Erratic thoughts and daydreams

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My Birthday 55 today.

It feels like Saturday. sometimes you forget what day it is but today feels like a Saturday. Its warm. We shop, buying trinkets and fun things, bump into friends from college, let the day drift by
Sitting outside a corner cafe sipping coffee watching the tourists go by (still in coach groups) listening to conversations in alien but familiar language.
Someone unseen is playing a Sax, incongruous in this landscape.
Landscape; ah yes because you just have to look up to see what I mean. I sat and tried to put it into words.

How do I describe
The beauty of this land
a verdant velvet pasture?
a rivers silken band?
farmers art etched in the landscape?
arcing bamboos shooting fountains?
I just look up and then it strikes me
Use just three words
Yangshuo grows mountains.

Evening falls and I'm happy to see that a good crowd has assembled to eat in a nearby market, the food is typical of the local area and quite inexpensive.
Off to town in the back of an (illegal) tuk tuk to a bar for my first taste of live football since I was at home. Swiftly followed by a game of pool against Greg (Canadian, good player and great company) honours even he said but I am sure it ended 2 games to 1 in his favour. The girls (Marie and Sheryl) disappear and return with cheeky grins and a bottle of Absolut decanted into a water bottle. It does the trick and we head off for another bar where one of the guys (Ian) happens to sing and play guitar. Become best mates with a young Chinese guy who is celebrating his birthday too. Don't remember much else but Sue tells me I had a great time was in good voice and playful mood and fell asleep sitting up in front of the computer when we got home.
Sunday morning happened around lunchtime and we ambled into town in search of western food, bumped into Cathy and Duo Duo at the noodle bar and left having planned to go to the Yangshuo light show that evening. It was warm and sunny and we then spent an hour looking for a restaurant that had been recommended, gave up and ate at a place we had been before that overlooked the Li river. The food was good and we spent a lazy hour or so eating, watching the river go by and watching a couple having wedding photos taken on an island in the middle.
We decided to have a Sunday afternoon stroll around the park which led to me confronting the remains of my hangover and my vertigo in scaling the precarious steps up a karst to the temple at the summit. The climbing made me nervous the descent made me sweat! The bonus was the view over the town and seeing how it nestles in a ring of mountains by the river. Another view another sense of wonder.











The evenings entertainment took our senses to another level.
Zhang Yimou who directed Hero and House of flying daggers and choreographed the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics has designed an open theatre using the river and surrounding mountains as his backdrop. They call it a light show but it is a love story set to music performed by 600 local actors. The stage is vast but it works by virtue of the way it is lit and the huge company who keep the whole spectacle moving seen and unseen.
The result is redolent of Pink Floyd but like nothing I have ever seen before. From the most distant character holding a flaming torch; to the little girls in ethnic costumes of the indigenous local Zhuang culture, parading directly in front of us, Zhang has produced an epic live performance that leaves you open mouthed and colours your memory of the landscape for a long time afterwards.

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Photos

Cafe
Reflecting my heads reflections

Temple lit
Hill top Temple from below

Li River
Distant wedding couple a white dot

Temple steps
What me worry?

Temple view
Yangshuo circled

Yangshuo from above
Nestled in the hills by the river

Light show
Spooky images float before you.

Comments

[Trace and Mike]

Happy Birthday!!!
Happy birthday Gord! and hi Sue! Been following you avidly and it all sounds and looks so wonderful. Well we are off in the morning and can't wait to catch up with you both in person again - ooohhhh think of the noise we will make!!! Sue I have to make a confession, I have packed 7 pairs of knickers this time, I know, what a let down I am. We miss you both and think of you often, SEE YOU SOON??? Big hugs to you both, Trace and Mike XXXXXXX

[Liu san jie]

The name of the night show is Liu san jie(Third Sister Liu). Very famous in Zhuang people. I enjoyed this show(in the stage) in US, which was for the Sichuan earthquake. Really amazing. The story is with a quirky twist, the song lyrics are rhymed and show Liu is very smart, brave and upright. I just hope that I could see the show on the Li river.

[Travelwash]

Xmas in Goa
Great to hear from you both. have you set up a blog yet?? Really looking forward to getting to Goa and meeting up again. Let us know when you are settled and if you can recommend a cheap room nearby for us!! Gord and Sue XXX

[Travelwash]

Liu san jie
Hi; Thanks for the message and the information we didn't have a translator with us at the show but were still blown away by the spectacle of it all. You must get to Yangshuo if you get the chance and not only for the show.