Guilin

If you hold your tongue right and concentrate AND think of a wonderful thought, apparently you can land yourself in this neverland paradise part of China called Guilin.

The only prerequisite is that you turn the clock back, but we'd already done that a couple of years ago.

Choose your fellow travelers carefully.  Make sure they've got your back!

If Janie, Don, Marsha, Frank, Sherri and Paco are available, CHOOSE THEM!!  Oh, how I love my China Teacher peeps...not a geezer in the group!

Watch where you step!  Name that dung!

"I'll take geological phenomenon for 60, Alex."  Yes, Bright Eyes, they are karsts!!  Karsts are like Cadbury Easter eggs!!  Inside each one is a glorious surprise--CAVES!!!!!

A word about the flower crowns--they are not gender specific in China, AND they appear everywhere you might have a gathering of more than a handful of Chinese in the spring and summer.  Cheap and festive.

From whence

 come the flower crowns!

If you're a duck, you can swim across the river.

Non ducks can look for a little Huck Finn raft tucked away,

or if you're a wuss, you can hop aboard one of these!  We, of course, fell into that category.

The gondoliers comparing notes--"Ah, heck--more Americans.  They talk funny.  Listen, you take 'em and I'll work a double for you tomorrow!"

"Throw in some beer and you're on!"

This is the stuff calendars are made of...

Ahhhh...I love me some good quiet river time--

punctuated by non stop firecrackers!  Yes, it's Tomb Sweeping Day!  In the country this Memorial Day-esque holiday is celebrated by gathering at tombs of ancestors, burning paper money, and lighting COPIOUS amounts of fireworks.  There may have been potato salad, deviled eggs, family misunderstandings and Texas sheetcake after--I didn't see any.

I am betting some fake paper money that this would soooooooo catch on in the U.S. if we'd give it a whirl.  You first!