Day 7 of the Adventure
The day started by drawing our curtains and seeing gumdrop mountains in our magnificent view from our room. We couldn't see them when we checked in because it was so dark so the reveal in the morning was magnificent. Again, the Mouse arranged for us to all have a view.
The breakfast buffet at this Shangrila was better, in my opinion, than the one in Chengdu. After breakfast, we had an optional tai chi lesson. Because it was raining, we did the tai chi in the hotel. Wow, it's hard and hard to believe it's good for stress. Hahah. Our meetup time for the bus was 9:30 or 10 (I think ... I can't remember). The day before, the guides asked us what we wanted for our boxed lunch: veggie, tuna or something else sandwich. Most of us picked tuna. We were told the boxed lunchesnwerembecause the kitchen on the Li River boats were scary. They weren't wrong.
It was a very grey and rainy day when our bus took off on our journey to meet the boat. Our boat was our boat and not to be shared with anybody else. Apparently this had to be negotiated with the Chinese government....apparently many months of negotiation. On board this ship was 1 western toilet and on our bus, a woman hired to clean the toilet. We gave her a huge round of applause.
The power of the Mouse was strong. As we arrived at the dock, an hour of driving through amazing countryside, the rain stopped. It was still a pretty grey day and misty but that contributed to the mystique of the gumdrops. We dumped our lunches in the cabin and then ascended to the top deck to take photos and to take the majesty of the mountains in. It was the most awe inspiring scenery. You cannot believe That you're actually there looking at these natural wonders, or the water buffaloes, and other water craft of varying seaworthiness. We stayed out on the deck for about an hour or a little more than an hour when Daisy told everybody that we should eat our lunches. We all obediently went below to eat causing Daisy to remark that she felt that she really was our "mommy"!
Our lunch consisted of a soggy bread filled to the brim with tuna and a bit of cucumber, a banana, orange juice and a salad (with thousand islands dressing). It was edible ... but I'm not much of a sandwich person and even less of a tuna person. While we ate, it started to downpour outside. The Mouse has impeccable timing. After eating, Jennae and Daisy pulled out a jug of noxious paint cleaner that passed for booze in those parts. It had some interesting ingredients still in the jug ... Which is for future adventurers to discover and not for me to reveal.
Then the guides handed everybody 20 RMB and told us that when the ship docked, we would be in Yangshao, where there was this market. We were to use the 20 RMB and buy a gift for a white elephant gift exchange in the evening. We were to practice our bartering skills as taught by the master her self, Jennae. She told us about buying a crapload of scarves in this market for an extremely good price. That's when the women of the group banded together at one stall and bought a huge crapload of scarves with the price negotiated by Jennae. A record number of 51 scarves and pashminas were purchased for 580 RMB. Do the math... Those silk scarves cost less than $2 each.
After that it was time to buy the white elephant gift. I thought about how Kevin bought a white elephant on his Italian ABD but I wasn't sure what the white elephants at this market were made of ... Ivory or plastic ... Neither of which I wanted. I need up getting a hand painted glass snuff bottle with pandas on it. I found my parents later and they still had not bought aything so I went into full bartering mode (I can do it when it's not for me...
). Negotiated 2 t-shirts for 40 RMB. The vendor called me back about 4 times.
Oh, it stopped raining while we shopped. The timing was uncanny.
It was time to board the bus for the trip back...and it started to rain again. We got back to the hotel with time to clean up and pack for tomorrow before our BBQ dinner at the hotel. Dinner was outside under cover but it was actually a tad on the chilly side. The hotel brought out a bunch of heaters for us. They bbqed chicken, pork and beef...and some sausages. Wasn't bad at all. After dinner it was time for the white elephant exchange. My poor dad was first to pick and got a big Chinese fan. Ha! Nobody ever tried to steal it fom him. The evening of white elephants was truly fun. I nearly peed in my pants because of hard I was laughing.
Now, our little group had bonded already but this evening was like icing on a cake. So, so fun. And Jennae needs to get her own television show.
This was also movie night ... and we watched ... what else, Mulan! I left for my room after the second song.
Bags outside the room for 7:30 (I think). Shanghai was next!
Need an update!
Sure hope Pxlbarrel gets a chance to post soon!
