Hide and Seek!

Some of our friends organized a treasure hunt/hide & seek game that sent us running through the little lakeside village, searching for Chinese characters on signs and listening for the tinkling of bells tied to our pursuers shoes. We had to photograph the signs on the list and hide from the bells without ducking into buildings. Impossible. We never heard them coming. With one item left on our list, they captured us all at once like a cheetah after gazelle. Not nearly as graceful though, with us screaming our heads off and laughing hysterically as we stumbled downhill. More like a cheetah chasing drunk hyenas. Before we were captured, we ran into a little alley and passed some elderly women, two of which gazed at us in amazement. The other smiled knowingly and called out, "They're foreigners just playing an exercise game!" Good guess on the foreigner part. But is it really such a regular thing to see us running, screaming and laughing down the alleyways of this little village? Hmmm. The losers (all of us) were to be thrown into the cold lake as punishment. That didn't work so well since all but three of us couldn't swim and freaked out when we, the experienced ones, ventured out further than waist deep. We did come here to swim right? That did explain the abundance of life jackets, arm floaties and other flotation devices. As well as the regular megaphone announcements that since the wind was blowing, it was dangerous to swim and everyone in the water needed to don the bright orange life vests available for rent.

All in all, it was fun simply because we were with friends. We played games into the night, crowded into one hotel room and shared French press coffee in the hallway the next morning. We even convinced a nearby restaurant to cook Chinese scrambled eggs and rice for breakfast instead of noodles. They did a surprisingly good job too. Tired, full, and happy, we climbed aboard the bus for the long ride home.


Mandy
"Sometimes, the journey isn't about where you go, but who accompanies you."-Mandy