From Guangzhou to Yangshuo

We are back to the Victory at last! And back to cell phone reception and internet service. I'm not going to lie, it was nice to be so relaxingly out of touch that you started to forget about blogs and email and the like, but it's nice to be back in touch with the world once again after a little foray into wonderful blissful China nature... I don't think I'll ever get sick of the sights of rural China. I only wish I had 3 more lifetimes in which to discover them all!

We flew to Yangshuo on Wednesday morning on a not terribly comfortable flight. Pearl, who has not been loving the take offs and landings anyway, especially did not enjoy it, but I for one agreed with her that it was definitely one of the worst flights! Not smooth, lots of climbing, a long descent, almost no time just "flying" in any level sort of manner. Nonetheless, we made it safely to the Guilin airport and the Li River Resort people had their car there to pick us up. We felt quite exotic to be staying at a resort in China, although it was less resort and more "guest house with locking doors". The hotel was definitely adequate- it met all of our needs and then a few. The view was amazing, the people were sweet, and the location turned out to be really nice for us. Out of town far enough to be quiet and warrant a quiet and relaxing walk into town in the morning, but not so far that we couldn't walk it.

One of the first days as we were stopped and talking, I think waiting for our boat people to get themselves organized, this sweet old couple started photographing us. After a few minutes we asked if we could photograph them.

As soon as we finished and both said Thank you to each other, they turned around and as I peeked back over at them, I saw them reviewing the photos on their camera that they had just taken of our group! I think they were enthralled by the combination of Pearl among a group of guailos, and Maeve with the blond hair. Both seemed to draw lots of attention.

The first day we were there we woke up to thunder and lightening! My first thought was, "oh....let's see....we could hire a car to take us around, we could change our return flights to Guangzhou....hmm.....oh no......" But by the time we all got ourselves organized for breakfast, the rain was starting to let up, and we decided we could head into town.

We found a guide to hire a boat from to take us down the river on a little boat trip. The boat would take a 1 hour trip to Fu Li, then leave us for 30 minutes to wander around Fu Li, then an hour back to Yangshuo. The trip down the Li River was gorgeous. Filled with beautiful scenery and little snapshots into daily life in this part of China.

Not only did the weather clear up enough to take a boat ride, but the front of the boat was a little warm and by mid way through the ride, most of us ended up on the front of it to take in the amazing view.

We questioned how many were "too many" photos of the Karst Rock formations...we decided "too many" was no possible. The views were amazing. Simply amazing.

We arrived to Fu Li and walked directly to their "old town". We were greeted immediately by 2 adorable little old ladies selling tickets to walk through "old town" for 3 yuan apiece. The girls were half price since they were young, and to be truthful the "old town" was a decrepit little street of old broken down buildings, but the excitement and enthusiasm of the ladies (and a few others we saw watching TV) was so worth the 3 Yuan!

She led us to the temple partway down the street and showed us the GuanYin altar. She was so excited when I showed her I already had a Guan Yin, and I put a few coins in the box for them. The temple was really nothing to see in terms of an interesting temple, but the woman and her uncontained excitement were wonderful. I tried to ask her some questions, but I really could not understand her at all. Nonetheless, it was wonderful to feel and hear her excitement come pouring out as she explained the history of the temple, regardless of the fact that I couldn't understand any of it...

One thing about our little group of travelers, not a single one of them has been at all shy about using public toilets or squatties while in China. I am so impressed that the girls have been so open to trying new things, especially the squatties!!! While we were in FuLi, Glenn went to find the public toilet- and after getting proper direction as to which one was mens & which was womens, he went for the full on rural china local toilet experience. The girls did the same thing the next day at the Big Banyan Tree, but I don't thave the photos to prove it. Just know that our group is not shy when it comes to adapting to local culture!
This man was at the place our boat tied up in FuLi, washing corn.

This woman had to walk across a cement damn to bring her vegetables to FuLi. It looked like hard walking even with the water at it's current level, we wondered how she did it if the water was higher.Pearl & Maeve had a great time on the boat!