lynclarke

We arrived in Guilin and hopped on the airport bus. Suddenly, all of our luggage was taken out of the luggage area by the bus people and we were all switched to a small Chinese bus for some unknown reason. As we climbed into the second bus, we asked "train station?". Afterwards, I wondered why I even bothered. Did I truly expect the Chinese worker to say, "Yes, Madam, this is the correct bus for the train station"! No one else seemed to have a clue why we were switched so we went along for the ride. Of course, the bus did not stop at the train station! But, an ever present taxi man (probably the bus driver's first cousin), was standing at the bus stop ready to take us somewhere! We said bus station. He nodded furiously which, of course, meant nothing. We got into the taxi
and the driver called his friend who spoke English. The driver passed the phone to my husband. The speaker offered for the driver to take us directly to Yangshuo for 300 RMB or he could arrange a lovely boat trip down the river. John kept repeating, "just the bus station, please. No, just the bus station." The driver took the phone back, listened, then he
turned the corner and let us out. (10 RMB) We were standing on the sidewalk with all our
luggage looking totally baffled. There was a local bus stop on the street and we thought that we were in the wrong place. A man on the sidewalk saw us and pointed high up on the building ahead of us. Ah- there was the sign in English "Bus Station". It did not look like the vision
we had in our heads of a bus station. All of the ground level seemed to be filled with tiny
Chinese shops. We went in through a less cluttered archway, passed a bunch of vendors,
and there was a guard of some sort with a security machine. Our bags were scanned. Again, no one was there to look at the scanner but we were allowed through to the waiting room. At last, some where which recognized: a waiting room! We quickly found the ticket window. I was rustling through papers looking for my characters for Yangshuo, when it was my turn. I said my version of Yangshuo and she actually understood me. I was handed two tickets (30 RMB) and we went outside to find a bus. We showed our tickets to a dispatcher and we were waved toward an empty place at the end of the row of buses. He mimed "stay". We stayed. Pretty soon we had company: a German couple,a French couple, and then a Chinese girl who spoke English. We found out the bus was running a little late. It was hot- really hot and humid, like St Louis in August. We were sweating bullets so John went inside to find some fluids. He returned with water and sodas
boasting about the great price he paid! We stood there for probably 30 minutes before
the bus arrived. The Chinese girl cautioned one of the couples not to put their laptop under
the bus in the luggage area. The bus trip took about one hour and one half. The bus driver
had to have nerves of steel. He spent the majority of the trip blasting his horn, and edging
out over the center line trying to see beyond the vehicle ahead of us. After Beijing and
Xian, it did not seem too bad. I would have hated for this trip to be my introduction into Chinese traffic!

We arrived in Yangshuo. Good grief it was hot! We unloaded our stuff and for the life of
me I could not find my map. There were a bunch of taxi drivers on the corner. I asked
them where the Buffalo Bar was. Everyone shrugged. I finally asked him to call the Li
River Retreat and ask for directions. I had our confirmation sheet for the hotel with the phone number but not the map! He called the Retreat and found out that we had to go to
the Buffalo Bar to wait for the road to open, which of course, we knew. We just didn't know where the Buffalo Bar was. He tried to get us to go to the Magnolia Hotel to wait for the road to open. We said, "no". Finally he waved into the distance which we took to mean the Buffalo Bar is down that way and we took off "that way". We trudged along up the street dripping sweat. The vendors thought this was a great opportunity to sell me a hat or an umbrella! Finally, an English speaking tour guide came up to us, as we trudged, to tell us about her services but most importantly she showed us how to get to the bar! We fell into
the door dying for a beer. Alf, our Retreat and Buffalo bar owner, was there along with an Aussie woman who lived in California. They closed the big front doors and turned on the a/c. Heaven! We chatted with them, ate some lunch, and had a couple of beers while we waited. The woman was a reknown art historian who focused on Renaissance art benefactors. We admitted our ignorance in this area. Beside the Medicis we were
clueless. She said her focal point was the Medicis! We all had time to cool down and get
ready for the next adventure. (185 RMB) Alf got a taxi for us all (20 RMB each) to go to
the Retreat. The vendors along the road were just starting to break their stuff down for
the day.

We arrived at the Li River Retreat. Our reservations were for a smaller room the first two
days and then a large room the last 5 days. I hated to unpack and repack but I had heard
the view was spectacular from the larger room. When we checked in they told us that the
large room was available for our entire 7 days. We were delighted. We went up to our
room and it was even better than I had anticipated. First of all the room is huge. There is
a queen size bed off to one side, windows on three sides, a small balcony which looked
directly at the karsts, a refrigerator, a electric water pot, a large walk in closet, huge over stuffed chairs to lounge in while we read a book or stared at the scenery, and a
modern bathroom. It was wonderful. We unpacked. Well, there is no dresser so we only
kind of unpacked. Maybe Alf will add dressers or chest of drawers as he builds his business. John ran downstairs for a couple of beers (Corona -22 RMB each) Ouch! I thought we had better walk to town for supplies!

We quickly decided to walk to town. We had been sitting all day and it was time for some
exercise. The road in front of the Retreat, goes directly into town so it is impossible to get
lost. As we walked, we watched the river through the trees and we saw our first big tour boats going up and down the river. Along the way, there were huge stone stairs where some locals were swimming and bathing in the river. We stopped for a look. It was inviting. John stripped off his shirt and shoes, emptied his pockets, and jumped in! I
watched two local men lathering up with soap before taking a quick dip. One little boy
with droopy underpants swam the entire time we were there. I thought he was going to swim out of his underwear. John said the water was cold but refreshing with a fairly strong current. I am not a good swimmer without a floatie so I decided not to swim. We continued into town with John dripping water as we walked. We both wore lightweight
zip-off pants so he knew the pants would dry very quickly. We passed the vendor stalls which were now empty. We found out later that the Chinese boats are docked right by these vendors. The non-Chinese tourists are dropped closer to town nearer to the shuttles. We found a store in town. John asked, "how much" and pointed to the sodas. The clerk
punched 5 RMB into the calculator. John said, "no". I nearly fainted! He is getting into China. The next place wanted 6 RMB for quart sized sodas. We bought 3 sodas and 3 beers (big green bottled local beers) for 30 RMB. Bonanza! We headed slowly back "home". We stopped in the park area. Two woman were on the stair stepper type machines
and John had to try one out. He said it was a lot harder than it looked. It was difficult to get the right cadence. We finished our walk as night fell. We were both pooped and it was time for bed.

rhkkmk

lyn...just a comment....good to split things up but better if you keep to one thread and just add onto that

bob

lynclarke

Bob-
Do you mean that you would have preferred that I added Xian and then Yangshuo to the Beijing report? I thought the report would be too long and unwieldly. Sorry. I will do better next time.
Lyn

rhkkmk

it does become very long but when people are looking for part I and you have posted part III, its sometimes hard to find.....the best way i find do find where i left off is to just write a short thing and then next time i go to the site i go to the end and scroll backwards till i find my last memo

lynclarke

Fri 19 Sep,
I was up at 0600hrs. I watched the locals wakeup. On the road below our hotel, the farmers' chickens were clucking and a neighborhood kid was practicing his trumpet. John awoke late and we decided to eat the the hotel. john had the American breakfast: 2 eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast. I had the Chinese breakfast: 6 meat filled dumplings and a gigantic plate of noodles with pork and vegetables which I could barely put a dent in. (38 RMB/John, 25 RMB/me). We stopped at the Buffalo Bar to ask Alf a couple of questions, then we headed off to the bus station.

At the bus station we said Xingping and we were herded into a van. (5.5RMB) We headed out of town so slowly that we decided that 2nd gear must be broken. We enjoyed watching the scenery. There is new construction every where. Some older homes have no windows but the new ones do. We put it on our list of things to ask Alf. We saw bamboo scaffolding up to 5 stories. The fields were bright green and we could identify corn in 3 stages 12", 6', and ready to pick- so they must plant corn year round. Another crop was tall and green and we wondered if it was sugar cane. The bus continued to pick up and drop off people all the way to Xingping.

