November 25, 2024
Guadeloupe - today we went for a chill day on the beach!
We were in a taxi van headed to St Anne's area from the port and our driver wanted to pick up more people to fill the van. The 2 we added were Robert and Fred from our ship, who were going to a hotel to use a day pass they offered - 60 Euro for use of beach pool and facilities and it included hot & cold buffet lunch with cocktails. Hotel was lovely when we pulled up and secluded beach & pool lovely - so we changed plans and joined in. Robert, who is a wealth investor in our Ship, ended up paying for all 6 of us and we had a very nice day just relaxing. Rod, Fred & Robert bonded over cars and music discussions. Us ladies just chilled! A good day!
View more
The women in the Huangluo Village of Guangxi, China are famed and record holders in the Guiness World Records as the Long Hair Village. They grow their hair up to 2.1 meters or 6.8 feet and cut it only once in their lives, at age 17 or 18 when they have a "coming of age" ceramony. We visited the village and went to a performance where they showed us their history and customs.
Guilin is such a pretty little town; tons of tourist seem to know it too! I really enjoyed walking around it at night! I went for a stroll, along the river, to just soak it all in. I grabbed some street food, kung pow chicken and rice for dinner, that I had back in the quiet of my hotel room and had an early night.
The Guilin area of southern China is known to have some of the most stunning karst rock formations. We took a bamboo cruise boat with a tiny electric motor, from the villages of Yangdi to Xingping this morning. The rafts are limited to 4 guest each - so I road with a Chinese family, there on vacation from the Beijing area, who was very sweet. Mom and Dad spoke no english, but their son, who is in his final year of college study environmental science, was able to converse and intrepret what the driver said to me the whole ride, about one hour.