Day 5 of our Yangshuo vacation came with a re-discovery of childhood for Chelsie. It had been at least a decade since she rode a bicycle and today we rode them at least 9 miles back into town. We started the day with a pretty discouraging rain storm and then a bicycle ride through the heart of town (which was actually quite dangerous) to the boat dock. We hopped on a bamboo raft, tied our bicycles to the front end, and headed down the Li River. We soon discovered that this was the same route we had kayaked down a couple days ago but…..oh well. We saw some different sights and actually had things explained to us by our lovely bamboo raft driver man. We learned that those people who have a bunch of seaweed-looking stuff on the rafts (see pictures from kayaking day) are harvesting water grass for the water buffalo. We also passed by a very old building and learned that 20 years ago it used to be a sugar factory. Pretty cool. At one point we passed a boat full of Chinese people who were trying to talk to us but only knew “hello” and then they babbled some other things. Our driver man said to them “Your English is very bad!” and we all laughed. Then Chelsie responded with “dui” (correct) to which he laughed even harder. Even his son who had come along for the ride thought it was pretty funny.
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| Sugar factory |
After about a 20 minute ride we were dropped off at Liugong Village. Our driver man pointed the direction to the road back to Yangshuo, shook our hands, and then we were on our own yet again. But not for long. As we walked up the path into the village we were met by a lady who offered to cook us some local food at her restaurant (really her home) and said we could park our bicycles there and explore the town while we waited for them to prepare our lunch. She was prepared with an English menu which tells me that she gets a lot of business from foreign tourists. Anyways, we parked our bikes, ordered our food, and took off to explore. This town was more so the China that I think I was expecting to find upon my arrival here 4 months ago. Thank goodness it wasn’t. The town was very quiet aside from a few kids dilly dallying around and chickens crossing the road at will.
When we came back our food was ready. Now….I’m the kind of person to whom presentation matters. If my food doesn’t look good, I might not eat it. At least, I used to be that way. China has certainly made me re-evaluate some of my standards about food presentation. When this dish was placed in front of me, what I really wanted to do was wrinkle my nose in disgust and say “no thanks” to the mushy looking slop. However, I’ve learned that a better way to evaluate food here is to smell it. This I did, and discovered that it smelled delicious. I decided to give it a chance, and it turned out to be delish. Eggplant might be one of my new favorite vegetables.
After lunch it was time to hit the road. Our nice lady pointed us towards the road and off we went. The scenery was gorgeous. The peace and quite was incredibly relaxing. The day had been a bit rainy so the air was cool and moist – basically the perfect conditions for a bike ride. I learned one lesson, though: when resuming bicycle riding after not doing it for about a year, it’s best if the first trek isn’t 9 miles long. When I got off that bike I was walking like a cowboy who just got back from a 3 week cattle-herding trip. Ouch. All in all, Yangshuo is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been and if you’re ever considering a trip to China and want some gorgeous scenery – this is the place.
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| It's fall!!!! |
After about a 20 minute ride we were dropped off at Liugong Village. Our driver man pointed the direction to the road back to Yangshuo, shook our hands, and then we were on our own yet again. But not for long. As we walked up the path into the village we were met by a lady who offered to cook us some local food at her restaurant (really her home) and said we could park our bicycles there and explore the town while we waited for them to prepare our lunch. She was prepared with an English menu which tells me that she gets a lot of business from foreign tourists. Anyways, we parked our bikes, ordered our food, and took off to explore. This town was more so the China that I think I was expecting to find upon my arrival here 4 months ago. Thank goodness it wasn’t. The town was very quiet aside from a few kids dilly dallying around and chickens crossing the road at will.
When we came back our food was ready. Now….I’m the kind of person to whom presentation matters. If my food doesn’t look good, I might not eat it. At least, I used to be that way. China has certainly made me re-evaluate some of my standards about food presentation. When this dish was placed in front of me, what I really wanted to do was wrinkle my nose in disgust and say “no thanks” to the mushy looking slop. However, I’ve learned that a better way to evaluate food here is to smell it. This I did, and discovered that it smelled delicious. I decided to give it a chance, and it turned out to be delish. Eggplant might be one of my new favorite vegetables.
After lunch it was time to hit the road. Our nice lady pointed us towards the road and off we went. The scenery was gorgeous. The peace and quite was incredibly relaxing. The day had been a bit rainy so the air was cool and moist – basically the perfect conditions for a bike ride. I learned one lesson, though: when resuming bicycle riding after not doing it for about a year, it’s best if the first trek isn’t 9 miles long. When I got off that bike I was walking like a cowboy who just got back from a 3 week cattle-herding trip. Ouch. All in all, Yangshuo is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been and if you’re ever considering a trip to China and want some gorgeous scenery – this is the place.
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