Guilin and Yangshuo-pictures!

What a trip! :) I got back almost a week ago, but since I got back, I've been busy catching up for those 3 days I missed... and I've just been too lazy to post pictures. ;)

Here's the filthy train we took from Wuhan to Guilin...

Here's what 15 hours on a train without sleeper seats will do to you!

Here's the group of girls I traveled with (from left to right):
Hadeel from Sudan, me, Areen from Palestine, Luiza from Algeria, and Rahma from Tanzania. (And I probably butchered the spellings of those names!)The girls loved hearing me even TRY to pronounce their names throughout the trip... haha. I only knew Luiza before the trip... the other girls are all friends of hers, and they all go to a different university here in Wuhan. I met them at the train station before leaving for Guilin... I was afraid that we wouldn't have much in common, and that the trip would be awkward... but we got to know each other pretty quickly (15 hours on the train helped! ;), and we got along great! (I'm starting to realize that I have surprising amounts of things in common with people whose backgrounds are totally different from mine!)

Being a foreigner in China automatically makes you attractive and "popular"... and the fact that our group was so diverse only added to the attention we got. (We started joking that WE were the main attraction, not the caves and such.) Most people just took pictures of us without asking... anytime we were posing to take a picture, random Chinese people would get out their cameras and take a shot. But we didn't have to be posing... they took pictures of us just walking by, eating, etc, etc, etc. One couple even started walking with us while a friend took a picture of them! It was really annoying after a while... I don't mind attention, ;) but it never ends here!

At least this girl was nice enough to ASK for a picture. :)

As I mentioned in my earlier post, we got up bright 'n' early on Monday to take some bamboo rafts down the Li River. It was beautiful! (More pictures are in my albums--see links below.)

I'm just so glad I have opportunities like this... :)

Here are links to my pictures:

Guilin and Yangshuo, part 1

Guilin and Yangshuo, part 2