Elephant Trunk Hill, Seven Stars Park and Reed Flute Cave

We started our day at the Elephant Trunk Hill. Some of my adoptive family friends may be familiar with "Big Bird in China." If you are, you know the rock formation that I am speaking. I've attached a photo of the rock. This rock is located on the Li River in Guilin.

After the Elephant Trunk Hill, we headed over to the Seven Stars Park. China takes great pride in her parks and they are often busy with people walking and doing excercises. We saw a panda again...and a red panda and a few monkeys. We even saw a monkey running lose in the park. It reminded me of my trip to Cambodia with Toby! There was a beutiful waterfall....attached a photo. There is also a rock formation that looks like a camel.

After the park we found our way to KFC.....AGAIN!!!!! Tom was to bring us all french fries with our chicken but came to the table without any saying, "they don't have french fries." The girls were disappointed. We were all surprised to see others eating french fries. Tom talked with an American couple who informed him that they are not "french fries here, they are chips." So, we ordered some chips!

After lunch we headed out to Reed Flute Cave. It was a nice enough cave, but when you've been to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, nothing compares. We are done early today and will venture out for Chinese food for dinner. We are sick of the Chinese KFC's!

The kids are all doing well. Tomorrow we will be going down the Li River to Yangshou. We will spend the night there. I'm not sure if we'll have access to internet there. We head back to Guilin on Sunday morning to catch a bus to Nanning...the city where Sarah lived most of her first 22 months.

Longsheng Minority Village

Here are more photos from our day yesterday at the Longsheng Minority Village. They are:
a woman selling things on the side of the walkway. She has extremely long hair wrapped up on the top of her head; a view of the village on the way up; Family shot in the village; family shot from the top of the mountain; and a view from the top.

Guilin Day One

Trying something new from the Business Center of the hotel. These pictures should be the views from both windows in our hotel room in Guilin. There is also the "Wood Couch Photo of Guilin," the third couch photo from three cities; three to go!

TJ, proud of you getting that job! After 21 days in China, I will look forward to a BMT from Subway! By the way, we have seen one Subway in Xi'an.

The village

This is a view of the village on our way up the mountain.

Working on a special blog post titled, "Potty Options in China." Will highlight the five options for taking care of personal business while in China. I will even have pictures of the options! I know, you can't wait! Keep in mind that these pictures are pictures we have taken, not from others so we'll have first-hand knowledge of each! One will shock the heck out of you that Lily actually used....Sam, get ready....it's bad!

Longsheng Minority Village

We are unable to get on Tom's laptop from Guilin so we can't access the program to decrease the size of pictures so I will only post one pic for today until we can figure somethng else out.

Our last day in Xi'an did not go as expected. The rain kept us from doing the scheduled events so we did what any good American would do on a rainy day...we went to the mall! We killed several hours in an arcade, ate lunch at a KFC (again). By the way, there are seven times as many KFC's in CHina than there are McDonald's. We hit a Dairy Queen on our way out of the mall before heading to the airport. The plane ride to Guilin was rough for a few reasons. First, the turbulence was absolutely terrible! Second, Sarah broke out in a major rash on her arms and trunk. She was miserable and I was anxious as I knew it was an allergic reaction to something, but had no clue what it was. The first thing I dug out of the suitcase when we claimed them was the Benedryl. She was fine within 20 minutes. She seems fine today.

We arrived last night and it was dark so we didn't see much. We were all either extremely tired or grumpy as we were greeted by our rather happy guide, Lee. We had a great day with her today, but last night I was concerned. She seemed to speak English rather well, but couldn't understand it. I got a little frustrated with something regarding our itinerary and she couldn't understand so I said, "I am not happy." Gosh, I was a bit too mean! Fortunately, I don't think she understood because she kept talking about other things.

But, His mercies are new every morning! Thank you, God! We all got a good nights sleep, Sarah's rash was gone and we ate fairly recognizable food for breakfast! After breakfast we met Lee and our driver out front of our hotel. Oh, by the way, the hotel is great. We have the most amazing views! Guilin is in the northern part of Guangxi Province, Sarah's birth province. It is known for it's mountains and water. If anyone is familiar with the not so famous DVD, "Big Bird in China" you would recognize this area by the unique mountains. The weather was supposed to be cloudy and rainy, but God knew we needed some sun...and He sent it! We drove 2 1/2 hours to the Longsheng Minority Village. I can't wait to post more pictures because it was an amazing day. The drive up the mountain was a bit frightening and having driven through the Smoky Mountains and White Mountains numerous times......neither compare to the wild ride of this mountain! The village can only be reached by foot once you get to a certain point. So, we got out of the van and started our hike. There were shops along the way and beautiful views. The women of this village do not cut their hair and have thier hair up in such a way that it looks like a black silk hat. One woman offered to comb out her hair for us for 10 RMB but we passed on it.

Hoping to figure out the laptop problem so we can blog from our room. Right now I am using the Business Center of the hotel and unfortunately, we don't have access to a program to make smaller pictures to send. Maybe tomorrow. We are going to a park and some caves tomorrow. THe following day is the ride down the Li River....looking forward to that.

TJ, still haven't heard from you regarding the good news. Email me through Ami's email address. If not, know that we all love you and miss you.

Guilin

A view from our room in Guilin.

A View From the Middle Seat.......

These were taken on our way from the Xi'an History Museum to the Terra Cotta Warrior Factory...too funny! Yes, we are wearing them all out!

See you in Guilin!

TJ, heard you have some good news.....waiting!