As some of you may know I am not a morning person... and I am really not a morning person when I am sleeping comfortably in my Sweet Sleeper Bed (sleeping well for the first time in 5 days). Needless to say getting up today to go on our half day tour was a bit of a struggle for me. Once we were up and showered we headed down stairs to meet our tour bus and guide. We were waiting by the front door when the guide, Ryan, approached and asked us to follow him. So we did thinking we would be meeting up with the rest of the group and the bus. Nope not us, today we rode in style; black Lincoln, leather interior, tv's again, our own driver and a personal english speaking guide. Honestly, roughing it is cool and all, builds character and all that crap, but I could get used to this kind of traveling.
Comfortably in our Lincoln Town car we headed out to our first site here in Guilin, Fubo Cave named after general who did something for the emperor a long time ago (wiki it if your interested). We walked around the cave area that is covered in Buddha wall carvings from 1000 to 600 years ago. According to our guide several of the carvings were damaged during the peoples revolution, but you can still get the idea and it is pretty cool. After that we hiked to the top of the limestone mountain to get a birds eye view of the city. We spent a few minutes up there taking pictures then it was back down to the car. We traveled about 35 min to Flute Reed Cave, which is apparently pretty famous and has been visited by four U.S presidents. In addition to our own car we also got to enter the cave without waiting. I am not exactly sure, but somehow the Sheraton got a deal from the government that allowed us to take a separate entrance into the cave preventing us from having to wait for a larger group of people to go inside. Unlike the dry cave we visited in Arizona this one was still forming and water pretty much drips on you the whole time your walking through the cave. It was a good size cave, in my expert opinion, with some big open areas and some really cool formations that looked like all different kinds of things including lions, fruit, Santa Clause, snowman, and even the statue of liberty, which all apparently formed naturally.
On the way back from the cave we stopped at a pearl factory and did a little shopping. On our approach some lady ran from the front radioing the rest of the group. I imagine she was screaming "white people" or "suckers approaching" come to the front quickly. After a tour on how pearls form we entered the main attraction the show room. I wont say what I bought or who it is for just in case I change my mind before I get home and pawn it off to get my money back. I have no idea if it was a good deal, but I am assuming I probably got ripped off since I have no idea what to look for and pretty much have to believe what the ladies trying to sell me it say. Not the best position to be in... After about 30 minutes there we headed to our last stop Elephant Trunk Hill. On the way in to the park Chris got hassled by some little girl selling roses for 5 yuan. She was relentless standing in his way and grabbing him, so he finally had to resort to kicking her and shoving her to the ground to get away. Elephant Trunk Hill is probably the one the city of Guilin is best known for, but honestly there is not a whole lot to see. It is a limestone rock formation that looks like an elephant dipping his trunk into the water. That's really about all there is to see so we did not spend too much time there.
By the end of the tour our guide was getting pretty comfortable with us and us with him. He really was a colorful guy and had some pretty good stories along the way, telling us about stuff that happened there and things he had read in the news. He even went as far as telling us about a Taiwanese show he watched where a monkey was trained to turn its head away from ugly chics and spank his littler monkey when he saw a hot chic. I have no idea how it came up, but it was an awesome story. Be advised I will be training a monkey of my own as soon as I get home to the states and starting a new series of Hot or Not with a panel of monkeys.
Back in the Sheraton by noon it was time to go find some lunch. Since we had been sticking to western food for the last few meals I felt a little guilty and decided to go with something more traditional. So.. I got a little "adventurous" and ordered fried shrimp with chili. I thought it would be a pretty normal dish just spicy. Nope the shrimp arrived pretty much in tact, heads, shells and all. They were covered in jalapenos, peppers, and some kind of sauce. I am not sure how you are supposed to eat it, if your supposed to eat the shells and all, but my uncultured self proceeded to pick each of them off the plate and peal them. It was basically like pealing a hot wing and my hands were covered in hot sauce by the end. I am sure I looked like some asshole American, but there was no way I was eating the shell... never know how that's gonna come out the next day.
Not sure what else we will do today, but we are uploading pictures now so hopefully there will be something to look at in 8 ours when they finally finish.
