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.

You take Picture

After four days of touring Hong Kong we decided to cross the border into mainland China and take an overnight sleeper train from Shenzhen to Guilin. We wanted to travel by hard-sleeper; however, we found out the hard way that purchasing tickets a few hours before a train departs isn't always the best. The only seats available for the train were in the soft sleeper class, which were twice the price but were quite nice.

Whenever we reach a new city we always try to find a map and explore the local area to get our bearings. What we weren't expecting was to be invited to join a game of bad mitten. So, after a few hours of sleep and glasses fogging over, we tested our bad mitten skills. As one could guess, this didn't go too well; however, we all had a great experience and were invited back anytime (we assume that's what they said as we parted ways). We grabbed some yummy dumplings for breakfast and watched groups of people doing their morning exercises, from Tai Chi to line dancing. (We managed to stay out of those)

As we walked around the rivers and lakes taking in the scenery and lovely pagodas we were suddenly ambushed by Chinese in the trees. As strange as it sounds, we seemed to be an added tourist attraction around the lake as several people took our pictures, some discreetly and others not so much. A group of kids ran up to us asking "you take picture", so the "laowai's" (foreigner) obliged, and we even threw up the peace sign which seems to be the Asian photo trademark. We were going to get a picture with our camera, but they disappeared into the trees giggling as quickly as they appeared. We have discovered the Chinese people to be surprisingly nice and extremely, but sincerely, inquisitive of foreigners as you are shamelessly stared at where ever you go.

Halloween unfortunately isn't as widespread in Guilin as it is in the States and other big cities; however, there were a few Halloween decorations and costumes. We didn't dress up as we were too lazy to go shopping for any costumes unlike other Westerns around town. A highlight for many locals was to admire the ridiculously dressed foreigners as they hung out downtown. So we had a couple beers and watched too.

Without any real plan yet for China we broke down and joined one of the flag-led tours through the hostel to Longsheng with some friends we met the night before. The Ping An rice terraces are a highlight of the Guangxi province and although they had been recently harvested, the vista was still quite extraordinary. Though said to be touristier than other terrace locations, you could still catch a glimpse of weathered farmers tending their crops that have been built into and along the mountain side of the Dragon's Backbone. Our tour took us to the village of the long hair where we took-in an "authentic" long hair show. Although touristy, it was neat seeing the actual villagers that only cut their hair once in their lives when they get married. We ended up breaking away from the tour and began to wish we had more time to hike up and down the soil stair cases as it came time to make a mad dash to the bus.