Monday: For family night we did our annual "Silly dinner". This year the menu was in Chinese characters. The kids kept saying, "if it's fried rice, switch it for something else", so of course they chose that and they mostly ended up with the same meal. I don't have all my crazy dishes here either, so it wasn't quite the same. Ally, you didn't miss much.
Todd and I went to pick up some photos and to buy some hair clippers from Tonan, the local hair salon. While there we decided to get haircuts. They start off with washing your hair, twice, and then a mini massage while you are laying flat on the table. Todd was a couple steps ahead of me and there is a mirror above so I got to watch him get worked over. at one point he had two hot towels on his face and neck and the guy took his hands, palms together and started smacking Todd's face. Todd said his instinct was to punch him back. My person was jabbing me with his elbow in the back so hard he was squishing all sorts of noises out of me. At one point he had a hot towel around my neck and was picking up my head with the towel. I guess I wasn't supposed to help raise my head so he looked at me with his masked face and said, "relax. RELAX." So funny. I was trying not to cry. In other hair news, Brooke's hair is still stained pink from the color run a week ago.
Tuesday: Driver arrived at 10 to take the kids and me to the Hong Kong airport. Sophie left her bag at the security check point and we didn't realize it until after we went through customs and walked across the airport. Luckily they let us back in through a spot with no line to retrieve the bag. The flight was an hour delayed because of the storms but we arrived and were met with another driver holding a sign for us. We began the 1.5 hour drive towards Yangshuo. Sophie said, "It looks like 5000 camels" as we drove through theKarst Mountains of Guilin. We were driving on a muddy, bumpy road. I was trying to ask the driver if it was that way because it had been raining. He opened the glove box and handed me a bottled water. My Mandarin needs work. We drove through quite a few little villages on our way to Yangshuo.
Todd and I went to pick up some photos and to buy some hair clippers from Tonan, the local hair salon. While there we decided to get haircuts. They start off with washing your hair, twice, and then a mini massage while you are laying flat on the table. Todd was a couple steps ahead of me and there is a mirror above so I got to watch him get worked over. at one point he had two hot towels on his face and neck and the guy took his hands, palms together and started smacking Todd's face. Todd said his instinct was to punch him back. My person was jabbing me with his elbow in the back so hard he was squishing all sorts of noises out of me. At one point he had a hot towel around my neck and was picking up my head with the towel. I guess I wasn't supposed to help raise my head so he looked at me with his masked face and said, "relax. RELAX." So funny. I was trying not to cry. In other hair news, Brooke's hair is still stained pink from the color run a week ago.
Tuesday: Driver arrived at 10 to take the kids and me to the Hong Kong airport. Sophie left her bag at the security check point and we didn't realize it until after we went through customs and walked across the airport. Luckily they let us back in through a spot with no line to retrieve the bag. The flight was an hour delayed because of the storms but we arrived and were met with another driver holding a sign for us. We began the 1.5 hour drive towards Yangshuo. Sophie said, "It looks like 5000 camels" as we drove through theKarst Mountains of Guilin. We were driving on a muddy, bumpy road. I was trying to ask the driver if it was that way because it had been raining. He opened the glove box and handed me a bottled water. My Mandarin needs work. We drove through quite a few little villages on our way to Yangshuo.
Sophie was a bit worried and asked, "Is our hotel going to be nice?". I didn't have an answer! We arrived and checked in. All was well. Lots of mosquitoes in the room. The hotel kitchen was open so after talking with our tour guide who met us at the hotel, we ordered dinner and facetimed Todd , who sadly, wasn't able to come with us on our vacation. We got up to leave at the same time and the dining chairs made a horribly loud sound x 6. The entire room turned and stared.
