A Day in Dali

Mr Waterman
(teacher)

Today was quite the day! We arrived in Dali this morning at 6:45 after sleeping (sort of) on the sleeper train from Kunming. On the train (which Kelby and I were desperately hoping was as elegant and comfortable as the Orient Express!), we had our own cabin. The bunks were relatively comfortable and we managed to stow our luggage mostly out of the way. Elizabeth and I lucked out by sleeping on the bottom bunks, and Iona and Kelby were happy to survive the night without falling off of their top bunks. The conductor woke us up this morning just after 6:00 and we gathered ourselves enough to stumble out of the station.

Last Day in Yangshuo

Elizabeth (Liz)

Quote of the day

        "Liz, no" - Iona

Today is our last day in Yangshou. After eating breakfast with Elaine we headed out back to Guilin. Our first stop was the Elephant Trunk Hill, which doesnt actually have elephants, it just refers to a cave that looks like one. Within the park we walked around looking at the lovely sculptures that were spread throughout the park. Our next stop was Fubo Hill, yet another park, this one contained buddist temple remnants which were really cool! We also climbed the tower which gave us a really cool view of the city!

[VLOG#10] Guilin, Kunming and Train

Iona

(Video only)

[VLOG#9] Yangshuo Day 3

Kelby

(Video only)

A Hill of a Day

Kelby

Today we had yet another amazing day. The day started off with Elizabeth, Iona, Mrs. Waterman and I having breakfast in our hotel. I had my usual dumplings, fruit, and noodles with green tea. We’ve been trying to eat more and more Chinese food as the days go by, and today was nice to not see a “Western Breakfast” bestowed upon us. At around 9:10 our breakfast ended, and the day would begin.

The Sisterhood decided to try and bike to the famous rice fields in Yangshuo’s mountains. What the Sisterhood did not quite comprehend was the distance from the city to the countryside. It was not a few pedals to the patties, but an odyssey of thousands, upon thousands, upon thousands, heck, upon another thousand wheel rotations before one could reach the destination. Long story short, the Sisterhood could not prevail past the mountains, past Fuli town, past the right turn one would take after going through Fuli town, in order to get to the rice fields. However, the adventure was one to remember.

Day 2 in Yangshuo

Iona

After a good night sleep in the New Century Hotel we all got up around 8 and headed down for some breakfast, which was an experience to say the least. We had access to the buffet with Chinese styled food but curiously enough our breakfast tickets said “Western Package”, which we didn’t see before loading our plates with congee and buns. Given the Western Package, we were served typical American breakfast foods such as toast, eggs, sausage, etc, even though we had already served ourself at the buffet. With quite the spread in front of us, we leisurely ate breakfast and enjoyed each other’s company which eventually resulted in Kelbs literally crying tears of laughter with Liz and Mrs. Waterman and I following suit. Something we’ve learned this trip is that it really doesn’t take much to get Kelbs going and once she does— there is no stopping her. Just now as I’m writing this blog post, we’ve all just recovered from a ten minute long laughing fit where Liz made a roast, I reacted, and Kelbs started to laugh at my reaction, and I start laughing which gets Liz laughing and Liz’s laughter sends Kelbs overboard which makes us all die. We have fun.

[VLOG#8] Day 2 in Yangshuo

Iona

(Video only)

A Day on the Li River

Ms Waterman
(teacher)

After an early breakfast, Elaine, our tour guide, met us at the hotel. Together, we drove 45 minutes out of Guilin to board a 3-level river boat for a cruise down the Li River.

[VLOG#7] Guilin

Iona

(Video only)

Our arrival in the PRC!

Ms Waterman
(teacher)

Today was a bit of a travel-lost day for us, though we have officially arrived on mainland China! We left the YMCA Hotel in Hong Kong after breakfast and flew to Guilin. The flight was very easy and compared to last week’s incredibly long flight, it felt luxurious to spend only 90 minutes total on the plane! Unfortunately, the afternoon was cloudy, so we didn’t see the awesome geography of Guilin on our descent.

[VLOG#6] Hong Kong Highlights!

Kelby

(Video only)

Hong Kong Island: Temples and Dim Sum

Elizabeth

Quote of the Day

              "Give me sleep or give me death"

                                           - Kelby Weden

Day four here in Hong Kong and boy was it cloudy yesterday! After the night parade we all passed out so that means we didn't eat dinner, so instead we settled for a big breakfast, which was fine by me! We had breakfast at our hotel again. Afterwards we hopped on the ferry and headed to Hong Kong Island.

[VLOG#5] Day 4 in Hong Kong

Iona

(Video only)

[VLOG#4] Day 3 in Hong Kong

Iona

(Video only)