At Xingping, the sales ladies were sit on a shuttle waiting for the bus to come in. One woman spoke enough English for us to communicate. We wanted to go to the market before we went for a raft ride. She walked with us and told John to reverse his backpack and wear in the front. We walked through the market, bought a few small items, and took photos. We said we were ready for the raft ride. She told/mimed that we could take the shuttle (5 RMB) or walk to the river. We opted to walk. We took loads of photos of old houses and walkways. As we passed one garden our guide said, " I sleep". We asked if we could see. So she took us into her compound area and she pointed to the house where "she sleeps". As a side note, we walked by a pig sty with the attendent pig poop and I reminded John that why we brought plastic, (disposable)shoes to leave when we leave Yangshuo.

We arrived at the rafts and she handed us over to a raft driver. (150 RMB). Yes, we overpaid but she also took us to the market, took us to her home, and she ensured our safety. Alf had said that we should pay 60 RMB or so. We traveled upriver. The trip was great. John stuck his feet in the water as we putted up the river. Interestingly, we noted that most of the rafts were now made of pvc painted green to look like freshly felled bamboo. Some how the notion "we are going for a pvc ride up the Li River" does not have the same romantic ring to it. The karsts were stunning. The driver showed us one karst and held up his hand. Karsts have very involved names. This one looked like a hand or probably more precisely a mitten. We started seeing water buffalo along the grassy shore line. We saw Moms and a lot of babies. At the furthestmost point that the rafts are allowed to go, there is an island with vendors in the river. Of course, we stopped. The beer vendor boarded the raft the moment we came to shore. I bought a beer (10 RMB). John felt the bottle and said it was hot! I didn't care. I would have paid 50 RMB for anything wet. John held out for a cold beer and sure enough one vendor had a cooler filled with beer. He lorded his cold beer over me. One elderly lady kept walking past us showing us her products: peanuts, grapes,and watermelon. Another woman was selling fish, shrimp, and pancake thin things which we could not identify. She would plunge them into hot oil as someone ordered. A commorant fisherman waited with his birds for a photo op. At 5 RMB, he was a steal. Of course, John had his photo taken with him and the birds. We finished our rest period, and we started back down the river. The ride was really relaxing even though it was 100+ degrees. We had wet neckerchiefs draped around our necks, a beer in our bellies, and we were happy. We rafted back to the starting point.

We walked back to town. It is just so much fun to see the roosters, the woven bamboo fences for the vegetable gardens, and the bamboo groves. As we started in to town, we saw the sign, "Old Place Cafe". This cafe was suggested in one of our travel books as a place for a cup of tea. We went in for another beer! It was lovely!! We sat in the direct line of a fan, with jazz playing softly on their sound system, after using a clean bathroom, and sipping on a cold beer. (20 RMB0 Life doesn't get much better! As we sat there, we noticed a guy across the alley painting/inking karst scenes. He was very fcused and we enjoyed watching him. After our beer, we wandered over to look at his work. After much pondering, we chose one. (10 RMB) Of course, i could kick myself for not buying more! He gently rolled the painting and placed it in a presentation box. I felt guilty for only paying 10 RMB.

We wound back through town and found a supermarket. We stopped and bought crackers, soda, rolls,and potato chips (36.5 RMB). The clerks were shocked to see us! Two girls kept giggling as they put our items in a bag.

We found the bus to return to Yangshuo. I had the window so I had a little breeze. it ws now 1730 hrs and the fields were filled with farmers and water buffalos. The road was very busy with bicycles, trucks, buses, and farmers walking with their water bufalos. It was a good lesson for us. now we knew to look for the farmers and water buffaloes in the early evening.

We got back to Yangshuo and headed for Lulu's on Xi Jie. John ordered Pineapple Chicken and I had Pork with Fungi.(65 RMB). Both were good. We headed for home stopping for beer in big green bottles (4 RMB each). We sound like alcoholics but it was really hot!! As we walked home, night fell and we were reminded to keep a flashlight in our day pack.

rhkkmk

now you are allowed at least two very cold beers before continuing..

lynclarke

Sat, 20 Sep
We were up at 6 and watched the river come to life. I have to say that one of the things we loved about staying at the the Li River Retreat (in the big room) was that we had a balcony view of the river and the road below us. It made us voyeurs of China life. There were two farm houses below us. An old couple lived in the house on the right and I think, their son and family on the left. The old man came home carrying baskets on one of those poles which rests on the shoulder. He dropped the baskets and pole in the road in front of the house, banged on the front door of his house, and waited. When his wife came to the door, he drooped his head,rubbed his shoulder, and acted aggrevated. No language was needed. Any wife in the world could read him! He needed sympathy!

We walked in town for breakfast. We saw Alf at the bufalo Bar and took the opportunity to talk with him. We discussed everything from diaper training to religion to the future of Yangshuo. He is a really a personable guy. It is fun to watch the kids in Yangshuo. Alf's son is 4 years old and the little girl at LuLu's last night was two years old. Both, walked around freely in the midst of all the tourists. They were very social and easily went from one person to another. Alf said the kids in China are spoiled. By American standards, the kids look very confident and ready to take on the world. I never heard a baby in China cry for more than a minute. The mother, grandmother, grandfather said something to the baby in a different tone and the crying stopped. Magic!

We headed out to find a bicycle shop. The majority of bicycles in this area have umbrellas mounted on the handbars. What a great idea. We have a tandem at home and thought this would be a great souvenir for ourselves (and one for a friend). We get plenty of attention when we ride our bike at home, but now we will be a show stopper! When we were on the bus to Xingping yesterday, we saw bicycle shops as we drove (north, I think) out of town. We walked in that direction and found one shop with 3 umbrella clamps hanging above the doorway. We bought all 3.(30 RMB each) The girl in the shop was delightful. She showed us how to collapse and extend the holder, how it bends, and how it clamps on the handlebar. We were tickled.

We wandered about looking in shops. We stopped at a fishing shop. We looked at the collapsible rods but John felt he didn't know enough about them to buy one. The stoe owner also had bobbers -expensive bobbers in fancy presentation boxes (45 to 75 RMB)--but we could not figure out how to use them. These are the times, we wished we knew more than "hello", "thank you", and "good morning". We continued our wander and I saw some silk pants that I put on my list of things to buy for myself, if the price is right. I saw a necklace of heads, just like the bracelet John bought at the Panjianyuan Market in Beijing. The vendor started at 120! I countered with 50 and we settled on 70 RMB. Later I heard someone refer to the heads on the bracelets and necklaces as Buddhas. I don't know. But, I liked the different faces and the necklace made me happy. We found a market and went into browse. I bought funny snacks: one packet of green things with according to the label "freakish sapor" and one packet of "peculiar taste peanut".

We decided to walk back to the hotel and rest before going to the Light Show. We headed back on the street with the row of vendors which leads to Li river Retreat. We saw the guy with an artificial arm and leg. We have seen him most mornings when we walk to town and most evenings as we walk home. A couple of times we have seen him riding a bike out in our area and we talked about how hard it would be. Well, we saw he had a shop and we went in. He recognized us from our morning "ni hao". He handed us a brochure in English- he had been in a car accident many years ago but since then he had competed for the Olympics in 2000 and he had cycled all around China!! Remarkable. He made a living by painting fans by tying the brush to his stump. Way to go! We pondered over the fans and ultimately chose one. (100 RMB). I didn't even try to negotiate.

We bathed, did our laundry (dump clothes in the bottom of the shower stall, stomp around a bit with detergent, rinse, and hang to dry) and took a nap. Suggestion for anyone going to Yangshuo in the hot season- wear lightweight clothes which can be easily washed! It was 100 - 105 degrees every day. We washed our clothes every time we returned to our room. I can't say enough about zip-off pants, microfiber shirts, and neckerchiefs.

In the evening, we walked back to town and chose the Music East and West cafe for supper. John had the curry chicken and a huge bowl of white rice. I had twice fried pork with green peppers and fried rice with ham and eggs. The pork was more like side meat or uncured bacon. The fried rice had less soy sauce than the US version. All of it was very good and we could not finsih it all. One of the best parts was that the restaurant was air conditioned and very busy. There were 6 tables downstairs and considering we saw people walk up the stairs there had to be tables up there, too. We were the only non Chinese there.

