The day dawned bright. Almost blue sky… Definitely not raining and quite sunny at times! For the people of Guilin, this is better than normal. They are quite used to overcast and Chinese in general prefer cloudy to bright sunny days with clear blue skies. You’ve seen it; they use umbrellas to protect from the sun just as much as from the rain.
I digress. Today we started out early. Literally so we didn’t “miss the boat”. Our 4 star tourist cruiser held up to 80 people, served a buffet lunch and had a big open top deck for viewing and photography. Very important as that is exactly what we were there for.
Our journey started in Guilin and went downstream on the flowing Li River to Yangshuo. The first 2 thirds of the cruise could be considered spectacular the last third merely great.
The Karst mountains rise tall and steep in lumps all around this area. They are dotted with tiny villages along the river and rice fields as well as other agriculture on the slopes. Large groups of light brown ducks are seen in and around the river, cows, water buffaloes and other birds can be seen and heard too.
As many of you know, I’m not much of a water person. The temperature is not ideal for me but beyond that, I get seasick ridiculously easily too. This river was less of the white water style and more of the meandering and gently flowing. Four hours was not too much to ask my stomach to cooperate with and I enjoyed the first 2.5 hours topside - camera in hand.
Fun fact: The 20 Yuen bank note has a picture of the Karst mountains on it. And our delightful Jason had us perfectly timed and positioned for pictures just as the boat turned the corner and looking back upstream, that same view could be captured.
Our vessel was pretty nice.
The lunch buffet was located in our classy sitting area and there was always a chance to mix and mingle with other tourists from all over the globe. We sat with 2 young Swiss guys... And of course an interesting conversation followed for sure. Let's just say that as soon as they felt comfortable that we were not Trump supporters, they let loose. OMG. So long story short, the general impression in their part of the world, their generation, is that he is not a decent human or a smart one. But perhaps more importantly, they know he was elected and they have also lost some respect for the rest of us too. Oh and one more thing that stood out; An American education is considered a bit of a joke now too. For example: "Ooh, that's bad... but not as bad as an American education." Why? Because it has turned out a President with a Twitter fetish and no self awareness and again, he was elected by the country.
And I had tried so hard to avoid politics, news, social media while traveling. :-(
I digress. Today we started out early. Literally so we didn’t “miss the boat”. Our 4 star tourist cruiser held up to 80 people, served a buffet lunch and had a big open top deck for viewing and photography. Very important as that is exactly what we were there for.
Our journey started in Guilin and went downstream on the flowing Li River to Yangshuo. The first 2 thirds of the cruise could be considered spectacular the last third merely great.
The Karst mountains rise tall and steep in lumps all around this area. They are dotted with tiny villages along the river and rice fields as well as other agriculture on the slopes. Large groups of light brown ducks are seen in and around the river, cows, water buffaloes and other birds can be seen and heard too.
As many of you know, I’m not much of a water person. The temperature is not ideal for me but beyond that, I get seasick ridiculously easily too. This river was less of the white water style and more of the meandering and gently flowing. Four hours was not too much to ask my stomach to cooperate with and I enjoyed the first 2.5 hours topside - camera in hand.
Fun fact: The 20 Yuen bank note has a picture of the Karst mountains on it. And our delightful Jason had us perfectly timed and positioned for pictures just as the boat turned the corner and looking back upstream, that same view could be captured.
Our vessel was pretty nice.
The lunch buffet was located in our classy sitting area and there was always a chance to mix and mingle with other tourists from all over the globe. We sat with 2 young Swiss guys... And of course an interesting conversation followed for sure. Let's just say that as soon as they felt comfortable that we were not Trump supporters, they let loose. OMG. So long story short, the general impression in their part of the world, their generation, is that he is not a decent human or a smart one. But perhaps more importantly, they know he was elected and they have also lost some respect for the rest of us too. Oh and one more thing that stood out; An American education is considered a bit of a joke now too. For example: "Ooh, that's bad... but not as bad as an American education." Why? Because it has turned out a President with a Twitter fetish and no self awareness and again, he was elected by the country.
And I had tried so hard to avoid politics, news, social media while traveling. :-(
On the bright side, while mixing and mingling with other tourists, one can gather some important info about places to go and things to see, as well as some "steer clear from here" advice. I had heard enough about the live meat markets after my chat with them, that I knew they wouldn't be my thing either.
It was a day to enjoy nature. After the boat ride, Jason hired us bikes and took us on a bike ride through the Yangshuo countryside. That's right! We pedaled through the crazy traffic in town and out toward flowing tributaries and along alleys and country lanes. Followed the bricked path through gardens, watched bamboo rafts with tourists aboard meander downstream and generally had a really nice time.
Tonight was another cultural show. This time the show was set in the river and on the riverbanks. The director was a world reknown guy with ties to the Olympics Opening Ceremony and much more. The cast... all 600 of them... were dressed in lights and if they weren't on floating stages, were in little boats.
I had no idea what was really going on and it didn't matter in the slightest. Thoroughly enjoyable!
Oh yeah and this is the view from our amazing room overlooking the river, tonight:
It was a day to enjoy nature. After the boat ride, Jason hired us bikes and took us on a bike ride through the Yangshuo countryside. That's right! We pedaled through the crazy traffic in town and out toward flowing tributaries and along alleys and country lanes. Followed the bricked path through gardens, watched bamboo rafts with tourists aboard meander downstream and generally had a really nice time.
Tonight was another cultural show. This time the show was set in the river and on the riverbanks. The director was a world reknown guy with ties to the Olympics Opening Ceremony and much more. The cast... all 600 of them... were dressed in lights and if they weren't on floating stages, were in little boats.
I had no idea what was really going on and it didn't matter in the slightest. Thoroughly enjoyable!
Oh yeah and this is the view from our amazing room overlooking the river, tonight:
No comments:
Post a Comment