Yangshuo and Moon Hill
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2007
1
48
58
Trip End
Oct 22, 2007
Yangshuo,
China
Thursday, October 18, 2007
There was an elderly man on his bamboo raft and with his fishing Cormorants touting for tourists to pay him for photos of him with his birds on his arms. Cormorants are large diving birds with webbed feet, a hooked beak, and a long neck that can expand to swallow fish. Referring to Paul Merton's TV program again, we saw how they practice the art of fishing with Cormorants. The birds have something tied around their lower neck to stop them swallowing the fish so that the fishermen can force the fish out of the bird and keep it for themselves. I find this extremely cruel and neither want to see this activity take place nor take photos of the fisherman. I do understand that this is an ancient practice and everyone needs to eat and make money but this is one time I will not support it!
On a lighter and fantastically funny note - while we were having our breakfast we recognised the instrumental CD that was being played, especially when Auld Lang Syne came on. We have heard this CD in restaurants across the country from Xining to Yangshuo and at least 3 or 4 other towns in between! It has to be a Government approved CD and one that they say Westerners like to hear while eating a meal. Hilarious!
Next stop Moon Hill. So named because of the crescent-shaped hole near the top of it. To get to the top, according to a Frenchman quoted in the Lonely Planet guide book, there are over 1,200 steps!
I think I will make today a ranting day.
Yangshuo Moon Hill
Time for my next rant. The Chinese LOVE steps, roads and bridges! Where they can build a road it should have at least six lanes, where they can cross a river they build giant bridges (remember the Yangtze cruise?!) and where there is a slight incline where people may walk they build steps! Most nature tourist spots around the world will try and use paths and natural materials. Not the Chinese. We have been to many places where it would have been quite appropriate to just have a winding path but no, there should be steps and usually built out of concrete.Rant over, we climbed the stairs to see this moon shaped hole. All the way to the top we were accompanied by old ladies with their cooler boxes trying their best to sell us drinks, even though we were carrying our own water. They had started by having a huge argument amongst themselves as to who would accompany us. I shouted at them and then put my finger to my lips with a loud SHHHHH which got everyone smiling again.
At the top we did marvel at this feat of natural engineering and how it came to be. There were lots of other tourists from all over the world doing the same. A young Chinese lady wanted to take a photo of me so, in turn (and instead of charging her ;-) I took a photo of their whole group. We really have met some wonderful people along our travels.
I was a bit nervous about the trip down Moon Hill given the number of stairs along with the fact that I had left my cane at the hotel. Annie was bravely guiding me down with "3 steps, long step, lots of stairs" type of instructions and our "shadows" with their cooler bags saying "slowly".
Yangshuo Moon Hill
Then I had one of those really nice experiences, on of the ladies went off and broke off a dry bamboo stick so I could feel my way down the stairs. It really does restore your faith and hope in humanity when things like this happen.Next we headed off to the village of Luagong which is definitely off the beaten track, along very bumpy dirt tracks and on the edge of the Li River. What a picturesque place to stop to sit and look at the river and eat a bowl of noodles. There was a bunch of school children from the International School in Shanghai on a field trip. What a privilege to be able to go to a place like this as part of your education!
We also met and spoke to a man who works for China Climb, an adventure group in the area. He was waiting for his group of school children, who were out climbing in the area, so they could continue their kayaking trip along the river. He has been living in China for over 8 years so was pretty fluent in the language, it must be quite amazing to live amongst and be able to communicate properly with the local people. He told us that there have been over 35 of the Karst Mountains mapped for climbing but there were still hundreds, if not thousands to go. A true Mecca for rock climbers.
Shortly before we left there was a loud BOOOM and a flurry of activity on the water. We discovered that one of the locals had thrown a hand grenade into the river to do a spot of lazy fishing. Then a bunch of locals had "borrowed" all of the kayaks to go and collect the floating fish.
Yangshuo Moon Hill
The Climb China man looked rather perturbed about his kayaks and whether he would get them back in one piece before the children came back with expectations of kayaking. We left while this was all happening so I hope it all turned out well.Oh no, another rant... this time over prices. Not so much a rant as a sad observation. We all know that tourists are ripped off all over the world especially on the price of food but to have it happen while sitting at the same table is what sticks in the claw a bit. The amount is trivial but this is what happened. After lunch I commented that Rosa had eaten something not on the menu and asked how she had ordered it. She said she asked for and got a big plate of rice and vegetables and the chef had given her some chicken with it for free. She told us what she paid which was exactly half the price of our plate of noodles which was about half the size of her meal. As I said, the actual cost is irrelevant but the discussion with Rosa was relevant. She agreed that it is a great shame that tourists are ripped off so blatantly but was at a loss for how this could or would ever do anything except get worse. We suggested that perhaps the way for it to improve would be for the tour guides to do more about it and to help their visitors not end up in these sad / embarrassing situations. On this entire trip we had specifically not had lunch and supper included as, as Rosa and other tour guides had told us, we would have ended up in giant tourist restaurants where the food is tasteless and the experience worse. We have had a couple of these due to location or mistake but, on the whole, as you have read along the way, we have eaten exceptionally well.
Time for our river cruise on the not-so-safe non-government-owned small boat.