Wednesday
Up and ready to go by 9. We chose our bikes -tandems for Brig/Sophie, Chase/Brynn, and bikes with baskets for Brooke and me. We drove along the river into the busy town to buy ponchos for the rain. Through the sloshing mud, rocks, streets, "very tlaffic jam" round abouts and villages for 2.5-3 hours. You know that crazy traffic we are always talking about, with all the honking? We were right in the middle of it. So scary seeing the boys with the little girls riding next to buses and trucks and little bike carts and cars and scooters. By the end we were spent. The scenery was so beautiful it was distracting. I kept having to stop to take photos because I couldn't stand it. Every little bit had a completely different view. Yangshuo was gifted with some of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. We rode by immaculate gardens, piles of red dirt and bricks, shacks, villages, farm animals, streams, waterfalls, over bridges and little towns where cars could not go. By two rivers, the Li River and Youlong River. Little villages down hidden paths. Gardens. Pigs, chickens, dogs. People hiding from photos and holding their babies up for photos, school children on bikes. Women smacking rugs clean, chatting on porches, grandmas walking with children, men welding and driving construction vehicles. Finally we were almost home when we stopped for lunch at a local Chinese restaurant with an open store front. We were out on the sidewalk under an awning. Our guide took our order and then went back into the kitchen, helped new customers be seated, and cleaned a few tables. We asked her if she worked there too. No, but friends with the owners. Lunch was sizzling beef stir fry, spicy green beans and fried rice. We were dying of thirst and they give you shot glass sized glasses and one bottle of coke to share. It was gone in a flash we were so tired from the ride. It was hard not to gulp it. During lunch it started pouring. We grabbed all our things from the bike baskets and had to scoot our table over and under the awning because Sophie was getting soaked sitting where she was. We put on our ponchos, helmets over those and headed home in the rain. A quick rest /regroup at the hotel and then our driver picked us up to take us to the Youlong River for a raft ride. We split into groups of two and headed down a scenic part of the river with waterfalls every so often. One raft pusher had a scorpion tattoo on his hand that reminded us of home. At one point the guides pulled up some fishing nets and handed Sophie a little fish that made a kissing sound in her ear. It rode with us until she could show everybody and then she reluctantly let it go. That night we ate at the hotel and then headed to the light show, directed by the same man that did the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony. We couldn't understand the story because it was all in Mandarin. They used the water as the stage and they lit up the mountains along the river. The people next to us were working for Qualcomm in Shanghai from San Diego. Went to bed, pooped!
Thursday: First stop was the Banyan Tree park. Tree was 1400-1500 years old. Kids dressed up in traditional outfits for photo taking, they were quite the photo op being a group so big by China standards. Sophie posed with some monkeys and one of them started eating her flower crown. On to the mud cave and hot springs and moon rock. Lunch on West Street at Kelly's Cafe. We had the upstairs room to ourselves. There were a bunch of Mango shops that sold all things mango-shakes, smoothies, puddings, bubble waffles etc. We ate there a few times during our stay. A bit of shopping and bargaining and then back to the hotel for naps. Back to West Street for a bit before heading out to the Li River for a night boat ride to watch theCormorant fishing. The fisherman unties the birds from the raft, they swim beside the boat and then he collects the fish in a basket that the birds have collected in their mouths. They have a string tied around their throats so they don't swallow the big fish, but the small fish are a treat for them. It was quite fascinating. Brooke will include some of this in the video she is making.
