July 2, 2008 Guilin

Today is the boat ride on the Li River. There is. The boat has 2 levels, both with a/c. The top level is a deck at the front of the boat, the 2nd the back of the boat. The beauty of the landscape is difficult to put into words. When we first went on the top deck, Kimmie asked me if I didn’t know what country I was in and someone asked me to look at a picture of this scenery, what country would I pick. This stumped me. I have never seen any mountain formations like this. Completely erect mountains poking out of steep erect mountains. None of the mountains we saw had any gradual slope.

The 20 dollar Yuan bill photograph is the exact photo of the mountain formation we observed on the boat ride. Kimmie took a photo holding the bill in her hand with the background of the mountains.

The boat ride is 3 hours very relaxing. One completely forgets their worries. Although this is not a Wonder of the World I would vote that it should be.

We went on a short visit to the Elephant Trunk Hill also on the Li River, but in the center of the city. It really looks like an elephant drinking in the water. It is said that for every person there is someone in the world that looks exactly like you. This is true for the Elephant Trunk too. France holds the sister version of the Elephant Trunk. A picture is proudly displayed in the entrance of the park.
Our flight was early evening, but delayed 2 ½ hours. Since we got there 90 minutes early it was a very long wait on hard seats. The airport was noisy, kids running around loudly, screaming, laughing, playing tag. Pretty annoying. Even the girls thought so. It was difficult to escape the noise and as the acoustics lousy.
We got into Shanghai and Amy cheery greeting gave us energy. It was funny, but we all felt so good to be back in Shanghai. Amy whispered to me that she had a secret and I guessed, she and her boyfriend Jeff are engaged. I screamed with joy and she shyly hid behind me.

We got into our hotel and in bed by 2am. Tomorrow is a lazy day by design, no plans. M & M fly in the afternoon. I asked Amy to have them call me. Ali has a secret wish to see them before they leave on Friday back to the US.