A little peaky

Trip Start Sep 17, 2007
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119
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Trip End Oct 08, 2008


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Flag of China  ,
Tuesday, February 26, 2008

There is nothing more depressing than to wake up early in the morning and hear the steady beat of raindrops on the roof.  Especially when you have only three days in the most beautiful place you've ever seen and are anxious to go exploring.  It's even more depressing to climb up to the roof and discover that not only is it raining steadily, it's also really cold.  Regretfully, I cancelled the hike along the Li River and Erin gratefully went back to bed.  It turned out to be the right decision because it rained ALL day.  The forecast wasn't promising for the next couple of days either.  We decided to book a tour on a boat up the river the next day, since at least it was under cover.  We booked through another hostel and got a bamboo boat an hour upriver from the town of Xingping to the north.  This did not include transportation (or much else).  But at least we would have a reason for getting up in the morning.

The sky was dreary but it seemed the rain would hold off Xingping
Xingping
 .  We went down to the office to be told to come back later.  They walked us down to the bus station and put us on a minibus to Xingping.  The ride took us out into the countryside and I spent much of it staring at the beautiful karsts out the window.  There were thousands and thousands of them.  It was unreal.  The granny using my knee as an armrest didn't seem as awed as I was.

We were dropped off in town and met by the travel agent who would put us on the boat.  We had a little time to wander the town until it was ready.  Turns out it would have been cheaper and easier to arrange it ourselves, but oh well.  We wandered through the old town to the river and had a wonderful view of peaks reflected in the still water.  I may have gone slightly overboard with photos.  We found the spot that is pictured on the 20 yuan note (see pictures).  We also paid a "cormorant fisherman" (read: actor), to take pictures of him.  He was quite a ham.  He put on his funny hat and funny jacket and wiggled the birds for us.  He picked them up, rather ignominiously, by their heads.  Then he returned to his baseball cap and poled off. 

We wandered through the market and down the main street.  There is a restaurant here with a bunch of cages out front.  They have giant bamboo rats (huge), beautiful horned pheasants, and other semi-endangered animals for your dining pleasure old town
old town
 .  They wouldn't let us take photos. 

We met our agent back at the bus stop and found out we had to pay a rickshaw to take us back to the place we had walked to.  What were we paying for exactly?  They drove us out of town on a road lined with giant potholes.  Here we waited for our "bamboo" boat to show up.  It wasn't exactly what we were expecting.  First, it wasn't made out of bamboo.  It was made out of PVC pipe.  Second, it didn't have a friendly poler but a loud motor.  I guess we should have asked more questions. 

So we sat in nice chairs and motored noisily up the river.  Peaks rose up on either side.  Although it was impressive, I find the peaks on land much more interesting than the ones on the river.  It was quite a nice adventure.  We got slightly worried when our boatman suddenly pulled over onto the shore and motioned us to get out.  But he was only giving us an opportunity to get a closer look at the karst formations.  He pointed out various formations and used hand signals to show that they were a nose or hands or a fish.  Finally we pulled up to a tourist beach where old ladies begged us to buy oranges and placed them in our laps.  Then we headed back. 

We caught a bus back to Yangshuo, ate dinner, and retreated inside to the warmth.  We hoped that the weather would improve for tomorrow.  It was our last day so we were going to rent bikes and get out to the countryside, regardless of mother nature.

~Travis
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