peace out guilin

CONGRATULATIONS to Patrick Hosmer of New York, NY! He is the winner of the HK t-shirt as referenced in a previous blog. He responded in a record 37 minutes after original posting. And his reason for wanting the prize?

"Because I want it."

That's good enough for me! Your prize is on the way, sir!



Stay tuned for the next prize giveaway...it's going to be a doozy (ps...sending the darn prize cost 3 times more than the actual prize itself!)

so, as our time in guilin is coming to a close, we find ourselves with 3 hours remaining in the day...so we are back at our local spot...blogging! everyone here in guilin is super nice, although whenever I speak to any of them they all seem to be wanting to get out of their "sleepy little town." I can definitely relate. What started out as a one day visit became a 5 day mind explosion of information, and now I feel ready to experience something else, something new.

Small town living is nice, but I could never live here. We did, however, get a glimpse of what guilin once was...just across the river and down the street, away from tourism. The torn down buildings, the dirt, the grime, laundry in the windows, people sitting out front, bare chested, smoking the day away. And if they are REAL lucky, they have a couple of their buddies over and play mah jong or cards in the street. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. This is their life.

Makes me thankful for mine.

Peace out Guilin. Thank you for being so hospitable and giving the Chinese a good name!

Next stop, Chengdu!