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Published: June 20th 2007
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So, patchy sleep, a few extra hours over the estimated arrival time as the driver stops to argue over the price of bananas and we are in Guilin, a quick shower and we are back on a bus to see some rice paddies. Two hours outside Guilin are the fields belonging to the 'Long hair tribe' where the women grow their hair until they get married and only wash it in the water from the paddies. The village is beautiful, highly ornate wooden houses perched over the rice fields all the way up the terraces. It's ridiculously touristed, but that doesn't spoil the view. The climb was quite hard as the sun was blazing and it was about 1pm, there was the option of being carried up by sedan chair, but I decided against it and slogged on.
Back in Guilin we booked a local boat down the Li River to Yangshou, it only takes an hour by bus, but we were all bussed out and loved the idea of an afternoon cruising peacefully downstream. And we are glad we did it, for about 150 RMB we were treated to spectacular views, I even wore my special boating hat
(also suitable for cycling). It started with a bus journey, but this was okay as it was the most spectacular bus journey I've ever taken! An hour of lush scenery and ridiculously green pastures, set against those spiky limestone mountains the area is so famous for. Every available plot of land was crammed with food; Rice, tomatoes, bananas, lotus roots, beans, pomegranates, yams. It was a herbivores wet dream. And then small roads, shady lanes, women selling lychee's on the side of the road, perfect.
When we get to the boat after a 10 minute walk through a quiet village, avoiding the ducks and chickens. We discover it will not be a private boat (as promised by the agent), but we were sharing with a French girl who was studying Chinese and she was able to translate the names of the mountains we passed, informed by the boat driver, so it was rather fortuitous. The boat was just a simple thing, looked a bit like a canal boat, with long metal decks front and rear where we sat on little stools and watched the world go by.
The river was gorgeous, just what I'd hoped for, and apart
from the odd pig corpse floating in the river it was all very lovely, motoring slowly downstream, stopping off to have a look at various places, a small farming village where an ancient lady invited me to eat with her. I was looking at her cute little chicks and chickens at the time so I hoped she wasn't going to offer me one of those. But you get that a lot in China, in cities or villages, people are so nice, if you are struggling in a restaurant or with a bus timetable, someone will come over and help, if you get out a map, people will gather around you offering directions. If someone can't help you, they will call up a friend, or a friends friend who speaks English. It's amazing how generous people have been really. I mean who in the UK would invite a stranger in for lunch?
We arrive at Yangshou eventually and end up at Lisa's guesthouse, as recommended by the Lonely Planet, and although she didn't wear her Chairman Mao uniform as listed she was a legend. Just as we are checking in we hear some familiar voices behind us and it's Lauren,
Dylon and Wade, who have just checked out of the very same guesthouse and are getting dinner and some beers before their bus to Macau arrives. A total co-incidence. We join them for dinner and admire their new bling watches they've just bought at a market.
After they leave we catch a famous light show involving several mountains and about 3,000 people, telling the history of various indigenous peoples of the area. It's quite specular and well laid out, but rather expensive.
Yangshou itself is beautiful, small and intimate, backed by tall hills and forest. Very much a back packer destination, but we get to eat Mexican food and it's got a nice atmosphere.
We get up at 5am to go kayaking on the Li river, we just miss the sunrise and have to watch from the road instead of the river, but it's pretty none the less.
We are given kayaks and pushed out into the river alone, which I am more than happy with as we are free to make our own way down river where we will be picked up. Just the two of us and the fishermen on their bamboo rafts. The
water is perfectly still, broken by the odd rapid and gentle white water. Even though the sun has risen the colours are amazing; blues and pinks and dark greens, changing slowly to bright greens and golds and the sun climbs higher. It's so relaxing, almost meditative. The limestone scenery is still cloaked in mist as we drift in the current, barely having to paddle. We stop off for a while on a pebble spit jutting out into the river to take in the scenery a bit more. Everything looks wild and old, until we have to come back to reality and we turn our final bend to dredging machines and construction of a new highway, picked up by a bone rattler of a vehicle, basically a lawnmower engine on the front, and sent on our way back to Yangshou.
We had already booked a bus out of Yangshou to Macau before we'd left Guilin, a stupid thing to do as now we wanted to stay longer. But we fixed our sights on Hong Kong and packed for the bus. 18 hours this time, we were taking no chances, we stuffed some vodka, some coke, playing cards and some locally
grown lychee's in a backpack and we were set.
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