Abandon Ship!

Although we didn't actually have to abandon our "bamboo" (aka PVC) raft as we cruised down the Li River, we had a few close calls. Our trip began with two other friends from the hostel as we flagged down a bus heading to Yangshuo. From there we caught the short bus, which probably contained as many people as the previous one, to the dock where we negotiated a decent price for a raft down the river.

The boat captain was great, pointing out different rock formation and stopping where we wanted for a photo op.  The latter almost proved dire as we navigated cross the wind to a grotto in the mountain side. The wind started to torque the raft pushing the front corner under water; however, the captain quickly navigated the boat out of the wind and downstream to safety. The striking scenery and giant Karsts are best described by pictures.

Originally we hadn't planned to spend the night in Yangshuo; however, looking back we could easily have spent several nights there. Luckily we chose to spend one night as we didn't arrive to the city until dusk. After our welcome to the hostel,  beer,and a yummy dinner we headed to the Impressions Liu Sanjie show.  The show is comprised of 3000 plus people from five different villages with an impressive light show to accompany them. A Broadway scale production wasn't something we had expected from a small town in rural China. 

We hoped to rent bikes to explore the country side the next morning before we had to catch a train from Guilin to Chengdu; but we were unsuccessful at renting bikes at 6am. Instead we watched sunrise and had a nice breakfast consisting of warm soy-milk and century-egg porridge. I know it sounds disgusting, but it was actually quite tasty just go to show that you should try anything at least once.