Day 3 we went to the rain forest which was again beautiful. We suffered through a horrendous elephant show and my dad made me go sit on the elephant after for a photo op. Hi. My name is Nicole and I am 5. The
humorous side story to go along with this is the group of women who came up to us after b/c they wanted to take a picture with us :) AND they even had a "professional" take it and they bought the picture after!!! We should sue for royalties! This would happen a lot on the trip though so we got used to being XSB celebrities.We took a beautiful ride in a gondola suspended high above the rain forest. It was a 35 minute trip one way and we decided to make it a roundtrip since there wasn't much else to see on the other end. I was with Dianna, our guide and my parents were behind us. At the turnaround Diana hopped out to pay for our return trip leaving me alone. No prob. I'm a big girl. Not afraid of heights. Well that was all out the window when 7 minutes into the return trip the heavens opened up and dumped their fury on us in the form of rain, thunder and lightening. Thunder storms can really be enjoyable when you're in the comfort of your home snuggled up with a
blanket and hot cocoa and Love Actually playing gaily in the background. Thunder and lightning storms are NOT pleasurable when you are suspended 100 feet above a forest in a gondola in a torrential downpour and the only thing shielding you from electrocution is a METAL roof!!! "Oh but Nicole you're in China and they have thought of this scenario. You must be safe" you say? Here is a good time to remind you all of my China mantra: There's no logic in China! Not only did I have to worry about death by lightning strike (this is when the saying "You have a better chance of getting struck by lightning... is NOT comforting) I was also getting drenched! I sat in the center of the tin box for a good 28 minutes longer praying to make it to safety. Be not afraid though my friends. I lived to blog another day.That was all the excitement we could handle and so ended Day 3.
Day 4 didn't threaten rain but we stayed clear of metal objects. We went to another animal park complete with another animal show (this one more inhumane than the last) and dance show. And attended another village of a very small minority called the Hanny people. Not to be confused with the majority Han people. This group didn't even speak mandarin and our guide couldn't communicate with them so we had a special gov't appointed guide. You know what that means. Good, fun communist propaganda. You can see these pictures through my dad's album (link available on previous post). They are the ones with all the people in black. I don't know how much of this was for show but there were different people at different stations throughout our walk through the village and they would perform different cultural traditions. It almost made me feel kind of sick b/c the people seemed sedated and just there for show. Nonetheless it was still interesting to see and my dad even taught the boys how to do an old fashioned Philly handshake. I have a video of it that is quite amazing but it won't come off my camera :( I will keep trying b/c it is fantastic!
There were a few interesting night activities in the town we were staying in. It was a good sized "city" for the area. At the center there was a nice lake around which everyone gathered at night. In one spot a group of about 100-150 middle aged to older people gathered for dancing. They did the cha cha, tango, waltz, box step, you name it. My Dad and I joined for one dance but had much more fun watching. In another section about 30 people gathered around this other guy who was an honest-to-god snake oil salesman. He had the snake out there and everything. He kept pointing to his back and from what I could gather was talking about this oil being a cure. What?!?! Where are we?? In another corner was a game of poker or something and another section had a band playing music and a woman singing. The whole scene was so lively it entertained us for hours.
When all was said and done, we were ready to leave XSB and get back to the sanity of Shanghai (no way I just said that). It was a truly fabulous and unique trip and in the end our sketchy travel agency went above and beyond what we asked for.
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