head in the clouds

This will be a brief post because it is 10 pm and we have an early day tomorrow. we are cruising down the Li River for Yangshou tomorrow. It is also the last night of free Internet until we return to Guilin so I am forced to do this:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! You could have avoided that by signing onto to Skype this morning. I know it is a little early but we are off the Internet for a few days so better sooner than never.

We had a big day today. We travelled 1.5 hrs out of Guilin to the Longji Rice Terraces - or Dragon's Back. It is in a mountain range outside of Guilin - top peak is about 900 metres and Guilin is around 200. We started hiking around 500 m. It was a rainy day so this is what the terraces looked like








Fortunately, a wind came up and blew this into view







so all was not lost. It was a soggy but interesting day. We ate fried bamboo (and not the shoots you are used to in Western Chinese cooking), steamed rice in bamboo and what I think was grass, although our guide is still trying to convince me it was a local vegetable. For protein we had "bacon" which was described as the skin that hangs out for days until the fat drips off and it turns black. mmmm.... rotten pork rinds. I'll get back to you on how Peter is feeling in a couple of days.

To top the day off we had a foot massage and a normal meal. early day tomorrow. rain, rain go away...