Fun in Yangshuo

June is coming to a close, and it has been a most interesting month. We had the longest week of work ever. Having one day off in 16 days was tough stuff, but we survived, and now we just have to pack up and enjoy our vacation. With working so many straight days, it gave me the opportunity to travel! Yeah! I went to a lovely part of China called Yangshuo and Guilin. It is known for the best scenery in all of China and that is really saying something. China is beautiful. My old traveling partners set out again for another adventure. We did lots of biking, hiking, and even some kayaking. It was very mild kayaking or I wouldn’t be here right now typing! ;-) I never was much of a swimmer.

One of the highlights of our journey was exploring in the water cave. It was huge and our tour guide let us do anything we wanted. He encouraged us to climb up behind a huge waterfall in the cave. When we climbed behind it, he encouraged us to keep going and go to the other side. I hate to admit I actually sat that one out, but I didn’t sit out the mud bath part! Yes, there was a pool of mud in the cave, and in the pool you are suppose to get in and enjoy the mud. That is what we did. At the beginning I thought this is gross and disgusting. Why in the world am I doing this? Then I got in a little more, and the mud actually felt wonderful on the skin. My skin was living in luxury. The cave even had a mud slide where you could go down and splash into the pool. I made the mistake of keeping my mouth open, and yes, of course I ate some mud pies, if you will. It was lots of fun, and we were able to get some pictures developed of our group playing in the mud. Lots of fun! I encourage all of you to enjoy a mud bath sometime. It is better to have lots of friends, and then you can really enjoy it!