We walked over the Buffalo Bar to wait for out driver who would take us to the Light show. The San Jie Impression Light Show was developed by the same guy who created the opening ceremony for the Olympics. When we got into the van, we met Rachel and her mom from Quan Dong in the Canton Province. She was a 25 year old post graduate student in finance visiting Yangshuo for the weekend. She spoke terrific English. We were lucky enough to be seated with them at the show, too, so we had time to visit. She told us that her mom could not speak English and then her mom said, "Hello, How are you". Rachel nearly died! Rachel said her mom had learned Russian in school rather than English. I had never thought of that!

We got into the theater area. First, one walks by a large lighted pagoda, and then down a driveway to the outside seating. It is huge. It held thousands of people. Rachel told us that her Mom loved this story. It was about a young beautiful girl who loved a young beautiful boy but there was a wealthy man who wanted the girl.
When the show started, the stage area was still black, and a young girl started to sing with a bright white light on her. Then, as the lights started to slowly come up, one realized the stage was water! The actors are in bamboo rafts. It was the most unusual performance of my life. I think that they should sell a CD of the music and a DVD of the performance. They would make a fortune! The actors constantly changed the stage adding walkways, threading large banners across the stage, and making gestures which looked like birds. There were colored lights bounced off of the surrounding karsts as a cast of hundreds moved about the stage area. It was spell binding. At one point, they made a village scene. A boat arrived to a shore and crops were unloaded. In the distance, there were kids on bicycles, farmers with water buffalo, and townspeople walking. The Boy comes and gets the Girl and they float off into the distance. It was wonderful! The time flew by. I can only say --if in Yangshuo, San Jie Light Show is a must see.

As we left the show, we had time to talk with Rachel because a crowd of thousands took a while to disperse. We asked Rachel about dating in China. We told her that of all the thousands of couples we had seen so far in China, we had not seen one couple kissing in public. She told us that dating before the age of 20 years old is called "young love". It is not encouraged by teachers or parents because it gets in the way of education. Teachers will separate and yell at kids who are too chummy in school. Parents will stop relationships if it is interfering with the main goal, education. She asked about the US. We said parents are often afraid to say, "No", because the kids will want the relationship more. "Oh", she said, "Freedom".
We talked about China's plan to re-visit the one child policy in 2010. She said that she would like to have two children if she could. We found our driver and went back to town. As we came into town, everything was lit up and all the vendors were out in force. Rachel told us that Yangshuo was a common weekend destination for a lot of Chinese.
We said goodnight and we gave her our email address.

As we started to walk back to the hotel, at 11PM, the park was filled with people exercising and visiting, and there was a business which had a play area like a McDonald's play area. It was still full of kids jumping around! Saturday nights are very busy. We pulled out our flashlight and walked home. The temperature was down a little and there was a hint of a breeze. What a great day.

althom1122

Lyn - loving your report! Thanks so much for all the detail. (And I agree with Bob, by the way, that it's easier if you keep the entire trip all in one thread. It's easier to find.) Keep it coming!

Barb65

Lyn - This is such a wonderful report! Thank you.

I leave on Tuesday and will travel with your suggestions.

One question: maybe I missed it if you said but where did you buy tickets for the light show? I hope it is still going in Nov. - that is one reason I want to stay in Yangshuo over night.

I am sure we will not have the problem with the heat there in mid Nov. but the beer information is always good to know just in case bottled water is hard to find!

Thanks again.
Barb

lynclarke

Barb-I am glad you are enjoying the report. I was afraid that I would bore people to tears with all the detail.
Gosh I hope for your sake that you get more than one night in Yangshuo. And yes, as far as I know the show is going in Nov. I know in Sep it played every night but it had two shows on Sat and maybe Sun. The tickets are 188 RMB to 600+. I could not see any advantage to more expensive tickets. Our hotel, Li river Retreat obtained the tickets for us but I would say it will be very easy to get tickets.

The three restaurants we primarily used are on in one little cluster - Buffalo Bar, (They have a funny Tshirt about staying horny in Yangshuo), Music East and West Cafe, and LuLu's. The food was good at all of them.If you can squeeze in a massage go see Dr Lily. My husband is still talking about it. I will cover that in my next segment.

lynclarke

Sunday, 21 Sep 08
We slept in unitl 7 AM. We had tea and bread in our room and then we walked into town. We chose the street that veers away from West Street. I don't remember the name! We wandered in and out of tiny garage sized shops. We finally came to a large park. Our favorite thing to do! Like all other parks in China, this was filled to the brim, too. The park was not as fancy as the ones we saw in Beijing. There was more packed dirt and less grass but there were ponds, monuments, concrete tables and benches, exercise equipment, croquet fields, and plenty of room to wander and think. It was Sunday and the people were every where. We stood and watched some girls with their easels set up next to a lily pond. They were painting the pond while we, and a half of dozen other people, watched intently. The girls seemed totally oblivious to this scrutiny even when one fellow hung over one of the girl's shoulders looking at the fine detail. We saw several fellows fishing and we stopped to watch. They seemed to be using ultra light gear. We wandered around for quite some time. At one point a young teenager came over to talk to us. He said that he
went to the local English College and asked if we would come to talk to him class later that
night. We said, Yes". Allison, our new friend, was delighted. He said it was his birthday and
something about a cake. We did not catch everything he was saying but we agreed to meet him at his college and he gave us the directions.

We finally left the park, I spied a bakery. We stopped and John said, "I don't want any funny looking stuff". I settled for a slice of pizza and a packet of bread. (7.5 RMB). We crossed the street and John saw an optical shop. He went in to look for a spare set of readers. in a hard sided case. But, instead, he bought a pair of glasses with magnets in the bridge of the nose and a fixed lanyard. One puts on the glasses by separating the nose piece, putting the glasses around one's head, and affixing the nose piece. I thought they
were hysterical! He will be the only one on his block with these glasses (220 RMB) We forgot to negotiate. It is hard to remember that there is no such thing as a fixed price!

We wandered on. I had not bought many souvenirs, so I decided to look for those silk pants that I had seen in one of the vendor stalls down by the river. We walked back to that area and I found the right stall. The sign said that they had pants from Small to 3XL. I asked the clerk for 3XL (I wear a size 10-12) pants. She gave me a good once over and announced that I was only a 2XL! Yay! I am not the largest person in China!! She pulled out a pair of pants and showed me how to put them on over my zip-off pants. The pants were made with two panels attached in the center. First, she put the front panel up against me and tied the waist band ties around the back, then she flipped the material through my legs, and brought the back panel into position and tied the waist band ties around the front. I loved them instantly! They were flowy and fun! The vendor started at 360 RMB!($55). I took off the pants and started to walk out of the little shop. She grabbed
my arm and the negotiations began. Ultimately, I bought two pair for 450 RMB. I know I was being hosed but I loved those pants and I had not seen them in many places.

We walked back to our hotel, hot and sticky. We changed into our swimsuits. We went down to reception and asked if we could borrow the swim rings. The girls warned us not to take any valuables with us. They said that one of the hotel guests had left stuff on the side of the river and the valuables had been taken by someone. We do not know where the that guest had gone swimming but we decided to be cautious and not take our camera.

We took off down the road with John in the lead! We walked another 15 minutes up the road
past a tiny village and to the pathway John had found. There were bicycles parked at the
roadside, again. We walked down the path, between the rows in the farmer's field, skirted orange trees, passed a open concrete box with water and poop, and into a bamboo grove.

We walked through the grove and it was suddenly 10 degrees cooler. The bamboo had to be 30 feet tall. It was one of the loveliest sights in China. We finally walked down an embankment into the grazing fields for the water buffalo and across a long stretch of loose rocks. Finally there it was, the beach!.

We got into the water with our inflatables. Several of the little kids came over to say,
"Hello". The adults smiled and waved when we talked with their children. We floated in the river as 10 - 15 tour boats went down the river toward Yangshuo. Just as many boats headed up river. We layed in the water for maybe two hours just enjoying ourselves. The water felt great and it was crystal clear. We could see our feet! One little boy kept diving down in to the water for rocks. He learned to that he could come up next to John and rest by holding on to John's swim ring. John gave the kids the ring to play with for a bit. There were three kids and they played with the ring without any arguments or intervention from an adult. When they were done they brought the ring back to John and thanked him.

