Yangshuo and the Li River

We arrived at 6:00 AM, and were greeted with a sunrise showing us amazing scenery! The karst mountains here are not just in a patch or two, but everywhere!

The train arrived first into Guilin, that seemed a bit too big and bothersome, so a quick bus to Yangshuo down the road brought a welcome smaller town.

Yangshuo is seated at the confluence of the Li and Yonglu rivers, and gives great options for all sorts of activities. It is pretty touristy, but it has been good in that it is really making us feel like we are on vacation for the first time.

The first day we picked a hotel called Lisa's. Fooled at first, we soon found that it was mildewy, dark, on top of a night club, and worst of all cockroach infested! We'd already paid with deposit, so were forced to spend the night.

To make the best of the day, we grabbed a couple of bikes and road for a short time around town and some of the countryside. Wow! The pictures I've attached are only a small window! If you can imagine the same mountain, river, and agricultural scenery on all sides, that is a better depiction.

That night we slept with the lights on to keep the cockroaches away, and to the sound of booming bass from underneath us.

The next day we left early and found the West Lily Hotel. Difficult to find, but well worth it! I'd read about it online, but it seemed too good to be true. Rooms are about $10 a night. The staff is great and the rooms are spotless. The only downside is that it is on the one "red light" street in town. The upside? It's really quiet at night and seems very safe.

The staff here helped us get two cheap bicycles, and we headed out on a tour of the Tonglu river. It turned out to be more of a trek than we'd thought it would be! Rough roads took us through hours of rice patties and smiling villagers. It was nice to get a taste of rural China.

Midday I got a flat tire, but some villagers pointed us to a shop only about a 1/2 mile away. It was quirky, more of a general store selling drugs, mechanical items, etc. A very nice Chinese man hopped up and quickly repaired my tire for only about thirty cents! We were so grateful that we gave him a small amount (for us) extra. Turns out it was only an unlucky thorn. Such a close mechanic turned out to be a great boon as we found out we were quite lost...

As the sun began to set, we passed tons of school children making their way home along the muddy red trails, all smiling and saying "Hallo!" That is, except for one group of naughty boys that were screaming "foreign devils!" in Chinese at us.

We found that we'd gotten way off the beaten path amid the myriad roads running through the countryside. However, people were very nice and constantly pointed us the way home. We got back exhausted and immediately found some "bubble tea" and a dinner of sweet and sour pork on the river.

I'll be sad to leave the tall karsts and friendly people here.

Jun 28, 2009

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