fh_trips | Guilin, China, Saturday morning

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spring break 2018: china

Guilin, China, Saturday morning

Are you ready to head back to Fandom? Frankly, us either, but you have until mid-afternoon to do a quick river cruise, buy some more souvenirs, go spelunking, or become masters of the art of dumpling making (not you, Tony and Steve).

Only a few hours before we bid China farewell, Fandom! Up and at 'em!

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For the final leg of our journey, the school has splashed out on rooms, putting everyone up on the Horizon Club level with access to the Club Lounge and truly spectacular river views from each room. You get a coffee, tea, or juice of your choice delivered to your room when you wake up this morning.

[OOC: Roommates are the same as the last hotel, and the room numbers are MAGICALLY ALSO THE SAME. Room assignments are still here and NSFW still goes in personal journals!]

Mike was sad ~~about not having been played at all during this break bc RL~~.

Okay, no he wasn't But he could've been! This exotic holiday he hadn't had to pay for was very damn near its end and that meant that ordinary life - and work loomed ahead. Back to reality and all that.

But right now? Goddamn, how could he possibly be sad when he could still be admiring that fantastic river view? From bed, even. Because he wasn't getting up before he had to.

Brooke got out of the shower, and when she saw him looking out, she came over still clad in a towel to climb onto the bed next to him. "Can we take that view back with us?"

"Aww, honey, I don't think we can," Mike said as he pried his gaze away from the view to look at her instead. Like that was a hardship. (It was not. He was so lucky.)

He paused for just a beat, then said, "So guess we just gotta move in here for like, permanently."

"Hmm. I don't know if I can do it permanently. Maybe a few weeks. Or even a couple days," she said, looking over at him.

"What, you don't think we can just ditch our American lives and--"

What she'd actually said only seemed to process halfway through him speaking. Though in his defense, he was also reaching out an arm to pull her in close as he spoke. So, that was distracting.

"Wait, for real?"

"What, take a few days?" she asked, snuggling in closer.

"Yeah." The snuggling was also distracting. And so, so welcome. He let out a content sigh. "That."

"We could," Brooke said, seriously. "I can throw down the cash so we don't even have to change rooms. Monday's class was going to be a jet-lagged movie day anyway..."

Mike snickered. "Well, holy shit, I'm not gonna say no," he said, his fingers lazily tangling up in her hair to play with it. "I don't have any deliveries that need to happen and I'm not in a hurry to get back."

"And we don't have to chaperone... Really, we're only helping ourselves here."

Yeah, Brooke, that was obvious.

"Exactly. Without the chaperoning --" Which he hadn't been doing to begin with. "-- we can just focus on what's actually important."

Which was...?

"...We're not going to leave this room, are we?" Brooke asked.

SUCH A CHORE.

Mike laughed.

And pulled an exaggerated thinking face. "I mean, like, we're probably gonna at least take a walk at some point. And I maybe wanna go to the spa at some point for some ridiculous massage therapy thing, I don't know." That was a lot of maybe-ing. "But there's just so much left to explore right here in the room too, you know?"

He dropped a kiss on her forehead.

"Like, I'm still really interested in checking out the, uh, sturdiness of some of the furniture."

Professional curiosity. Research. Totally just that. Nothing dirty here, no ma'am.

"Oh, I mean, you have to," Brooke said, mock seriously, draping her leg over his. "It's your job."

"Exactly."

Mike grinned down at her.

"I love how you get me."

Amaya had always considered herself a woman who didn't hold much stock in anything fancy. She believed in the value of hard work, of getting your hands dirty, of good and honest effort. She'd rather spend a day swimming in sweat than sitting in the lap of luxury.

But this...? Having coffee sent up to her room which was nicer than anything she ever experienced before, looking at the spectacular view...well. It wasn't something she could get used to, but it was certainly something she could appreciate that morning and be glad to get back to work and back to her normal state of things again soon.

And it definitely warranted a slightly breathless, "Zounds," between sips, too.

Edited 2018-03-10 20:49 (UTC)

Dim sum! The Shangri-La boasts the best dim sum in Guilin, but there's also a wide variety of Western breakfast foods if you're not feeling up to Chinese early (or not-so-early) in the morning.

Take a final swim in the pool, get a pedicure or a massage, or play one last round of Mahjong in the game room with the little old ladies there who are always playing Mahjong.

There isn't time for the bike ride today, but you can still cruise the Li River today, enjoying the picturesque hills. You can also rent a kayak or a bamboo raft if you'd like your experience to be more interactive.

Why bother with renting a vessel to float along the water when one could just swim it? It took a little bit of convincing, but he managed to be allowed swim alongside the boats, and he couldn't have asked for a better way to spend his last hours in this wonderful country.

Did you miss your chance to go to the cave yesterday? You can still do it today. This one-hour tour in the cave takes you to a magical spectacle. The main feature of the cave is some extremely diverse rocky formations including larger stalactites and stalagmites. Illuminated with colorful light, this underground site is displayed in a delightful and attractive way.

Oh, Peridot wasn't going to miss this. She took all the time the tour would allow, leaning in close to look at the rock formations and stalagmites.

"This would've been a decent place to construct a Kindergarten..."

Not that she did that sort of thing before, but you really couldn't take the certified Kindergartener out of the Peridot.

Summer's extra bag for just souvenirs and other purchases was literally stuffed, so she figured she'd be better off spending her time not acquiring more things. Her wallet...as well as her Instagram...was very grateful for the departure, too. This was actually really kind of neat...

For someone who had spent years crawling through downed ships, Rey figured a cave might feel a little like home. But no, it looked like this, and she was a little caught off guard.

Well. Not caught off guard enough to not keep an eye out for anyone who was going to yell at her for breathing too hard on the rocks or something.

Last chance for t-shirts, fake jade, local art, silk, tea, and terracotta warriors!

Breq had little interest in souvenirs, but after yesterday's visit to the tea house, buying some local tea seemed like a good idea. Not that she was obsessed with tea liked the Radchaai, but she did like it. And it was better here.

Tea shops! Dumpling class! A local Cantonese restaurant with food hot enough to melt your eyeballs!

Tell us where you are and what you're doing!

Thanks for playing in fake China with us!

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Guilin, China, Saturday morning

HOTEL

Rooms

Room 21

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Room 20

Breakfast

Hotel Amenities

GUILIN

On the River

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Reed Flute Cave

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Shopping

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Food

Mod Your Own Fun

OOC