We finally got out and headed home. We found an easier way back to the bamboo grove which did not involve climbing over the loose rocks. At one point, a water buffalo was standing not 30 feet from us. He got into the water and walked along until only his nose was showing. We crossed over to the bamboo grove, found the farmer's field, and cut back over to the road. We went baack to the hotel for a nap.

We were back up at 5 PM. As we walked, out through the reception area we ran across the Aussie woman from California. She was the woman we had met the first day in the Buffalo Bar. We had seen her in passing nearly every day and traded little pleasantries. But, we stopped to talk a bit. She is a professor at a College in California. We learned that she did post graduate work in both England and Florence in the late sixty's . She is quite the foodie. She went to the Cloud 9 restaurant and the Yangshuo cooking school class. Both were recommended by Kylie Kwon. Our Aussie friend really enjoyed the cooking school one
afternoon but she felt the Cloud 9 had dumbed down their Sichuan style dish. A person she talked to the the cooking school encouraged her to go back to the Cloud 9 and try again. She did and she asked for true Sichuan. She said the second dish was much better. But, I must qualifiy this recommendation. Her idea of an ideal Sichuan dish was that she could no longer feel her lips or tongue!!

We finally broke away and headed back to town. We had talked too long and we had to go straight to the college rather than stopping for dinner. We walked at a good pace and we were dripping wet by the time we arrived at the college. We climbed the hill into the college parking lot and went up a flight of stairs and there was Allison waiting for us along with his friend, Carl. The part of the conversation that we had missed, earlier in the park,
was it was both Allison's and Carl's 21 st birthday. We went into the classroom and talked
with the kids for about an hour. We learned that the College course was 3 years long and
they only studied English. Most of the kids wanted to be teachers and most of the kids wanted to travel. They asked where we had been. I told them I had been to 28 countries. So they wanted a list on the board. I listed all 28 and they knew everyone of them! I seriously doubt that American kids would know where Gilbraltar or Morocco are on the
map. These kids/young adults knew where the countries were and the chief export products for each. They told us that they like the American accent the best. They have more difficulty understanding the Austrailian and the British accents. I asked for
questions. Some of the kids were harder to understand than others. One kid was focused
on California and Hollywood.

After about an hour, a delivery person came in with a very elaborate cake. The top had the
usual frosting flowers along with fruit slices in artful arrangements. Allsion and Carl put candles on the cake. Their friends lit the candles, turned out the lights, and sang, "Happy
Birthday" to them both. Allsion asked me if I would cut the cake so that each person could have a piece. I eyeballed the cake and started cutting. He held the plates so I could put a piece of cake on each plate. He was very worried that the cake would not stretch to 40 plates. Twice he asked if I was sure it there would be enough. I was still sweating bullets and poor Allison had to daubed the tip of my nose so that I would not drip onto his cake!!

Everyone got their cake and then the kids took a turn rubbing frosting all over Allison's and Carl's faces and hair. Apparently, this is the ritual for birthdays and everyone was
laughing. Some of the kids asked about 21st birthday rituals in the US. I said unfortunately that 21 was the drinking age and most people celebrated with some form of liquor. They told me that they were not allowed to drink at all while they were in college. I saw a couple of the dorm rooms. They were tiny, maybe 6ft by 8ft, and they had two or three kids in each room. The school had a large construction project underway and the building noise went on 24 hours a day. Several times while I was talking to the class I had to stop because of the construction noise. They said it was hard to sleep. We finally said our goodbyes. I put our email address on the board and we left.

Three of the kids, Carl, Doris, and Doreen walked us back to the park. They were concerned that we would get lost in the dark. The park was still teeming with people and we could see that the karst was lit up with colored lights in the center of the park. We had seen the karst earlier in the day but decided not to climb it because it was so hot. We put it back on the list of things to do. Doreen told us that she is from Yangshuo and she has about 6 months left in school. She is an only child and her parents want her to be a tour
guide because of the money. She would rather be a teacher. She gave us her phone number. Doris was from Macau. She was leaving for home on Friday. She did not know what she wanted to do for a job. We reached the street and we said our goodbyes to the kids.

We walked over the Music East and West cafe. John wanted Western food. I wanted air conditioning. I was still dripping sweat! They remembered us from the other night. John
had complained that the beer was not cold enough when the waitress brought the bottles to the table on the last occasion. The waitresses had a conference and then left to go get colder beer. This time when he ordered "cold beer" they laughed and mimed that they remembered him and they had cold beer. The same old man sat at the table in the corner and we thought he was probably the owner. John ordered a cheeseburger and French Fries! I had sweet and sour chicken. I was again shocked that there was no difference from the sweet and sour we eat at home. John, of course, helped me with my meal, too.

We left and started walking back toward the river. We heard, "John, John" from the
crowd and turned to look. There was Rachel, our fluent financier! She and her mom had
taken a tour to Xingping and Fuli. All of them, Rachel, her mom, and the tour guide all piled
on one scooter. She said she paid 100 RMB for the raft ride. We laughed and told her we paid 150 RMB! She had a great day. She and her mom had a bike tour plannned for the next morning and then they would leave at 3 PM. We told her about going to the college and she wished she had known. She would have gone with us. We said our goodbyes and
she assured us she would email.

We headed back toward the river. As usual, we stopped at the same little shop for two beers. The owner recognized us and was friendly. It was 11 PM, and the road to the Retreat was dark and there was no else about. We had our trusty flashlight this time. Just as we neared the farmer's house, below our hotel window, a van passed us and stopped at
the end of the driveway to the hotel. A couple got out and walked up the steep driveway.
We passed the van and started up the driveway. By the time we got to the staircase leading
to our room, we were right behind the other couple. They were climbing slowly and panting.
Yay! Of course, I was still dripping sweat but we were panting no more than they were. It is the small victories in life! The guy said, "Heist". I said, "ja, sehr heist" and we went our separate ways.

Time for showers, laundry, beer, Benadryl, and bed. Oh, and John had to spray my feet with Liquid bandage. My feet were pouring sweat as much as my body and I developed some impressive blisters. The liquid bandage toughened the skin so the blisters wouldn't open. Speaking of maladies, I was also rashy. I had contact dermatitis which was also impressive. I guessed that my umbrella had touched some plant that my skin did not like.
When I tucked the umbrella under my arm, I transfer the allergen to my hands and forearm. Then when I used the toilet, I manage to transfer it to my waist band which transferred it to places better left unmentioned. Leave it to say, I was a raised, red, rashy mess and thank God it was me and not John!! Thankfully, I had Benadryl and Cortaid cream in my first aid kit.

Images2

I just love your report lynclarke and just booked the "Big" room at Li River Retreat for our trip. Thank you so very much for all of the details. It's such a help!

lynclarke

Thanks! If you have any specific questions feel free to email me. We would go back in a heart beat!
Lyn

lynclarke

Monday, 22 Sep 08
I was up earlier than John to journal. John wanted a belt for one of his zip-offs so I started to "crochet" a belt without a hook. He sprayed my feet again. We walked into town and had our "usual" breakfast at the Buffalo Bar. We sat and talked with the waitress for a while. away. We told her that her English was good and she was easy to understand. John bought one of the Buffalo Bar Tshirts. It has the Buffalo Bar logo and the saying "Keep Yangshuo horny".

We walked to the bus station. We told a guy in the bus lot, "Fuli" and he hustled us into a van. We know we were overcharged but there was nothing to do but pay the extra 5 RMB. The seats were full and there were 4 people sitting on tiny stools on the floor or on the center console. As we headed out of town, our van driver stopped in the middle of the road to talk to another van driver coming in from the oposite direction. Our driver continued on but then pulled to the side of the road and turned off the engine. He said something to the people on the stools. There was some fairly loud conversation and finally, he walked around to the side of the van opened the door and told the people to get out.
They did. They started walking up the road. We had no idea what was going on. The driver picked up all the tiny stools, folded them up, and placed them in a gunny sack. He picked up John's backpack which was on the floor of the front seat, put down the gunny sack, and put John's backpack on top of it. We were baffled. He got back into the drivers seat, started up the van, and we drove past the 4 walking passengers! The road took a
slight bend and there was a road block. The guards were stopping cars in both directions. Our van driver stopped. The guard came to the van and peered inside. He walked all around the van slowly and looked at each of the passengers. We all looked back with feigned innocence. We noticed the ejected passengers walking past the guard. The guard eventually waved us on. The driver started up the van and we took off driving down the
street until the next slight curve. He stopped the van and the other passengers came running down the hill as fast as they could. The door opened and they all rushed in. The driver got out the gunny sack with the stools and passed them back to the passengers. They all got reseated and off we went again!

