No one has to read this
I’m using this blog as a temporary e-diary for my travels in China. No one should feel obliged to read this, it’s just a convenient forum. Today was great. It was our 3rd day in Yangshuo, tomorrow we go back to Guilin to catch a overnight bus to Hainan. Yangshuo is stop-you-in-your tracks beautiful. Even though the city itself is a tourist mecca and filled with less than beautiful buildings, you can’t help to appreciate the towering limestone mountains and rivers surrounding the city. I’m writing this from our hostel’s roof (Monkey Jane’s hostel). The weather is warm and tropical even though it’s dark and I’m beat from a filled day. Today we went gas scooters and went along the Yulong river. It’s (if this is possible) even more beautiful than the Li River. First time on an electric scooter, it was successful. We woke up after an uncomfortable night on basically wooden beds. We then rented scooters and puttered down from downtown along the river, eventually aiming for the Yulong Bridge. Took a few hours and got lost a few times but that’s the best part of it. It’s alarming to see the contrast between the tourist ridden downtown of Yangshuo and the poverty filled countryside surrounding it. The farmers work on their fields, heads bent over rice paddies. Old women walk hunched from working and carrying for so long. Many old women also make these beautiful flower wreaths to sell to tourists. I payed a woman to take her picture today and got a free one. But it’s the most beautiful place. We made our way with the river on one side and the mountains on the other, fields stretching out on either side, water buffalos resting in streams. The scooters were a challenge on the bumpier roads, but it was worth it. After getting lost a few times we finally found the bridge. It’s 600 years old and the bamboo boat drivers told us the water was between 6 and 8 meters deep (or at least we got answers that ranged from 6-8). After seeing some spritely Chinese boys in underwear jump from the bridge into the water, we gave it a go. We met a couple from London and the guy went first. It’s probably the highest thing I’ve ever jumped off of and it was exhilarating. We jumped off twice and were lounging, waiting for a third time, when we saw a dead cat float by. This put us off, so we got back on the scooters to go back to Yangshuo. We got lost (again) but finally bumped our way back into the city (kind of by accident). On the way back saw a guy skinning a dog on his stoop in a little village. Luckily, Patrick missed it. I bought a lotus flower (to eat, you can eat the seeds, who knew!) aided by a foreigner and his Chinese friend who helped me get the proper price. We’re now back at the hostel, pooped.
Yesterday was similar, more amazing countryside. We rented mountain bikes and went down along the same river, but saw different roads and in different ways by bike. Before we trekked down the river, we went to mud caves. We biked down from Yangshuo and then took a shuttle bus. It was great, got to splash around in mud then soak in an underground hot springs. The best part, though, was The bike road was satisfying, left with a sore butt and sore hands afterwards. Made even more satisfying by the swims in the river. Because we went by bike, we got to swim in some beautiful deserted spots. We crossed this man made waterfall and went swimming along it, looking at all the fish there. There were some with crazy beautiful colors, like I would expect to see in Hawaii. After we biked up for about 3 hours, we biked back down to an area that had bamboo boats sailing up the river. We bartered for a while and had a guide take us to a port a little closer to Yangshuo, and we loaded our bikes onto the bamboo boat and cruised down the river. Most of the boats were gone by that time, which was nice. Our driver, who had several silver teeth, told us that he drove Clinton down the river when he visited China. Patrick tried to stand on the front of the boat while we went down a mini-waterfall, and fell off, which I and the boat drivers thoroughly enjoyed. We biked back to Yangshuo, ate dinner, had a drink, and went to sleep.
The day before that we came to Yangshuo from Guilin. We took the trip down on a bamboo boat, stocked full of amazing views (slightly tainted by the hundreds of other boats). A dragonfly hitched a ride on my shoe for a good ways down. We got to Yangshuo, checked in at our hostel, We planned to do the mudcaves, but by the time we had eaten it was already quite late, so we rented a bamboo boat and went to a swimming spot on the Li River. The driver napped while we paddled (really strong current even in the “swimming spots”). We came back, ate dinner, and went to bed.
More on the past and future later!
