Hello all!
I'm in HOng Kong at a coffee shop/ internet cafe right now, having finally just finished my training trip! I have about 3 hrs before I just on a plave back to Hanoi to join another trainer to catch up on the few days Jordan and I missed, then I will be leading my own tour on April 22! Yay!
So Jordan and I finally joined the trip and the past 11 days have been non-stop. We went to a minority village of the Dong people (and yes we made LOTS of jokes about that ;-) which was absolutely AMAZING. Imagine taking a crappy Chinese bus way out into the country side through rice fields and awesome wooden houses built up into the hillside, and then arriving at a fantasticly ornate bridge with water wheels lining the bank... wow. These people build Wind and Rain bridges along the river, there's about 40 of them and our hostel was next to the largest most beautiful one. The second day we walked through 5 of their villages; it is an interesting society because the women do most of the work while the men play mah jong and cards! Everywhere in China grandparents take care of the babies while parents work, so everywhere we go there are hunched over old people with the cutest babies!! I wish I could take pictures of every single one; they're precious. All the old people in these villages smoke pipes of homegrown tobacco and live to be 80 yrs old, so it's hard to convice people that smoking is bad for you. Hm.
After the Dong village we went to the famous Longji Rice Terraces. It was amazing but I got sick there so hopefully next time I'll have a better report for you. I will say one thing, and this goes out to Crystal and Amy...'Everybody's got a water buffalo! Yours is fast and mine is slow...' ;-) LOL!!
We spent the last couple days in Yangshuo, which is one of my favorite places in China. It is the place with the karst mountains that every misty rice paper painting of China is of, but its truly breathtaking in real life. A must see. Plus there is SO much to do in this town, I'm glad I get to come back many times to do them all; kayaking, biking, calligraphy, tai chi and kung fu (which I did), and jumping into mud caves! Our group did do a bike ride through the countryside that was the highlight of this trip so far, it was amazing. At one point we parked the bikes and climbed to the top of Moon Hill for some great pictures looking down on the valley. And of course Jordan and one of the other guys tried to off-road a little bit and ended up pitching themselves over the handlebars! Guys... they're hilarious.
I got some photos developed but I'm having trouble loading them, so in a few weeks when I"m back in our apartment I'll try again to send those out to you all.
Today to Vietnam!! =D
