When we arrived in Guilin (sounds like gi-lon) after an uneventful flight we encountered a problem. The tour company screwed up and had us coming in on a later flight and we wouldn’t have a bus for two hours. While waiting for Ellen to solve the problem we all sat down on what we were calling the great wall of China. As we looked across the way we spotted these palm trees which looked like they were made out of aluminum. Ellen spotted a bus sitting with a driver and she commandeered the bus so we were on our way to the hotel.

The next day we did connect with our tour guide and bus and headed for the Li River.. In order to walk to our river boat we had to walk on muddy rocks that were very slippery. A light rain was to be the order of the day together with misty views of the limestone formations. The views were breathtaking and now I understand what those mountain forms on so much of the Chinese artwork are representing. It is the limestone formations on the Li river. Chinese artists loved this area for so much of their work. A little like the French impressionists and their love of the Seine River.

A perfectly horrible meal was prepared and served on the boat and I resorted to beer as my protein, vegetables and grain of the day. We didn’t see our meal being prepared but we did on the other river boats and it looked like a boat could catch fire at any time. They were also washing the dishes in the river so I didn’t have much of an appetite. It also didn’t help when a man came by offering us snake wine prior to lunch being served.

This area has had a bad draught so the rain was very welcomed by the locals. You can see by the bank the result of the draught on the river. We also had a shorter river trip than normal because of the water level.

I was a little disappointed that this laundry was not called a Chinese Laundry.