When we got to Fuli, there was a big market but it had mostly farm needs. We had hoped to see fans for sale but we did not. We had heard there was a fan factory in Fuli. It was really hot (105) and dusty. We watched a neighborhood mechanic rebuilding something and we saw the usual collections of roosters and chickens in bamboo baskets, farm
utensils, and red peppers for sale. We did some interesting things like a market dentist
peering into some poor guy's mouth. The "dentist" didn't want his photo taken. We saw a threshing machine for rice which I thought was pretty cool. The woman running the machine didn't want her photo taken either. (It was just that kind of day!) I took a photo of the machine and then showed her my camera so she could see that I only took a photo of the machine. She nodded. We saw several women sitting at sewing machines waiting for clients to request their services. John was hot and cranky and nothing interested him.
Eventually, we crossed the street and found the van returning to Yangshuo. This driver charged us 2.5 RMB each. The van loaded up quickly. Again, there were extra people sitting on little stools and on the center console. We wondered if we were going to watch the same drama again. As we started up, we heard a noise. I said to John, "that is either a
tiny baby or a chicken". He looked at me like I was crazy! We heard the noise throughout
the trip and I was finally convinced it was a chicken. The road block had been taken down
and we drove straight back to Yangshuo. People started to get out at various stops on the edge of town. Interestingly, if a person in the back had to leave, no one in the front moved. The back person had to just crawl over the people ahead of him. At about the third stop, we recognized where we were and there was a clear path to the door so we decided to get out. Sure enough when we got to the front of the van, there were chickens tied up on the floor of the van and one well-dressed couple had chicken poop all over their shoes.

We stopped at a different bicycle shop and bought another umbrella holder for a friend. (30 RMB) We walked to a different part of the river and passed a little market in an alley way. There were mostly vegetables and fish for sale. We found a little park near where the boats turned around to go back upstream. We sat on a bench and read a sign about a man from Yangshuo in the 800's who left his state job due to the frustration over the
corruption in the government. He came back to Yangshuo to live out his years as a poet. We took a rest and watched the sampans in the river. This is the first time that we had seen a collection of boat people. John walked up a flight of stairs to see if there was a way to cut back into town without retracing our steps. There was a park at the top of the stairs but they wanted a 30 RMB entrance fee!! That must be some park. We had only paid 2RMB to go into Jingshan Park in Beijing! We retraced our steps and walked back into town.

We managed to get to the vendors just outside of "our" side of town just as a boat load of
Chinese came streaming down the road. We manuevered our way through the crowd and went home for a little cool down and a nap.

We awoke ready to go swimming. We collected the swim rings, walked up the road to the path, and cut across to the bamboo grove. When we went down the embankment to the grazing fields, there were 6 or 8 farmers watching their water buffaloes and they directed us to an easier way to the river. We crossed to the beach. We loved swimming
and floating in the river. And, we really loved yelling "Hello" to a tour boat full of
Westerners. We loved the look of surprise when they saw us rather than Chinese! We tubed around for a couple of hours. One young Chinese man came by to practice his English with us. Eric said he had been studying English for 6 months in Yangshuo. We were really impressed with his vocabulary and accent after only 6 months. He spoke better than some of the kids we met at the college after almost 3 years. He felt like he was not learning fast enough and he knew "too few words". Most of the chinese kids seemed to say this so do not know if it is a humbling statement or if they truely believe it. Eric told us his family lived 200 Km away. He rented a room in Yangshuo with a bed, a table, a chair, and a toilet for 200 RMB/month. He eats in his room and has to be careful with his money. He does have a job as well as go to school.

After swimming, we walked back the easier route. Eric joined us pushing his bike. There were a bunch of farmers collecting their water buffaloes. But, a couple of the farmers were calling for one water buffalo. He must have wandered too far away. It reminded me of my father's bull, Ralph. Ralph used to get notions and just go for a walk. Korby would put hay in the back of the truck and go looking for Ralph. He would drive slowly along the
road yelling "Ralph" out the truck's window. Sure enough, Ralph would hear Korby yelling
and he would come to the truck for his treat and then follow Korby and the truck home. He
would walk back into his pen happily until the next bout of wanderlust struck. Well, this
must have happened to a water buffalo who we called "Ralph". We left the bamboo grove
with the sounds of the farmers' calls in our ears. Eric walked with us as far as the Retreat. He said the retreat in Chinese was called something like "Above the River Cabins".This is the reason why Chinese do not understand English versions of names. it is not the same name! He also said that our beach was called the "Secret Beach" by the Chinese.

We went to our room, showered , did laundry, and dressed for dinner. I wore my new silk pants. I really liked then in the hot weather. They were as comfortable as scrubs!! We ate
dinner on the patio. Another couple from New Zealand and a guy from Aachen chatted while we ate. We told them about the missing buffalo. The New Zealand couple told us about their African adventures. The husband, Michael, said their first night in Zambia, the guide took them out to look for elephants. After much searching, they found one aged elephant and Michael thought to himself" No wonder this trip was so cheap!". They went on
to have a great trip. They had adventures including a hippo in the river who refused to let
their canoes pass him! And a thundering herd of wildebeest who were racing toward a watering hole and them! The wife said that she too is bitten by every insect known to man but she had no difficulty in Africa in September. They told a story about a one eyed, rogue elephant named Nelson who came into camp looking for food. Michael said they were leaving their tent one morning on the way to breakfast, when there were bullhorn
announcements saying "Go back to your tents and stay there." Nelson had arrived and was nosing around the camp. We had another beer and headed off to bed.

My rash awoke me at 12mn and 0330hrs. I watched feral dogs as they came up the driveway looking for food. I watched the tiny fishing rafts with lantern lights drift down the river. I finally went back to bed.

annieandh

Lyn,
Your trip report is wonderful. Thankyou so much for posting & I am really enjoying all the details.
We are going to Yangshuo in April & even though we have been to China before we haven't traveled to this part. You have answered so many of my questions without me having to ask. I loved the part about John getting grumpy in Fuli. We have put Fuli in our trip plan & I can imagine my H doing the same thing. LOL
I have enjoyed reading Linda's trip report too & eagerly await Monica's. We have 6 nights in Yangshuo & have booked 4 of them at the Rosewood Inn in the town and after reading your report I think we will do the other 2 at the Li River Resort where you stayed. I believe Alf is an Aussie (is this right). That secret beach with the bamboo & buffalo sounds great - hope we can find it (with my sense of direction we may end up back in Guilin tho )
Thanks,
Annie
P.S: I's now 6.15pm here on a Thursday evening in Australia & after a hot day I have just opened one of my husbands cold beers after reading your story. I remember drinking Tsing Tao in China & I never drink beer at home (more a white wine girl) but beer always seems to go down well in China. H is now looking at me as it is totally out of character. I have just told him "it is a really good story & deserves a beer!"

lynclarke

Thanks Anne-
Yes, Alf is an Aussie. He said he is going for a visit with his wife and kids this year.

I have been working on this "story". We travel internationally every two years and my trip report gets stuffed in a drawer and forgotten. This year, I decided to write it up in a journal. I am using artscow.com for the journals and photobooks. (They are available in the gallery section if anyone is interested in looking at our photos.) I am happy with them. Now, I will have something to read when I am old and sitting in a nursing home!

