Wow! So our tour girl from Guilin gave us the "chinese" price.. as westerners always pay more. So beacuse we got the Chinese price we came to Yangshou on the Chinese boat where we were the only Westerners. I now know how celebrites feel as almost half of the boat asked us to pose with them for a picture. We got by very well and met a Chinese couple from Queens who casually mentioned they had a son who was our age.. hehe. They gave us their business card to call them the next time we are there. We also met a couple from Beijing who told us to call once we got there. Quite a few people spoke a bit of English and I must say I am a little embarassed that I don't know more Chinese.. more.. yea right.. I know like 5 words!

THe boat seemed like it came out of the olden days.. much like trains might have been back in the day... with a formal dining area and waitresses. We were served tea and a nice lunch half way through our journey. Somehow they understood that we didn't want meat and we ate very well knowing there was no snake soup for us!

The most unusual part of the ride was that the men who ride around on their bamboo floats pull up next to the boat, grab on and try to sell trinkets. They acutally made quite a few sales! We stopped once to pick up something and these old women swarmed the boat selling peanuts and fruit. It truly was amazing to see how poor they were as evident by their decaying teeth, deep wrinkled faces and backs that wouldn't straighten. Seeing the indigienous population along the riverbank was a unique experience. It makes me wonder if there lives are really all that bad. I mean.. I know they are by our standards. But seeing the women washing clothes in the river, little children swimming and laughing and others just louning our hearding their cattle.. life just seems simple. I wonder if they were better off before the tour boats came through.. as they really might not have know anyting else.

Ok.. I am getting to philosophical.. I will save that for my journel. I am sitting in our hotel lobby listening to the sound of a little boy running around with his grandfather. Which reminds me of the two year old I saw whose parents poured beer in his sippie cup this morning. I know.. weird! I am going to go exlpore this town as I see many shops outside.. perhaps I will rent a bike for the day!

I will write more later!