTE:  sleeper bus is by far the best way to travel long distance.  I love.  America should look into these thangs.
Some nice Chinese girls switch Whitney and I for our bottom bunks so we could be on the top away from the "aisle dwellers".  See what the bus people do it they sell enough tickets so that every part of the bus is filled with people-meaning people sleep in the aisles....and those sleeping on bottom bunks sometimes end up closer to the aisle dwellers than they want.  So top bunk is the way to ride.
My view of the aisle before the bus was full.  p.s don't come to China if you are claustrophobic .
Welcome to Yangshou my friends.
This sweet little boy got ahold of someone's stickers....
Our first adventure was the "Li River Cruise".  Unfortunately, it rained-but that was no problem because our raft was covered.  :)
This nice Korean girl joined Whitney, Jace and I  She didn't speak English but she was nice.
I got a little artsy-fartsy after I discovered "color accent" on my camera.



I like Chinese graffiti, it's a lot prettier here.
The famous Guilin/Yangshou mountains-stunning.

Random wall.
The famous West Street.  I repeat do not come here if you are claustrophobic.
How precious is she?
Shameful chicken burger!  Western food was everywhere and Lucy's Place was recommended by everyone.  Tony knows how to cook a good burger and make some dang good banana juice.
I signed this on the wall at Lucy's.
This is a 4.5 year old who speaks FLUENT Chinese, English and French.  Oh the people you'll meet.
Whit and I HAD to try on the Gucci's.
At some random CD store we found four Mormon Tabernacle CD's-all different volumes.  Who ever said the foundation was being laid here.......was right!
For our second day we rented bikes for a "country side tour".  Whit and I totally mastered the tandum bike-but it wasn't exactly a cake walk to make it look this easy.
Okay so we tried on the Gucci's and got sucked in to buying some.  These puppies started at 220 yuan and we bought them for 30 yuan.  We're proud cheap Americas.
Famous "Moon Hill".  We hiked that.
Sign we saw right before we started our ascent.

Okay , the hike was harder than expected, so we stopped mid way and took some pictures.
The view from the "hole in the mountain".  This picture does not say the thousand words it's worth.  It was amazing.

.....I was pooped.
and then I peed.....
...well there wasn't a bathroom and while Whit and I were mooning on Moon Hill I decided to take care of business.  
The pink thing is me!


After Moon Hill we headed for the water caves.  There was a pretty orange orchard (?) right before we got there, I loved the vibrant oranges, but my cool "color accent" mode didn't grasp it here.
Alright, that little hole is the entrance to the cave....I'm a short person and I was practically laying in the boat so that I didn't hit my head.
Right before take off.
Inside the "water cave" there is actually a sweet mud pool!  (I promise I was clothed)  It was so much fun!  The mud was amazing and the three of us had fun getting each other dirty.
The "slide" was no bueno on my bum bum.

There were natural hot springs to rinse off in after the mud war.  The steam is deceiving because it wasn't really hot.
We lost track of time in the cave and when we got out it was pitch black dark.  In order to get to the caves we took a ten minute van ride on a crickety dirt road but when we came out there was no van to be found.  Our cave tour guide made a quick call and then left us all by our lonesome. This is me in my frustration.  Disclaimer: the van came and we were safe.
No, we never showered clean after the mud caves, we just went out to eat-we were really very dirty.  But this is Whit and I at Lucy's getting some grub again.  (We ate a lot on this trip, Western food is just good stuff.)
The bus ride home was supposed to be on a sleeper, but a sitter is what we got.  For the first hour I enjoyed my suns and ipod and then....

made the sitter, a sleeper.