Tuesday, 23 Sep 08

We were up at 0630hrs. We had made an appointment to meet a woman and her husband, Joanne (Juan) and Bing (Bin) to take a raft ride up the river near downtown. (100 RMB) She took her daughter to school everyday across the street from where their boat was parked. We met them and got into their brand new boat. We traveled up the river and saw our hotel from the river side and saw the ducks who were across the river from where we swam last night. Joanne's English is fairly good and she goes with her husband on these raft trips because he does not speak English. During the trip, she told us that her husband loves to fish. I told that my husband loves to fish, too. I asked her if Bin would take John fishing with him. She talked to her husband and he said, "Yes". So plans were made to pick John up on the section river right in front of our hotel. Bin would have all the equipment and bait. John would bring the soda and beer. Joanne said Bin would drink one beer. (I have her phone number if anyone is interested) On the trip back down the river, Bin drove the boat right next to the water buffalo so we could get good photos. I was delighted. I got a good shot of a water buffalo munching on water grass. We were nearly at the dock when Joanne's phone rang and it was the school saying that her daughter had a temperature. We landed and she took off to fetch her daughter and we ambled over to the Buffalo Bar for breakfast.

Alf, his wife and his daughter were at the bar but we did not have a chance to talk with him. We had breakfast. John added french fries to his American breakfast while I continued with my Chinese breakfast. The New Zealand couple came by on bikes to say, "Hi". We had said that we wanted to go to Dr Lily's for a massage. They had gone there the day before and gave us directions. It is less than two blocks away from the Buffalo Bar.

We went to Dr Lily's to see if John could get a massage. Dr Lily greeted us. She is a tiny woman who speaks excellent English. John opted for the theraputic massage (70 RMB) and was taken off into the clinic by a tinier massage therapist. I sat in the waiting room with Dr Lily. I did not hear any screams so I figured all was well. Dr Lily offered to treat my rash for two doses of Chinese medicine, "Keep heat in the Blood tea" at 50 RMB each.
she said it would taste terrible but it would work. I said I would stay with Western drugs. At the end of the first hour, Dr Lily came out and said John had added a foot massage. We chatted intermittantly. She had worked for the local hospital for 6 years in Chinese Medicine department. But, like all small, rural hospitals the benefit plan was limited and the hospital had difficulty maintaining the inpatient census. She went back to school for additional studies and opened her own business 5 years ago. She had 5 therapists working for her. Business was sporadically busy. One minute there was one client the next minute, 6 Aussies walked in and wanted services. Three wanted relaxation massages, one wanted a foot massage, one wanted accupuncture, and the 6th wanted a class on accupressure points in the neck!

After two hours, John emerged with his hair tousled and a slightly stunned look on his face. He introduced his massage therapist to me and asked me to take a photo of them. We left the clinic and he told me about his experience. He said he never met anyone with such strong hands. He said she had him yelping a couple of times and this massage could have been used as torture. He would have told her anything. I laughed at him because he used to complain that I was too rough with massage! He said he was just grateful that he changed his mind and took the relaxation massage rather than the theraputic massage that he had chosen at first. He said that the foot massage was excruciatingly painful and pleasurable! He loved the entire experience but at that moment he didn't know if he would do it again. Later, in the day, he said that his feet felt wonderful and he would do it again.

We went into town to get some money out of the ATM machine. ATMs are a little hard to find because they are blocked by commercial billboards for privacy. It is one of those things. Once you see one then they are easier to find. It is just hard to recognize the first one. I stopped in town to buy another pair of silk pants for a friend. The vendor had a 2XL but she started the price at 380 RMB. I said, "no, I will go back to the other vendor for 220 RMB". She said, "OK, 220 RMB". I bought the pair and then I saw a shirt for 100 RMB. I bought the shirt for another friend.

We walked back to the Retreat. It was time to cool down and take a little nap. We were back up at 4 PM to go swimming. We took a bag of things for Eric: A USA T shirt, a can of smoked salmon, a bag of jerky, and a Puffs Plus tissues packet. I also wrote a note so he could read it in his leisure and not worry about understanding our conversation.

We walked to our beach and John videoed part of the walk. Eric was at the beach and we gave him the bag to take home with him. We all swam for a couple of hours. He walked back to the Retreat with us. He is a good young man. We found out he is 25 years old. He taught us two new phrases. Wan sung hao= good evening and Jun Ga= China. (spelling is phonetic).

We took a quick shower and went down to dinner on the patio, again. John had sweet and sour pork with steamed rice. I had beef with black bean and steamed rice. They snuck in some hot peppers and apparently, they are green! I popped one unknowingly in my mouth and was caught breathless with my nose running! I avoided them after that! A couple from Austrailia and their 8 year son sat at the table next to us. We told them about the Secret Beach and they said they would like to go along the next night. We finished dinner and John took off for his fishing adventure with 3 beers, a flashlight, bug repellant, and an extra cotton T shirt. I went up to the room and looked out the balcony. I saw a boat casting its light along the shore line and I hoped it was Bin. I did the laundry and journaled.

John got back at 1130PM, bursting with news. He had landed a huge fish but two other large ones had broken the fishing line and gotten away. Joanne was very happy with the fish. Now, John wants one of those collapsible rods like we had seen in the fishing store.

During the night, the weather changed and we lost power. John opened the windows and a gale blew threw knocking over everything in the room! It was hard to get back to sleep!
_____________________________

Images2

Lyn, I'm enjoying your pictures also!

Can you compare the two different raft trips you took while in Yangshuo, the one from Xingping and then the one from Yangshuo. Also, I'd love the phone # for Joanne (Juan) and Bing (Bin). Thanks so much.

lynclarke

Images2-
Thanks for your comment.
The two rides were different. I got my fabulous water buffalo photos with the trip from Bing. But, the Xingping ride offers the vendor island and stunning karsts. If I HAD to pick just one, I would probably chose the Xingping ride.

When I said I had Joanne's phone number, I was thinking I could PM on Fodors. Er- now I don't think I can PM. I am not sure if I should put her # on the internet so why don't you email me at [email protected].

lynclarke

Wed, 24 Sep 08

Our last full day! We got up late because by the time our power came back on during the night we were hot and sticky and tired. The weather is completely different today. It is windy with big puffy clouds sailing on by. We wondered if the boat traffic would be less today.

We walked into town and had our usual breakfast at he Buffalo Bar. John bought another Buffalo Bar T shirt for a friend of ours and he videoed a little clip of the bar so he could see the "birthplace" of the Tshirt! I love looking at the ceiling of the first floor which is the wooden floor of the second floor. I asked how old the buildings are in Yangshuo and Dr Lily thought at least one hundred years old.

We wandered over to the fishing store we had visiting a couple of days ago. This time John was ready to shop! He looked at a half of a dozen poles with great care. The woman behind the counter was very patient with him. He finally decided on two poles with differing weights. While he shopped, I watched a baby next door at her father's shop. She was probaby about two years old. She was walking around on the sidewak with a pomagranate which she was chewing on. She was very intent. I took a couple of photos and showed her dad. He seemed pleased. John found the hooks that he had used with Bin the night before. he bought two different sizes of those, too. In total he spent 220 RMB ($34) for both poles and the hooks.

We knew it was our last day to pick up any souvenirs. We went over to the grocery store by the Yangshuo Park. I picked up little silly things like metal chopsticks, a toothpick holder, mint tins in Chinese, and the Chinese Alcohol in the little square bottle which we heard will peel paint! The alcohol will be for display purposes only! We passed by a household store which had the flat bamboo fans hanging in the front along with the piles of baskets but she wanted 12 RMB. We thought that was too high and we walked on. I had used one of these fans in Dr Lily's reception room while I waited for John. They move a lot of air but Dr Lily had told me that they should only cost 2 - 5 RMB! We wound our way down by the river to the vendor stalls. One vendor had small collapsible fans. I pointed and he said 50 RMB! I looked at him as if he had lost his mind and I walked away. He came running after me, yelling "OK,OK, 5 RMB!". I bought four to have as fill in souvenirs. There is always that extra person or two we think of on the way home. So, I had a couple of spares.

We walked back to the Retreat. As we passed the farmer's house, the old woman was squatting in the doorway. She pointed to our near empty bottles. We finished off the water and gave her the bottles. We made it up the steep driveway, the girls told us the power was out, again. We went upstairs and opened all the windows. A gale blew in and we had to hold stuff down. I did the last of the laundry. Thank heavens, for the battery powered Zune speakers. They were wonderful. I think I paid $5 for them some where and we have used them every day in Yangshuo. I love having music on at all times. I had almost not packed them!

