(J) Country town by China standards, only 300,000 people lived in this place. It was also packed with tourists during our stay. This is normal for the area, but a holiday period was in full swing called the Qinming, which is when everybody gets in contact with dead relatives by setting off fireworks and burning offerings....and otherwise having a pretty good time of it, eating and drinking etc.
The area is famous for its 20 odd thousand limestone peaks, not particularly high but they impose themselves on the landscape. Our new guide was Rose whose first challenge was to take us on a bike riding tour of the area. I must say that this was close to the best day of the whole tour. We collected our bikes from west street (more about this place later) and set off through the hustle of town before breaking out into the countryside. In a previous blog I have mentioned traffic in Chinese cities. The idea is regardless of all else, keep moving. For us it was keep to the right and apply that rule.
After many activities on the day we set out to return to town at around 4:30pm, we had nine km's to travel on a main road into town then back through the main street to drop our bikes off. There were a lot of people about because of the holiday, it was Saturday and one of two main roads in town was closed.
Our 9 km journey started off busy but progressively grew busier and busier and slower and slower. Suddenly bikes were the fastest mode of transport going and they were everywhere, hundreds of them all travelling into the city amongst the cars and trucks and buses...it was pretty crazy. A bit of rain threatened, as it has done in many places but for the first time on tour it really started to rain. We still had about 6 km to go when it started and it stayed with us for the rest of the ride.
It was a really enjoyable experience riding like this in a moving sea of treadlies. You couldn't go very fast and had to stop on a number of occasions as stalls, parked buses, pedestrians and other bikes blocked the bike access on the side of the road. On these occasions, it was time to play chicken with the traffic, but because of our numbers, the bikes tended to hold sway. I was doing things on a push bike I wouldn't dream of doing in Australia in the name of progress. By the time we hit town the rain was tumbling the 4 wheeled traffic was at a virtual standstill and we kept on keeping on. We were soaked through to the skin but a very exhilarating end to a fine days outing.
West street had bars that catered to European tourists!! After the yellow mountain, this was a very enticing prospect. There were Italian pizza bars, a British style pub, lots of cafés with guitar players, night clubs with dooff dooff blaring but for me (and Ian I dare say) the best place was a German beer hall and garden....hooray!!! The few nights we were in town we sampled different types...far too many samples I would say, made up for some of the days where good beer was impossible to find. We were also finding it hard to say no to some of the different types of food on offer after so much Chinese over the past 4 weeks (we even did a Chinese cooking class on one of our days in town). So we ate spicey German sausage one night and had Indian food the next. We met a nice Australian lady (Pam from the Sunshine Coast, but originally a Parramatta girl) at our hotel who was touring with some young Americans and she was very keen to spend some time with some Australians a little closer to her own age.
On the day we had the cooking class we went to the market, supposedly with the teacher to pick out some fresh ingredient to use. The teacher had that covered so we just roamed about the market with Rose, checking what there was to buy. In the meat section we saw whole skinned and gutted cats and dogs. This was pretty confronting I have to say....I had eaten some salad the day before without thinking and was already feeling a little queasy (salad is washed in tap water and therefore should not be consumed)....also a fair bit of beer the night before. I won't say I was overcome by the sight of the animals hanging on meat hooks, but it didn't help my general disposition. Rose advised that if we wanted to take pictures do it from a distance using a zoom as the proprietors were a bit touchy about big noses photographing their wares. Dog in particular is considered a delicacy and is often eaten to celebrate the birth of a male child.
(C) As John mentioned we had a fabulous day riding bikes through the countryside and busy hubbub of Yangshuo town. Halfway through our bike ride we also had a bamboo raft ride down the Dragon River which had many causeways that our skipper navigated us through. After our lunch cooked by a local farmer we went to visit some caves. Deep in the caves there was a big mud pool which we all wallowed in. This was a very strange sensation, like floating in a vat of peanut butter, squidgy. It was hard to move about in, Ian while trying to avoid a face plant in the mud was seen by John and I thrashing about which sent us into fits of laughter. Julie attempted to climb the slippery slide to slide in but funnily enough it was too slippery. After posing for a few photos, a cold shower to wash away the mud a couple of more minutes through the caves and we jumped into a natural hot spring.
To top off our day, after a shower and change of clothes from our bike ride and mud bath we had booked to see the Impression Show which was staged on the Li River. It was a stunning show of lights, music, singing, minority group performers, rafters etc, all choreographed by the guy who choreographed the opening ceremony from the Beijing Olympics. Luckily for us the rain stopped just as the show began and held off until it finished.
The next day, we also had a cruise on the Li River, considered one of the most beautiful rivers in the world which was very relaxing. Once again we were on a raft type boat, this time motorised and made of PVC pipe. Our rafts on the dragon river were made of bamboo and th skipper used a bamboo pole to propel and steer us through the water.
Our final morning in Yangshuo was spent buying a couple of embroidered souvenirs hand made by the Miao minority community, searching and enjoying a rare but very nice cappuccino. Our world expeditions tour is now over so Rose arranged transportation and escorted us to Guilin, 1.5 hours drive away. Guilin is also on the Li River. We stayed in a 2 bedroom apartment in a more residential area, visited a couple of bars, walked by the river and had dinner both nights at a Chinese restaurant named McFounds. Not sure what the name is supposed to mean.
Well that's the end of our 5 weeks in China, early tomorrow we head to Saigon in Vietnam and farewell Ian and Julie who head back to Oz.
A bit of sillyness and an attempt at the thousand hand panda pose.
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