Yangshuo, Xing Ping and the Ghosts of the Li River
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2007
1
49
58
Trip End
Oct 22, 2007
Yangshuo,
China
Thursday, October 18, 2007
First we were loaded onto small local golf-cart style transport and whisked off to the river. First stop was to see the Karst Mountains that are featured on the back of the 20 Yuan note. Some of the people took photos of themselves with the 20 Yuan note :-) Then back on board and bumbling through farmlands growing Persimmons and Pomelo fruit before finding our boat.
We sat on the front of the boat, outside of the seating area, to get the best view possible. It was hard to know where to look first or take a photo of next as there were so many amazingly shaped Karst Mountains wherever we looked
Yangshuo Li River Cruise
. The hazy misty weather and the light turning to dusk made for a very surreal landscape.On our trip upriver we had encountered a few of the bigger ferries I mentioned earlier and their fumes were indeed horrible.
When we reached our turning point our downstream trip was another weirdly surreal experience. Out of the mist came empty ferry after empty ferry after empty ferry and, unlike on their downstream journeys, they were completely silent and lit with the minimal lighting to avoid danger on their upstream journey. It felt like we were seeing a never ending stream of ghost ships ploughing their way up to the point where they would collect their next load of souls to ferry back down to wherever they had just come from. There were honestly so many of them that, if they add a few more, they could probably line them up nose to tail all the way from Guilin to Yangshuo without any space left over!
After our ghostly experience we were loaded back onto the golf-cart style transport and taken back to our local bus to head back to Yangshuo. We had a bus driver on a mission so were back in town at double-quick speed.
For our supper Rosa had told us about a street vendor who made delicious pancakes so that was our next stop. This lady was a true artist, she made her pancakes with flair and speed that would impress and be the envy of many a London chef. Delicious does not do the taste justice - a pancake filled with tomato paste, chilli sauce and a slice of fried tofu. We went and sat at the same outdoor hotel seating, drank light alcohol, chilled local beer while eating our pancake, happiness is..
Yangshuo Li River Cruise
.While I was sitting outside alone when Annie had gone to the toilet I experienced exactly what we had been warned about. It was absolutely obvious that the young man on the mobile who walked past, checked me out, walked around the side of the hotel, came back and pretended to read the menu of the next restaurant all while constantly talking on his mobile was one of the famed would-be muggers. I did as we had been told and made eye contact as if to say "you have been made!". When Annie came back I pointed out the man and she agreed that he was definitely a "scout". We both made eye contact from time to time and, after a while of this, he realised we were completely aware of his devious desires and sloped off to find another mark.
Any travellers reading this who are going to Yangshuo please learn from us and do not fall prey to these lowlifes!
We ended the evening as we had promised; we went back to the Yak Café and had delicious homemade carrot cake with Yunnan coffee. The Yak Café is definitely another of our recommended restaurants for anyone wanting to avoid Western Yangshuo mayhem and would prefer some quiet along with good food. You can find the Yak Café at 18 Gui Hua Road in Yangshuo. It's on the street a block north of and parallel to the main shopping street, West Street. If you can't find it, email Andrew and Sula on yakcafe@gmail.com or phone them on +86 (0)158 7836 5772/3.
We again made our way back to our hotel with suspicious eyes. We were on the very last leg of our journey and determined to make it home with our possessions in tact.