I started to pack. We knew there were items which we had planned to discard. I put some things together and asked John to go give the stuff to the old lady in the farmhouse. I had a day backpack, rope, my folding hat in a zippered case, tissues, Chinese children's books I had forgotten to take to the school, a roll of strapping tape, and a scrubs top. He took the stuff down the hill. The old lady was picking up sticks for kindling in our driveway. He helped her carry the sticks back to her house and then gave her the backpack and things. She seemed pleased. Hopefully, she will be able to use some of the stuff and sell the rest.

We watched the old man across the river come to the rivers edge to get his water buffalo. The man had on a bright pink outfit. I said to John, "See, real men do wear pink". He said, "Real Chinese men wear pink". The man called his water buffalo and they got out of the water and followed him back into the wooded area. We could see a road on that side of the river, too.

We finished packing and decided to eat an early supper. We had told the Aussie couple and child that we would show them the Secret Beach around 4:30 PM. It had been sprinkling on and off so we down to the tiny a/c dining room and ordered supper. John had the New Zealand beef dinner (OK) and I had the Pork in brown sauce. We went back upstairs to change into swimsuits and met the Aussie couple. We, all walked over to the Secret Beach. Two fisherman had set up lines and they tried to intimidate them to not get in the water. We just swam, anyway. Eric came just as we were leaving. We introduced him to the new couple. We hoped that they would make a habit of talking with him too and then introduce him to the next couple before they left in a few days. We said our goodbyes to Eric.

John had an appointment to meet Joanne and Bin at 6PM so we hustled back to the Retreat. At five of six, he was off like a shot. Fifteen minutes later, he was back panting like a dog! Joanne sent him back to get a shirt! She said he would get too cold on the water! Wives are universal!! He dutifully, put on a shirt. Joanne had asked if I would come, too but I was just marginally surviving my rash and I didn't think it was a good idea. He took off like a shot.

At 11:30PM he finally dragged back in filled with excitement and fish stories. Another fellow went fishing with them. At first ,John thought he was a relative of Joanne and Bin, but then he realized Will was on vacation, too. They had a great time even though the fish were not biting like the night before. Bin had bought all new fishing rods and line! John learned that Joanne had learned English in high school. He was really impressed that she had retained as much as she had. Will was a tour guide in Guangdong province. John was a happy camper.
________________________
Thursday
Morning arrived early but it was a beautiful day with blue skies and white puffy clouds. We were completely packed from the night before, so all we needed was a quick breakfast of tea and crackers and we were ready to go. We had asked the reception desk the day before to arrange our ride to the Airport in Guilin. (The Retreat will bundle all expenses like the taxi ride, the Light show tickets, the meals at the Retreat, etc. It made life very easy. It is one thing to have an adventure when it did not matter when we arrived somewhere. It is another thing to risk an adventure when there is a plane waiting!! We had time to photograph the karsts with a blue sky and wave good bye to the water buffalo across the river. We would miss this place.

The van driver knocked on our door! He was ready to roll and so were we. He helped us carry our luggage to the van. I think it was the Retreat vehicle. A couple of extra guys rode along with us. I had the feeling that these fellows worked for Alf and they were going home for their break. The driver had one fellow take out his wallet and count his money before he dropped him off at the bus stop near the edge of Guilin. I had the feeling that he was not as sophisticated as the driver.

We spent our time on the ride searching for water buffalo. There was the sense that we might miss seeing our "last" water buffalo. It might be years before we see another one. We saw some working in the fields with their owners. We never saw any buffalo doing any hard work. Maybe the hard work is during the plowing and planting seasons. Most water buffalo just seemed to walk around grazing. It didn't seem like a bad job. The harshest thing we saw any owner do to his water buffalo was one owner jerked his buffalo's nose rope. Other than that, they seem to have a pretty decent life.

We continued progresing to smaller and smaller roads. At one point we turned into a bumpy, dirt road and we thought, "Oh, we must be taking the other guy to his village. This will be interesting!". The thought was just finished when John spied the contol tower for the airport. We were just entering the airport from the back side. We pulled up to the front of the terminal and the two guys leapt from the car and grabbed our luggage before we could get out of our seats. We thanked them.

Guilin airport is easy to manuever. We found the China Southern airlines easily. We waited for the two people ahead of us to process their luggage when suddenly two luggage racks showed up with 12 more pieces of luggage and boxes. The boxes had "fragile" stickers affixed to all sides. We heard one box clicking happily before it ever got to the counter and we wondered how on earth this box was supposed to survive baggage handling. We checked in our luggage and went to immigration. The yellow line meant nothing to most Americans and the immigration officer spent more time telling people to get back behind the line then he did processing papers. We continued on to Security which took about 30 minutes. We still had plenty of time so entertained ourselves watching the last minute sprinters.

We got to our gate and the desk person wrote on the departure board in English and in Chinese that our flight was delayed. This was the very reason why we left Yangshuo a day early than we had originally planned. I had read someone's trip report and they were stuck in Guilin for twelve hours and had to go through great lengths to get to their Hong Kong flight on time. I used that lesson and planned one night in Hong Kong. Guilin was the noisiest Airport we have ever been in. The loudspeaker system is deafening. Apparently, the management does not want any traveler to say he or she did not hear the announcement. I thought the dead in the surrounding cemetaries heard the announcements! We wanted to get a snack but Guilin had a dearth of portable food. John asked the desk clerk if we had time to go to the little cafe for a snack but her English was not good enough to understand. There was a restaurant which served noodle soup. We wondered if it was the famous Xian noodle soup. Finally, the departure board was revised with a time but by that point we were in the first seats to board the plane and we decided we would live. John regretted telling me "throw out the snacks, you have enough stuff in that bag". I didn't say a word.
The flight did arrive and we survived our 'peanut" flight, but we were hungry!!

We landed in Shenzhen. (Note to others-keep your baggage tags handy they do check them before they let you out of the baggage area!). I found mine in my 7th pocket or therabouts. Luggage in hand, we went to the first information desk. I asked for the bus that goes to the Elements Mall. She sent me outside to another desk. The outside person sent us back inside. I went to a different inside desk this time, with better success. Nothing on the board behind the desk said anything about China Link nor did it have a booth number. If one is walking outof the baggage area, then it is the row of desks to the left of the doorway leading outside. The sign is blue and it has STS written on it. The price was 100 RMB. John pulled the money out of his pocket which we had ear marked for this trip yesterday. Somehow he lost 40 RMB, he only had 160 RMB in the pocket! We asked where the ATM was. The clerk pointed up the stairs. With 5 minutes to bus time, John took the escalator while I was shouting inside my head, "take the stairs". The clerk had already printed our tickets, so she waited until he once again took the escalator and gradually descended back to the ground floor! Another girl ws called over and we hurriedly dashed through the terminal past the doorway to a lounge at the far right. We were in the lounge long enough to be handed a card to be filled out, then raced back out through the door, and outside to the waiting bus.

On the bus we met the next great guy! He was an O+M inspector for a company with 18 plants. My understanding was that he was a quality control inspector. He went to one plant to inspect and then stayed there as long as was needed. He said the hardest part of his job was that the workers couldn't understand why they were supposed to do certain preventative procedures like oiling a machine and cleaning out any debris before the machine was turned on every day. He said the workers commonly said to him "Why, we did that when you were here last year!". It ws difficult to compete with modern standards. Our new friend made sure we got off the bus at the border and told us where to meet hom (bus slot 19). We went into the building with all our luggage passed from one immigration desk (China) to the second immigration desk (Hong Kong). The bus was waiting at the other end of the building in slot 19. We put our lugage back on board and settled back in for another chat as we rode into Hong Kong.

I was amazed by the changes in Hong Kong. Land that was swamp 25 years ago was now reclaimed land with 30 story high rises. We got off at Elements Mall and our new friend transferred to another bus to take him home. We thanked him for his help and conversation. We followed the other people who seemed to know where they were going. We went to the elevator and went up one floor and then entered into the mall through the doorway which said, "arcade". As soon as one entered the mall, there was a concierge desk with girls who spoke English. The ATM machine was down the mall past the 360 degree supermarket. At the Calvin Klein, we turned right and there was the ATM at the end. We got some Hong Kong Dollars to use for the next day.

