SATURDAY!   WE MADE IT!  Oh yeah, the Riding4Beer 2011 China Tour made it by bus from Yangshou yesterday afternoon to Guilin, then by overnight train west from there to Kunming.  We were so rushed getting out of Yangshou by the local police that we didn’t even have time to pick up our wire transfer of spending money from Budweiser.  And, since we drink every dime they give us that meant that on the train we only had enough cash for some crackers and a ramen noodle bowl. 

So, we arrived this morning into a steaming mass of humanity at the railway station, hungry and in critical need of finding a Bank of China office open at 6am on a Saturday to retrieve the long overdue wire from our sponsor (thanks again Budweiser – better late than never!)  Folks, without cash (literally ANY cash) we couldn’t even get dog-on-a-stick for breakfast!  The good news is that while we couldn’t get our wire, Kevin tried his ATM card in a machine at the Agricultural Construction Bank of Kunming and let’s just say the cash start kunming and kunming and kunming!  That ATM paid off like an f’ing slot machine!

So here’s the deal.  We found a room for about $7 a night at the “Cloudland Hostel,” we ate (hot food), we showered (cold water), we shaved (Stacy), we put on makeup (Kevin) and life is good again.  We’re here now until Monday (gotta get that wire!) and then we’re off even farther west to the Burmese border and a search for the mystical town of Shangri-La (SERIOUSLY – it’s here somewhere at the beginning of the southern Silk Road).  Stay tuned – we’ve got beer money again!

                                                                   FOUR, YES FOUR WHOLE PICS!

       
    Water and crackers - better than the Atkins Diet!                     Noodle bowl, baby! - Tons of emply carbs!

       
                      Now where is that ATM?                                                 aHHHH,   Money = Beer = Happiness!