Wednesday
Up and ready to go by 9. We chose our bikes -tandems for Brig/Sophie, Chase/Brynn, and bikes with baskets for Brooke and me. We drove along the river into the busy town to buy ponchos for the rain. Through the sloshing mud, rocks, streets, "very tlaffic jam" round abouts and villages for 2.5-3 hours. You know that crazy traffic we are always talking about, with all the honking? We were right in the middle of it. So scary seeing the boys with the little girls riding next to buses and trucks and little bike carts and cars and scooters. By the end we were spent. The scenery was so beautiful it was distracting. I kept having to stop to take photos because I couldn't stand it. Every little bit had a completely different view. Yangshuo was gifted with some of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. We rode by immaculate gardens, piles of red dirt and bricks, shacks, villages, farm animals, streams, waterfalls, over bridges and little towns where cars could not go. By two rivers, the Li River and Youlong River. Little villages down hidden paths. Gardens. Pigs, chickens, dogs. People hiding from photos and holding their babies up for photos, school children on bikes. Women smacking rugs clean, chatting on porches, grandmas walking with children, men welding and driving construction vehicles. Finally we were almost home when we stopped for lunch at a local Chinese restaurant with an open store front. We were out on the sidewalk under an awning. Our guide took our order and then went back into the kitchen, helped new customers be seated, and cleaned a few tables. We asked her if she worked there too. No, but friends with the owners. Lunch was sizzling beef stir fry, spicy green beans and fried rice. We were dying of thirst and they give you shot glass sized glasses and one bottle of coke to share. It was gone in a flash we were so tired from the ride. It was hard not to gulp it. During lunch it started pouring. We grabbed all our things from the bike baskets and had to scoot our table over and under the awning because Sophie was getting soaked sitting where she was. We put on our ponchos, helmets over those and headed home in the rain. A quick rest /regroup at the hotel and then our driver picked us up to take us to the Youlong River for a raft ride. We split into groups of two and headed down a scenic part of the river with waterfalls every so often. One raft pusher had a scorpion tattoo on his hand that reminded us of home. At one point the guides pulled up some fishing nets and handed Sophie a little fish that made a kissing sound in her ear. It rode with us until she could show everybody and then she reluctantly let it go. That night we ate at the hotel and then headed to the light show, directed by the same man that did the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony. We couldn't understand the story because it was all in Mandarin. They used the water as the stage and they lit up the mountains along the river. The people next to us were working for Qualcomm in Shanghai from San Diego. Went to bed, pooped!
Thursday: First stop was the Banyan Tree park. Tree was 1400-1500 years old. Kids dressed up in traditional outfits for photo taking, they were quite the photo op being a group so big by China standards. Sophie posed with some monkeys and one of them started eating her flower crown. On to the mud cave and hot springs and moon rock. Lunch on West Street at Kelly's Cafe. We had the upstairs room to ourselves. There were a bunch of Mango shops that sold all things mango-shakes, smoothies, puddings, bubble waffles etc. We ate there a few times during our stay. A bit of shopping and bargaining and then back to the hotel for naps. Back to West Street for a bit before heading out to the Li River for a night boat ride to watch theCormorant fishing. The fisherman unties the birds from the raft, they swim beside the boat and then he collects the fish in a basket that the birds have collected in their mouths. They have a string tied around their throats so they don't swallow the big fish, but the small fish are a treat for them. It was quite fascinating. Brooke will include some of this in the video she is making.
Friday: Breakfast and then on the road by 9:30am, headed to the Ping'An Village and Longshen rice terraces. It was 3.5 hours away, so we opted to stop in Guilin and ride a chair lift to the top of the highest peak, YaoMountain, and then ride down on slide cars. We ate lunch there in Guilin at a Chinese restaurant. Our driver ate with us and showed us how to eat and some new sauces. It was good to practice our Mandarin since he doesn't speak English. The condiment sauce was delicious and I need to find the recipe. Soy sauce, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, all chopped super fine. He dipped things in it and poured it on fried rice.
Another couple of hours through the countryside and we were at the base of a mountain. We had to leave everything but an overnight bag with a random shop owner at the bus station. We paid them some money to watch our bags and hopped on a bus up the mountain. And up and up and up. The bus dropped us off and here is where we walked up to the Ping'an Village. We walked up a cobblestone path for a while and then rock stairs, wobbly rock pathways and wooden sidewalks. There were shops and restaurants all the way up. The village people were doing their thing...working and daily life tasks. Chickens and dogs roaming around, pigs in stalls, happy children climbing up and down stairs. Smiling and laughing adults enjoying dinner time. Fires burning cooking delicious smelling foods. We finally got to our hotel, checked into our room and then headed out before the sun went down to see all we could see. We ended up on a flat terrace top taking in all the view we could. It was beautiful and peaceful. We turned on some music on a phone and had a little dance party til the sun went down and then went back to the hotel for some dinner and bed.