We looked for a food court. Unlike China, this enormous mall only seemed to have 4 or 5 restaurants. We chose one and dragged in all our luggage. John ordered noodles and beef. I ordered noodles and wantons filled with shrimp. (HK$ 112) We felt refreshed and ready to see Hong Kong. Outside the restaurant was a mall directory. We easily found the taxi pick up area. We stopped at the concierge desk to ask the girl to write Salsibury YMCA and the address in characters. We walked to the pick up area and there was a dispatcher who spoke English!! He put us in a taxi and told the driver where to go.

John complained all the way to the hotel that I was going to make him stay at a YMCA. Telling him that it would be ok did not stop his whining. The taxi drove up and let us out. (HK$32.5) His whining suddenly stopped when we walked into the lobby. The hotel is lovely. It is nothing like a YMCA in the States. I had reserved a Harbor view room for US$200 which is a steal in Hong Kong. We went to our room and dropped off all our stuff. On the way back down to the lobby, we stopped on the 4th floor to make dinner reservation at the buffet.

Our first piece of business was to find the A 21 bus stop around the corner from the Y at 27 Nathan Road which we would need in the morning to go to the Airport. We found it without any difficulty. We walked to the first cross street and John spied "Delaney's Irish Pub". Manna from Heaven. We went down the stairs and into another world. We could have been in any pub in London, NY, or here in Hong Kong. A pint or two later, the world was great.
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We left to head back to the Salisbury to go to dinner. John was dazzled by all the electronics stores. I saw him lurch into one and I yelled, "high pressure tactics", to no avail. I knew my budget was blown the minute I saw him point to a pair of binoculars. After trying on several pair, he decided that he had to have a set of Nikon 10 x 42 for HK$ 1000 (US $135). But, before I managed to get him out of the store the clerk, Peter, said, "Oh sir, but let me show you the top of the line HK$5000, just so you will know". Of course as soon as they hit his face, there was little opportunity to turn back the hands of time. He was in lust. Pure and simple! The guy tried to upsell. I yelled, "Dinner, dinner". At the same intensity as I would yell, "fire!" if I was in flames. John yelled to Peter as I dragged him bodily out of the store, "How late are you open?" We heard a faint, "11", as I pulled him around the corner.

We went back to the Salisbury to their fixed price buffet HK $228 (US$30). First of all, the dining room was my idea of a big splurge. The windows looked directly over the Harbor. When I planned the trip, I envisioned us sitting on our bed 4 floors up eating 7/11 snacks while we watched the light show. But, of course, I wasn't married to a man with $135 binoculars then, either! I must say that the buffet was probably the nicest buffet we have been to in any part of the world. We started with sushi and sashimi. Lovely quality. John made his own tekka don by requesting hot rice. He had a second plate. I went back for other appetizers: fish and spinach roll, salmon rose, and liver pate slices. I was starting to fill up so I ran to the entrees before my stomach could tell me "NO". I chose small servings of roasted pigeon, sole stuffed with spinach, squid Korean style, and a slice of rare roast beef. The server offered me brown gravy for my roast beef. How English! We ate it with wasabi. The quality of the food was sensational. We savored our food while watching the light show in the harbor. It was lovely. John got an entree plate and I headed for the desserts. I don't even eat desserts! They had croissant pudding with hard sauce, pavlova, individual glasses of puddings, mousses, cheeses, crackers, and of course, fresh fruit. It was wonderful.

Just as I finished my last bite John went back to his lust for the binoculars! UGH! We borrowed a pen from one of the waiters to figure out asking price versus price he wanted to pay. We headed back to Peter and the dazzling binoculars. Of course, Peter being a good businessman had a brand new pair of binoculars waiting for John on the counter. John asked for the opening bid. HK$3800. We offered the dream price HK$3495. Peter acted as if we had just shot his mother with a 30 ought shotgun. After a few sallies we walked out with John's newest expensive toy! A happy man until the next toy is dangled in front of his eyes! We walked back to the hotel with John alternatively gloating and worrying that he paid too much. We stopped at the 7/11 to pick up snacks for breakfast. John got sweet buns one chocolate chip shaped like a baseball cap and a raisin bun. I got the savory options: a hotdog wrapped in a bun. We went back to the room so John could play with his new toy!

lynclarke

Friday, 25 Sep 08

We got up at 0600hrs, lazed around watching Bindi Beach Rescue, and bemoaned the fact that we get lousey TV in the States. I finally had to "grow" one of the suitcases to add the Hong Kong inclusions. We had one hour to explore before we had to come back and check out. We hit the streets running. John had this uncanny ability to find the exact shop which carried the exact product he wanted. With in mere seconds, he was trying on headphones and listening to the salesman's ipod to test them. It did not take long and he bought a set. By the time we walked a couple of blocks, he was convinced that he needed a back up pair! We stopped at the 7/11, for sandwiches for the flight. John did not want to risk hunger again! Right after we bought the sandwiches, spied a bun shop like I had loved in Japan. Darn! I sprinted to the Pharmacy to buy some Benadryl. Benadryl is illegal in Hong Kong. I had to settle for Telamin. Considering the package was in chinese, I did not what the generic name was. I took it! Meanwhile, John managed to go back to the headphone store and buy the second pair.

We went back to the hotel, grabbed our luggage, paid the bill, and walked to the bus stop. There was a note on the bus stop that we had to go to another bus stop a block or two up the street due to construction. So we slogged up the street with our stuff. The bus arrived two minutes later and we climbed on board. The luggage in stored inside the bus, not beneath it. It was a double decker bus and half of the first floor was luggage storage.
I had some trouble figuring out where to put the money. I knew it was exact change HK$33 (US$4.50) but the driver was not giving me any clues. Finally another rider put money and change into a silver colored bill acceptor. So, I did, too. Interestingly, the bus had seat belts!

The bus dropped us at the door to Terminal #1. It was enormous! There were at least 20 check in desks per aisle and there were at least 8 aisles of desks. It took a bit to find the United area. (Aisle G). We had plenty of time but I was not prepared for how long it would take to just get to a gate. Poor John saw dozens of stores but we had to push forward! We checked in and the desk clerk was very specific about saying that we could not buy any fluids in duty free area or it would be conviscated on the second security check just prior to the plane. She even repeated the instructions twice. We swore that we would not even look at a fluid. We moved on to the immigration area, with a black line this time! We passed through securty. I forgot that I had stuck a water bottle from the flight yesterday in my Happy Virus bag! Darn! From that point, we went down 3 escalators, to a train. The train took us to gates 33 -80! We walked to gate 61 passing some of the jazziest moving sidewalks with overhead neon lights which change color constantly. I would have like to stay and admire them but we needed to press on. When we reached our gate, we were 5 minutes before boarding. It took us one hour to go from the front door to the gate! The flight started to board 35 minutes ahead of flight time. The two hours we had allowed ourselves had evaporated! As we went down the ramp to the flight, there was the second security check. Ah! I had almost forgot about that check. We heard a first class passenger arguing vehemently with the security person, that he should not have been allowed to buy duty free fluids if he could not carry them on board. If he said it once he said it 6 times while we waited for our security check. I had heard a discussion in line that first class passengers could have their items held by the flight crew and given back to them at the end of the flight, sometimes. Apparently, this theory did not prevail for this passenger and he was hot!
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We loved our United economy plus seats once again although this plane had a 3 - 6- 3 configuration. We liked the other configuration we had on the trip over to China. And there were no head rest monitors. Oh well. I would look for the other plane the next time. We were fed as soon as we hit altitude. I had chicken and fried rice. John had beef tips and mashed potatoes. We instantly fell into a coma for two hours. We awoke to watch a touching story of a lonely professor who befriended some immigrants in New York. It did not have a fairy tale happy ending. The trip was uneventful and we napped on and off. We arrived in Chicago and went through the whole process of immigration, security, and luggage scans, again. O'Hare looked tiny after Hong Kong! We found our way to the next gate and read a book while we waited. It seemed odd to see non-Chinese faces. We were back home.


The best part of it all was John announced that this was the best trip ever!