Guilin, China

What a difference a plane ride can make. We left Xi'an airport in 6 inches of snow, freezing temperatures, and roads that were horrible. We arrived in Guilin to low 60 degree temperatures, sunshine, and a laid back feeling. We got into Guilin late in the evening and didn't have anything planned. As many of us were stressed out from the previous days' events we decided to get some massages. Our local tour guide recommended a traditional Chinese massage parlour near our hotel and 6 of us (Lara, Tim, Chloe, Mark, Sharon, and myself) went off to check it out. The massage parlour was a regular massage parlour has our national tour guide, George, described, not an irregular massage parlour. George further described the massages as, "Men with tender hands that will make you scream." Seemed kind of contradictory, but hey, when in China. Traditional Chinese massage parlours offer two types of massages; foot massages and full body massages. This parlour offered both for the same price, a whopping $12 for one hour. Me, being the accountant, thought, "Why would you get a foot massage when for the same amount of money you can get a full body massage?" I decided on the full body massage, Lara decided on the foot massage. Big mistake on my part.

All massages I had received up to this one were done in a private room by a masseuse who seemed to be interested simply in massaging my muscles. What I received in Guilin was an assembly line beat down. The parlour has several large rooms with dozens of beds in each room. In our room there were several other people being massaged next to us. Four of us decided on the full body massage and we were all placed on beds next to each other. The masseuses, all small Asian women, then began their beating. First, my face and scalp were jabbed repeatedly by the masseuse's thumbs. Essentially, these were nuggies. She even took the time to jab her finger into my ears. Next came the arm death grip, self-explanatory. The thumb jabbing resumed over the rest of my body. Mixed into this was the high speed karate chop on different parts of my body. The beating lasted 45 minutes and the four of us all looked at each other afterwards and asked what the heck we just experienced. Lara came out of her room with Sharon and said her foot massage felt great.

Back to Guilin. Guilin is one of the most beautiful spots in China. It's home of the Li River and a picturesque river valley with towering mountains. The scenery is featured on the Chinese 20 yuan bill. The scenery was unlike any I have ever scene. The towering mountains are slim, limestone towers covered in lush forest.

Since our flight to Guilin was postponed for one day we only had a half day in Guilin. We got up early and headed to the river for our boat cruise of the Li River. The boat was a large pontoon boat with a couple dozen people on it. About 10 minutes into our drift downriver a group of men on bamboo floats approached our boat. We all thought these were farmers of some sort trying to avoid our boat. They were actually 'hallo people' who were trying to sell us stuff. They approach on their bamboo floats then tie a rope to our boat and are tugged along side our boat. They then open their bags and sell cheap souvenirs. It was actually really cool. It was so cool we ended up buying a fake jade dragon from one the guys for $4.

The boat ride was a great experience. It was extra nice because it was a complete departure from the Xi'an airport. Because our group had a private cabin in the top floor of the boat we all got to bond even more, but in a much nicer setting. We were served lunch and beverages on the boat. On the beverage menu, snake wine. Snake wine is wine that looks like watered down Jack Daniels and is kept in glass jugs with dead snakes in it. It didn't taste good. The cruise lasted 4 hours and we were dropped off downriver in a small town called Yangshou. The town was by far the smallest we visited in China and arguably the most beautiful. The town was surrounded by the towering limestone hills and had a really nice charm to it. We were supposed to spend the night in Yangshou, but because of our delay we only got to walk through a bazaar and drive through it. We piled back into our bus and headed to the Guilin airport, destination Hong Kong.