Day 42: February 14, 2013 Cruising the Li River

            Today was an early start so we could catch the Li River Cruise, which is basically the thing to do while in Guilin. We all got up and shared the one bathroom on our floor and then made in downstairs in time to scarf down a quick breakfast of eggs and toast which was absolutely delicious. We took a taxi to get to the bus to take us to the cruise and we literally pulled up right as the bus was pulling away, so we got lucky on that one. We had about an hour or so of a ride where we were introduced to our tour guide, Sophie, who was really nice and fun.  

The group and Eco

Sassy Chinese passenger!

Sassy American passenger!

     Once we arrived, we boarded the cruise and the 4 of us got a table to ourselves and then got joined by a girl named Eco who immediately walked up and said she wanted to make friends with us and practice her English. She was actually really good and talking to her the whole cruise was really enjoyable – she even gave us some pumpkin seeds to snack on from her hometown! We learned about where she was from and ended up exchanging numbers and she said she would call us when she travels to Shanghai in May or if she ever comes to the US. We taught her how to play Go Fish and she taught us a Chinese game that was fun too.

    After getting to know her, it was time to explore the views from the top of the boat. It was a really foggy day, but the mist only made the scene more peaceful and really intriguing to look at. We took tons of pictures of all of the unbelievable landforms and then went back down to warm up. We kept going up when we passed the exciting scenery and then back down to enjoy the great view from our seats. Some of the highlights were Bat Hill and the Painted Hill of Nine Horses. We legitimately saw a few of the horses and imagined another few. Supposedly Bill Clinton could only find 4 so we didn’t feel so bad. Sophie told us that on a cloudy day the scenery is only 30% and then imagination is 70%, so we put that to good use I guess.

Painted Hill of Nine Horses

     One of the coolest parts of the whole cruise had to be the part where we saw the exact view that is on the Chinese 20 yuan bill. Even though it was a little foggy, we managed to get a picture of the 20 yuan bill with the scene in the back, which was pretty cool. After all of the major highlights were done, we headed back downstairs to indulge in the free lunch buffet. It was really good including rice, noodles, cucumbers, potatoes, french fries, and oranges for dessert.

     After lunch we relaxed the rest of the trip and talked with Sophie and Eco until the cruise was over and we were in Yangshuo. We walked down the main strip and then made our way to another bus that was going to take us to a small tributary of the river where there are no motors allowed so it is very peaceful and clean.

Yangshuo

      Once we arrived at the Dragon River, we got onto the bamboo rafts that were each made for 2 people and then the driver or I guess you would say paddler. They took us down the river and stopped us in the middle to watch a fishing show where there was this man on a raft with a few birds.

   The birds were trained to jump in the water, catch the fish, and then bring it back and drop it in a bucket. The birds can’t eat the fish themselves because they tie their necks so they can’t swallow them. The man untied one of the birds, grabbed it by the mouth, and threw him in the in the water. Within a few seconds the bird came back with a fish and sure enough dropped it in the bucket. The man then threw the fish back out and the bird basically played fetch and brought it right back which was pretty amazing. I’m not sure how they train them, but it is pretty impressive that they don’t just run away with the fish.

Cormorant fishing birds

    After that, we continued down the river until they let us get out to go pet some water buffalos at which point we naturally wanted to ride them. Sophie told us if we were careful we could ride them, so one at a time we hopped on the water buffalo! There was a guy who led the buffalo around and we all got to test our balancing skills, which was pretty funny. After we all got a turn we pet him for a little while, fed him some leaves, and then it was time to get back on the rafts.

     Before we got back on the rafts, though, we got to see a view that is supposedly an option for a Windows background, which we thought was pretty cool to see in person. Once we got back on the rafts, we started the other way down the river until we got to a little drop off where we were told to hold our feet up so they wouldn’t get too wet. Of course, Bryan stayed completely dry and I got a nice little splash, which woke me up. They then dropped us off on this little floating printing station where we each bought pictures of our reactions as we went down the waterfall, which were all pretty priceless. After we got the pictures, we got back on the boats and then had to get off once again so that the workers could lift the boat back up the waterfall so we could go back the way we came.  

     At this point we met a couple from France who actually lived in Cincinnati at one point and had a nice conversation about how their son was also studying in Shanghai. We talked with them as we made our way down the river until our boats got too far away and then met up later. The man gave us each these delicious candies that were called white rabbits and took a group picture for us at Dragon Bridge. After that we made our way back to the bus, but it was going to be late so we had to time to explore around and ended up talking to these 2 guys from Taiwan who were pretty funny. They deemed us their American friends and then we decided to go explore. We didn’t find too much but we found a few trails through some fields and then headed back to the bus.

Dragon Bridge

     We utilized the 1.5-hour ride back to nap and felt refreshed by the time we got back to the hostel. On our way home from the bus stop we were talking about how we were wondering when we would run into the other group of guys who were here from our program and sure enough they were right across the street. We stopped and talked for a little bit and then decided to meet up with them in the lobby later. We stopped by the convenience store for some snacks, including the white rabbits, and then hung out in the lobby the rest of the night. We got some delicious fried rice for dinner at the hostile and sat around a table with a heater at our feet and played asshole with the other group of guys. Everyone gradually died off and Adam and I were left and decided to plug my phone in and DJ. After not too long we were also ready for bed to rest up for another big day ahead.