Well how quickly things can turn around! After the Yao wedding ceremony (yes, it is a true story) Monique seemed to take it all quite well, although I may have overplayed my hand a bit with all the lovely Yao women treating me like royalty. She seemed OK, but at dinner that night, a bit of jealousy came out and when I left and came back she was talking to aome guy sitting at the table next to us. They both had ordered the Viper Soup and struck up a lively conversation over it and one thing led to another and before I knew it they had plans to go to the computer store and check on some new digital calculator models. He is some kind of engineer and they were both excited over this goofy high tech stuff. Well, I didn't see her all night and she called this morning and said she had found a better deal. I figured it was the polyester suit that he had on, but then she really hurt me by saying he had fewer liver spots on his hands than I do.I also found out that she was only hal f French and the other half is Ukranian, go figure! Well, I was a little shook up and this is twice in about three months! I went down to the river and was contemplating ending it all, when I spotted a magnificent looking rock. I instantly was so taken by it I forgot all my past losses. It is a very beautiful rock and if you hold it up to the light just at the right angle it looks a bit like Marilyn Monroe's tummy! So I am back on track now and this time I will be sure not to take my lovely for granite again!! I know, I know it is painful, but now you know the deep hurt that I have suffered over Monique and by now you should have figured out that Monique has been my fantasy girl on the trip! The Yao wedding ceremony actually happened and I will show pictures when I get back, unless I can get a better deal than my pet rock, Marilyn. Well all that being said and if you have no life and are still reading this you will be glad to know that the weather today rea lly sucked! Worse than Seattle, it was cold and rained all day. John Bambaugh and I went down to Yangshou and took a boat ride on the famous Li River. The weather was so bad we had this large boat all to ourselves. We came over 6000 miles to see one of the most beautiful sights in the world and could barely make the mountains out in the fog and rain! the other 35 people show up in about two hours and will not be too happy with the rainy forecast for the next few days! Taking the Chinese buses was quite an adventure, as we seem to be the ony English speaking souls for a thousand miles in all directions, but with strange noises and goofy drawings we are "greasing the pig" as they say. I have been spending money like it is going out of style, but have gotten some wonderful things for the house and some real cheap things for friends! One of the sales girls downstairs said that she would marry me, but then after I had spent a lot of money on things, for some reason her enthusiasm h as dropped. I also have a suspicion that John has told her about Marilyn.. Enough for now, in spite of the lousy weather our spirits are high, even more so after a few sips of some great rice wine and we look boldly to our adventures ahead. I got some great responses to the wedding news, that will be hard to top, but I am looking for every opportunity I can to do better, so keep reading, or at least fake it! Miss you all, that's a lie, not yet anyways! Ned.

After about eight cups of rice wine a little smoke and some dirty jokes to bond with the citizens.

The party started to get a little wild!

Things also started to get a little foggy!