Friday night we walked down into the main part of the city (Guilin) to where each night local vendors set up a street market. These vendors carry all their wares, plus their red gazebo which cover their boxes which their wares are displayed on. Within 30 minutes of arriving the market is all up and running and there are hundreds of these vendors on one side of the road with a walkway between the two rows of vendors. Quite a sight to see with all the red gazebos.
Saturday morning we were picked up at 10.30am in a mini van and driven for just over an hour before we got on a bamboo raft (a la PVC) to take us down the Li River to near Yangshuo. It was a lovely relaxing trip with lovely scenery as Guilin and Yangshuo are surrounded by high peaks of karsts. The Li River is very shallow and weaves between sheer-sided karst peaks, all weathered into intriguing shapes. We stopped on the side of the river at a nice little local restaurant for lunch for about an hour, the first one we tried was too crowded and we would have been waiting too long for a table. The river was teaming with these rafts, with mostly Chinese tourists with four to six to a raft. There was also a wedding party on one. Once off the raft we were met by a local with a six seater tray on a bike to take us to a small town where we then got on a bus to Yangshuo. Having arrived in Yangshuo we had no idea how to get to our booked accommodation and as it was new and the locals had not heard of it. One tout tried to charge us 60CNY for a taxi when we knew it should only be 20-30 CNY. A guy with a bike and tray said he would do it for 20 and then there was a serious verbal argument between the tout and the bike driver. Probably just as well we did not understand the language as it got pretty ferocious!!
We are staying at a place called Trippers Carp Diem which is a couple of km out of the town - owned by a young Belgian guy, Tripper, and his Chinese wife, Jenny. English is spoken here and although more expensive than our accommodation in Guilin is a lovely place to be, with nice rooms, excellent Chinese/Western menu at good prices and cheap beer. Hot water to make our own cups of tea etc. Yesterday we hired bikes for the day and cycled around the countryside and in the city. Had a great day and the traffic is something else. Tens of thousands of bikes, both tandem and ordinary and one really has to be on their metal as cars, bikes and motor bikes seem to drive on either side of the road! Unbelievable. We saw some people doing rock climbing on our travels as Yangshuo has become one of Asia's favourite rock climbing centres.
We had a lovely Chinese meal here last night and then Dave and Joy went to watch cormorant fishing. The Chinese have used cormorants to fish for thousands of years and this unusual technique is still practiced in southern areas. Fisherman set off in bamboo rafts after dark, with cormorants wearing collars to prevent them from swallowing their catches. The birds swim just below the surface alongside the raft towards a light hanging from the bow. When a bird has made a catch the fisherman pulls it from the water and retrieves the fish from the birds beak. After they came ashore the cormorants all jumped back on the raft again by themselves. Unfortunately Dave & Joy had not taken cameras with them.
After breakfast today one of the staff members here, Alice, who is off duty today is taking us on a bicycle sight seeing tour. She is delightful and speaks very good English.
While sitting on the balcony having breakfast we can see the local peasants working the gardens, watering, harvesting etc., women carrying 60 litres of water on long poles over their shoulders. I struggle carrying a 20 litre container!! Certainly intriguing watching them watering, cutting and harvesting all by hand and they work from daylight to dark.