Who would've thought I could have such a great time with just these three older guys as pax? I certainly didn't, but this trip could hardly have worked out much better than it did. The guys were all like-minded, similar interests and backgrounds, and very well-traveled. One guy, Andy has filled FOUR passports in the past 10 years! :-O so cool. Small groups like this are ideal, they're so easy to keep track of and arrange activities for. The guys wanted to see and do as much as possible so I set up a lot of activities for them; they were easy to read so I was able to customize it a bit for them, and as a reward I got feedback from them that I had an "uncanny knack for anticipating their needs" :-) It didnt hurt that they were easy-going and appreciative of the places we went. So, essentially they were perfect! hehe, not really, but close.
We definitly had adventures along the way. In Cat Ba we went swimming off the side of the boat as we usually do, only to discover after we'd all jumped off that there was no ladder to get back on! It was a fair sized boat and climbing over it's side on a reverse incline is not easy! Actually 2 of the 3 guys and myself ended up with some substantial cuts on our feet and shins from the barnacles, but of course these guys had no complaints and chalked it up to part of the adventure!
Hehehe, I dont think I'll forget our time in Liuzhou for as long as I live. I'd taken them out to a spicy food restaurant cuz I knew they liked spicy, then they wanted to go out for a drink. I suggested a club I'd heard of but not been to called Chivas. We arrived and were escorted to a private karaoke room! The room carried an 880 yuan minimum (about $150 USD) at which point I said, no worries we dont have to stay here. But my pax, bless them, said dont worry about it, let's stay! We ended up ordering a bottle of tequila and a bottle of Bailey's, drinking and doing karaoke and one of them who will remain nameless even danced around a little bit! It was the most hilarious thing! :-D LOL. Mind you, they had just been relieved the night before at our guesthouse in Huashan that the power was out and they wouldn't have to be subjected to karaoke...
In Chenyang we had one of the most incredible lightning storms. I've seen a lot of cool storms over this summer, but this was one of the best. One of the lightning flashes was so bright I could see every tree lit up on the hillside outside my window. The next day some of the rice fields had been pressed down into strange swirls by the pressure of the wind and thunder -- that's the photo I captioned "Chinese crop circles?" on Snapfish.
Each time I go to Hong Kong I try to see something new or visit a new place. This time the four of us went up to Victoria Peak. The views up there are beyond amazing - again, see Snapfish for photos. The funnest thing was though, I was completely distracted because the 7th and final Harry Potter book had come out that day and I wanted to find an English bookstore that sold it! LOL :-D Imagine my relief when there was a mall with a bookstore at the top of Victoria Peak! hehehe, I got my Harry Potter book and pose for one photo with my Harry Potter and Hagen Daaz, absolute heaven!
Currently Reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, on my flight to Beijing! ;-)
Current Injury: Cut feet and shins climbing back onto Halong Bay boat
