77 Days in China: Day 7: Li River and Yangshuo

Today we woke up in Guilin and got picked up at 7am for a boat ride down the Li river. The boat ride went through amazing mountains and overall beautiful scenery. We decided to take the Chinese tour instead of the English tour since it is half price. Since it was the chinese tour we did not get lunch and the boat only went to the most important areas then we got picked up by another vehicle. This vehicle had 4 benches for 3 people each and went over possibly the bumpiest road possible where we were launched off of our seats multiple times down the dirt road. This was the 3rd scariest/strangest mode of transportation we took today. We then transferred to a larger bus where Charlotte got a seat and I got a stool that was about 3 inches off the ground that they put in the aisle that would drive us to Yangshuo. This bus also picked up a couple people on the way and stopped at a post office where they picked up 5 large mailbags, nothing like multitasking, 1 part- tourist bus, 1 part post office vehicle

The following are all picture from the Li river (I didnt caption all of them)

The Boats we took down the river

We guessed this was the English speaking boat

Some water Buffalo swimming nearby

A famous mountain that looks like a Chinese painting

Charlotte on our boat

The vehicle that picked us up for a crazy ride back to town

On the ride to town we there were houses with some amazing backyards

Pretty common sight along the road, caged animals ready to be sold

Once we got into Yangshuo we ran into a couple from Portugal who had been on both tours with us and shared lunch with them. He is a chef and she is a writer and they are spending a year traveling the world learning about food. If you ever wanted to know about local food and how its made I suggest you check out their website, it is very informative and fun, but they are only half way around the world so far. http://www.eatheworld.com/en/

We shared the snails mixed with "meat", always worry in China about what it is when they say "meat", but try not to think about it too much. We also got some fish cooked in beer which was very good

After lunch we took a walk around town where a woman trying to sell us different tours followed about 5 feet behind us asking every 10 minutes if we wanted to go on a tour, Charlotte finally talked her down to half the price she was asking and we decided to go, but since we were being cheap we had to go on the 2nd scariest/strange vehicle of the day, followed by a boat ride down Yulong near the town

3 of us cruising around town on a motorcycle. While he had a helmet and we didnt, I am not sure it would have helped more than my hat since it looked to be made of cheap plastic.

Boat through the Yulong

Boats going over a waterfall

Rice Fields near the river

After our boat ride we were supposed to catch a bus back to town, but since it is not tourist season it wasnt running. Instead Charlotte got someone to give us a ride for $2. In by far the strangest vehicle of the day

The exposed part in front is the engine, we sat in the back

He had to do some things before he left so we waited at his house

Inside his vehicle

We spent the rest of the evening walking around Yangshuo (see below) and walked down a very touristy part of area and also the "farmers market" where they have just about every type of animal being butchered, any type of fish, turtles, frogs, ducks and even dog

Stopped for a beer at a sports bar, they seem to have a channel that plays world cup soccer 24 hours a day in china, just constantly repeating old games