7/25 - Yangshuo back to Guilin

Our stay in Yangshuo was short and unfortunately Kyle became sick.  He woke up with a headache which swiftly turned into a stomach & body aches and fever.  Poor guy!  I understand the misery he's feeling.

The girls and I have breakfast and get everything packed up as we're on the move again later today.  First we head out into the country side of Yangshuo for a cooking school.

The scenery and setting for this school is incredible.  This is the real China!  Although it's fun to see the cities and walk around in the city center, I really enjoy being in the quiet countryside.  The cooking school was started by an Austrailian tour guide who loved the local food & loved to cook.  There was a large room set up with a dozen or so hot plates, utensils and all the food prepped for cooking.  The girls made 5 different dishes using all sorts of traditional cooking methods and local fresh ingredients.

While they were cooking the parents relaxed and looked around the area.  I didn't venture too far because Kyle is miserable right now.  His fever has really spiked and he's fighting the nausea and sick stomach.  Our guide found him a more comfortable chair and place to sit under the shade tree.  The cooking smells to us were wonderful but to him were painful.  Plus, it's another hot & humid day.

Lunch was one of the best we've had the whole trip!  I'm so bummed Kyle isn't feeling well as this is a great experience!  Back on the bus and head back to Guilin which is another hour and half drive.  Kyle sleeps pretty much the whole trip.

We can't just go straight to the hotel, we stop at the Pearl Factory where you can find the river and sea pearls.  And, of course our group enjoys a 30% discount.  Kyle finds some chairs to sleep while we participate in the tour and shopping.

Once back at the hotel we get settled in, I try to organize myself and then take Megan swimming for a few minutes.  Tonight is the Farewell Dinner which was really nice!  All four of the groups (yellow, green, purple and the best - blue) were all there with our local Guilin guides and our National guides. Dinner was good and then we had a talent show put on by the girls.  The girls in the green group offered the most and ended up doing some rather silly little girl things towards the end.  Nobody from Blue had done anything.  Then, suddenly Megan is there and she's singing a song from Moana.  Wow, great job Meg's!!  After a few more talents, Megan is back up on stage singing another song, again from Moana.  I guess her friends convinced her to do another one.  She was awesome!  Looks like she should try out for middle school choir and/or theater.  Kyle had to miss the dinner, we missed him!

After lots of pictures with our new friends, we head back to our room to yup, pack again.  In the morning we begin our journey to Megan and Natalee's provinces. We have another 7 days to go.