Guilin Day 1

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I saw blue sky, the sun, and fluffy white clouds today for the first time in China. We took a 4 hour and 30 minute cruise that felt like forever. It was extremely hot, and a few got sunburns. By the time we got to Yangshuo? we were practically dead and found out that we had 3 hours of free time to explore the streets. We ended up going to the main area of shopping/ bargaining called West Street where is a huge tourist shopping area. While most of the shop/stand keepers understood and spoke English it was sometimes hard to do a lot of bargaining with Maia/Emily/Antoine/Mike/John because they couldn't even pretend to fit in. I finally started to use my Mandarin as I had to pay attention to what they were saying, and had to throw prices out there to negotiate. West street is definitely where I spend most of my money on the ten day trip, they had everything there, and because I looked Chinese I was given lower prices to start off at, compared to my other Caucasian friends. Celina and I decided to form a pack and whenever we were in stores together we would just speak in Mandarin, and if we didn't know how to say something we would just mumble it under our breath, so it would appear that we were indeed natives. Sometimes bargaining was hard, and it took a few stores to get used to, and learning that you can start extremely low even if it might offend the store owner, it would save you money in the long run. It was definitely an experience that I will never forget. After the three hours ended, we went to eat dinner at the hotel we were staying at, and ended up having more free time afterwards. While we were warned that the hotel closed its doors at 11pm, we got back at 9pm, as we were just drained from having too much free time.
<3 Michelle

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Photos

Can't you tell? We're finally bored.
The scenery never changed!!

YEAH!
btw, "self-E's" are a must.

Can you see the horses??
I can't..