A very amiable Dong villager elder.

Heading out. Notice some of our artists painting across the river.

Believe it or not I got married in Longshen,China this morning! We had traveled from Guilin, one of the more beautiful cities in the world to the mountains to see the Yao, an ethnic minority group with very colorful costumes and traditions. We went to what was suppose to be a wedding celebration, and lo and behold, I was the lucky guy out of 200 to be picked to get married! I had my choice of about 12 young and beautiful Yao ladies to be the most fortunate bride. To made a long story short, they dressed me up and we all danced together to the delight of the crowd. They have a wonderful and peculiar custom of the ladies pinching the grooms posterior, and the harder they pinch, means that they love you more! I will shamelessly report that I received some very painful pinches! We also danced, which ends with everyone slamming their posteriors into each other as a final closing, one couldn't make this up. I then had to sing to the bride, and my spirits sank, as I sound like a cat caught under a fence. I panicked and couldn't think of one single love song, and let it be said that "The Saints Go Marching In" is now considered a love song in China. To retrieve my honor I gallantly got down on my knees and kissed the bride, no not there, but on her lovely pearl white hand! The crowd went wild and I picked the fair bride up in my arms and exited to the rear! That was about it, I got a beautiful Yao marriage gift and am now an honorary member of the Yao group!

It was a lot of grand fun and afterward we went on our way to see the mountaintop village of Longshen and all the way on the long and arduous hike up and back down, people were laughing about it all and I had at least a dozen wonderful Chinese girls insisting on having their picture taken with me! I felt like some sort of instant celebrity and shameleesly took advantage of flirting with the whole bunch of them! Now you are probably asking what Monique thought of all this, but to her credit she took it as a great sport and even egged the ladies on! It was a great adventure to see the old villages, as many are set alongside a beautiful river with rice paddies and mountains all around. Most of the elders have never been out of the village in their whole lives and never want too. I bought a lot of gifts and spent a lot of money for photographs as the Yao have been introduced to the outside world of the tourist. Not a pretty sight, but what can one do? Tonight we ventured out of our hotel restaurant sanctuary to a local Chinese restaurant. On the menu was Bamboo Rat, Viper Snake soup, King Snake and other such abominable offerings. We stuck with Braised chicken and rice. and walked up town, (very nice and modern). We ran into a Mcdonalds and treated ourselves to a couple of sundaes.

That is the latest from Guilin, the rest of the 35 artists and friends are to arrive tomorrow night. Guilin and the area around is extremely beautiful with lazy rivers running throughout town and surrounded by the grand rock formations that it is so famous for. Quite a country of contrasts, but their is no doubt that China is roaring into the 21st century with grand zeal and enthusiasm. Well enough for now. Thanks to those of you that have responded with you wonderful comments and I hope that I can get back to you all. I will keep this so called blogging up as long as I can and hope that I am not being to boring. Take care, Ned

Part of our welcoming committee. It is a tradition to greet guests with a long line of fine ladies "making" us drink rice wine on the steps to the village entrance! Men, where have our women gone wrong?