Travel Day to Yangshou

Well today was pretty much spent in airports and flying all day (but it beats 
taking a 24 hour train or bus!). And unfortunatley, both plane flights were on 
time (thought I'd make some extra cash again but no deal!). I flew from Lijiang 
to Chendgu and then had a long layover and flew from Chengdu to Guilin and then 
about an hour and a half taxi ride to Yangshou (this better be worth it!). I've 
got 3 full days here and the countryside around here is supposed to be beautiful 
(but then again, that's pretty much everywhere I've been!). It is much warmer 
here (thank God!). It's supposed to be 75 tomorrow and it was fairly warm when I 
landed around 10 PM. For this last leg of the trip, I decided to hire a private 
guide to take me around and show me all the sights. It was recommended by my 
tripadvisor.com pals, so I decided to try it. And you won't believe the price. A 
private guide for all day long is only $15 per day, that's unbelieveable. I sort 
of feel bad, but that's the going rate. I've got lots of cool things planned and 
will share them with you over the next few days. 
 
As for today, since I traveled all day, I don't really have any good pics to 
share so I thought I'd share two of a couple interesting people I met along the 
way. The first one (the guy with the cool hat) was the master Dongba in Lijiang. 
The Dongba in the Naxi culture is sort of the chief or lord who rules over the 
land and people come to him for guidance and inspiration. I know you all don't 
know him, but the closest equivalent I could think of in the states is my good 
friend BC who "lords" over one of the finest tailgating experiences you'll find 
at each and every home Panthers football game! Even Steelers Nation (the finest 
of the tailgaters) wopuld be proud. You can check out his cool website at 
www.bigcattailgating.com. By the way, that sight is banned in China!! 
 
The other pic is one of the Tibetan monks at the large Lamasary in Shangri-la. 
They're really not supposed to talk to people and I don't think you're really 
supposed to take their picture but I saw him working away and came up to just 
observe and tried starting up a conversation with him. He really didn't know 
English but kept smiling as I asked him questions. I then asked if I could take 
his photo and I think he said yes (or maybe he was just chanting, who knows) so 
I took it! 
 
I hope you all are having a great Wednesday and I look forward to sharing more 
about Yangshou with you over the coming days. 
 
Jeff