Saturday: up and at breakfast early. A rooster started up at 3AM so we had been up quite a while. Breakfast was this: muffin, hot water, plain crepe, one egg, toast with jam and a banana. We grabbed some water bottles and headed out on the trail Viewpoint 1 (called Nine Dragons and Five Tigers) and Viewpoint 2 (Seven Stars with Moon). Back to the hotel to gather our things and walked back down through the village. Onto the bus, gathered our things, got some pineapple on a stick and headed to the airport for our flight. Passed through the Long hair village. The Yao ladies in the village only cut their hair once in their lives, at age 18, to signify adulthood. Then they wear three sections of hair on their heads: their current hair, the hair they cut off at 18, and the hair that falls out when they brush makes up the third piece. They wrap it around so it looks like a turban. They charge you 10¥ to take a photo with them. Passed through several villages, saw the aftermath of a horrible car accident-airbags deployed, front end bashed into a v shape and wondered about getting emergency help in such a remote area. We also saw many celebrating Qing Mingwith fireworks. Lots of groups of people gathered on mountain sides by grave sites and bonfires with brightly colored streamers and shiny papers. It's also called tomb sweeping and a time to celebrate spring.
We saw a totally normal couple traveling together at the airport, probably about my parents' ages. Brynn told me the lady was picking boogers and eating them in the airport. I didn't believe Brynn and then I saw her do it with my own eyes. So gross! We landed around 6Pm and still made it off the plane, onto the bus, back to the airport, through immigration, purchased a ferry ticket, rode a tram, ran to the ferry and made it on by 6:30PM. Happy to be back home with Todd! It kind of put a damper on the whole vacation knowing he was at home slaving away.
Saturday: up and at breakfast early. A rooster started up at 3AM so we had been up quite a while. Breakfast was this: muffin, hot water, plain crepe, one egg, toast with jam and a banana. We grabbed some water bottles and headed out on the trail Viewpoint 1 (called Nine Dragons and Five Tigers) and Viewpoint 2 (Seven Stars with Moon). Back to the hotel to gather our things and walked back down through the village. Onto the bus, gathered our things, got some pineapple on a stick and headed to the airport for our flight. Passed through the Long hair village. The Yao ladies in the village only cut their hair once in their lives, at age 18, to signify adulthood. Then they wear three sections of hair on their heads: their current hair, the hair they cut off at 18, and the hair that falls out when they brush makes up the third piece. They wrap it around so it looks like a turban. They charge you 10¥ to take a photo with them. Passed through several villages, saw the aftermath of a horrible car accident-airbags deployed, front end bashed into a v shape and wondered about getting emergency help in such a remote area. We also saw many celebrating Qing Mingwith fireworks. Lots of groups of people gathered on mountain sides by grave sites and bonfires with brightly colored streamers and shiny papers. It's also called tomb sweeping and a time to celebrate spring.
We saw a totally normal couple traveling together at the airport, probably about my parents' ages. Brynn told me the lady was picking boogers and eating them in the airport. I didn't believe Brynn and then I saw her do it with my own eyes. So gross! We landed around 6Pm and still made it off the plane, onto the bus, back to the airport, through immigration, purchased a ferry ticket, rode a tram, ran to the ferry and made it on by 6:30PM. Happy to be back home with Todd! It kind of put a damper on the whole vacation knowing he was at home slaving away.
Good day at church. Brynn spoke a little about the trip. We had naps and watched some of conference. It was raining after church, so Brigham went home and gathered all of our umbrellas and brought them back to us and rode up and down the street passing out umbrellas to people caught in the rain. On to another week!
Happy Birthday to my wonderful Dad today! Sad I missed the party.
Happy Birthday to my wonderful Dad today! Sad I missed the party.
Love from China,
Taylor family
Taylor family
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