Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Guilin Day 3

Between school, mandarin lessons, guitar lesson and trying to squeeze in a social life,  I've been a busy beaver, but better late than never! Here's what we did on day three:

We woke up fairly early to head out to see the Silver Caves.  That was alright, and kind of cool, but it turns out I'm not really all that inspired by caves.  It's what came next that rocked my boat - a trip down a small river on a bamboo raft.  I felt connected with the river, the mountains, and multitude of dragonflies and butterflies that would occasionally grace our boat with their presence. Consequently, I fell in love with China all over again.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this is it. 

A little visitor                                            
We were seated two per boat, and I was fortunate enough to have my friend Hillary as my partner if only because of the hilarity that ensued.  The river was quite leisurely, but every once in a while we would come upon a little dam that we would have to pass through.  The first time was fairly entertaining, the second time again, but then came the third. Oh the third was the clincher- we got completely and utterly soaked!

The only thing we were missing was the beer.  And, sure as any place in Asia, we soon pulled up alongside a small river fishing raft with plenty of beer for sale.  After a bit of bargaining, a beer for our raft guide, there was, if possible, an even happier group of Canadians floating down the quiet yulong river on a bamboo raft.
A raft on the river like the one we stopped at for beer.

Now for a little Eye Spy: can you spot the little shelter in the distance?



It's where we were stopped to have pictures printed:

For 20 Kuai I chose a priceless picture of Hilary and I as our raft embarked down one of the little dams. She looked more like someone on a loop-the-loop roller-coaster than a tiny waterfall on a lazy river.  If only I had a scanner, I would share it here for all to see.  Since I don't - you will have to use your imagination.

What a life I've led since I last left home!

Up next: Day 4 and 5 at the Longji Rice Fields

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great writing and beautiful photos. I especially like that first picture, with the mountains reflected in the water. And the photo processing tent -- don't you love a surprise like that?