I Think My Arms Might Fall Off (Day 3)

Starting the day with a beautiful view of the mountains and a hot, very very strong cup of coffee

Day 3 of our Yangshuo vacation started bright and early with an 8am pick-up to head to the Li River. We were joined by a couple guys who were headed for the same adventure as us for the day – kayaking. We got to the river and, much to our surprise (but not necessarily dismay) the guy who drove us simply handed us a life jacket, paddle, and kayak and pushed us off into the river. He told us that our stopping point was a big bridge, and there was only one big bridge so we couldn’t miss it. And then we were on our own.

Now, knowing what I know about….things…..I figured this meant there would be zero chance of us encountering anything dangerous or difficult. I was right. The day was beautiful – not hot, not cold, a little foggy. It was just us and the river…and the occasional fisherman and/or water buffalo.

It was amazing to be able to stop paddling, close my eyes, and hear nothing but the nature all around me. No honking horns, no yelling, no neighbor upstairs pounding around, no crying babies, no buses telling you which stop you’re arriving at or going towards. No, instead these sounds were replaced by cicadas, mooing cows, running water, the wind in the trees, and the occasional bird call.

At one point we both had to pee so badly that we pulled up along the riverbank and looked around for a somewhat hidden place to pee. And then we realized that there was nobody but us within eyesight so we just peed right there on the riverbank with a couple of cows a few meters from us. When in China…. ..  It was definitely a serious arm workout, and there were times where I thought my arms might just fall off and that this bridge didn’t actually exist; that it was just one of those little white lies they sometimes tell you here in China. 

Thinking this bridge might not actually exist

However, I can’t really complain about getting to spend my morning floating (and sometimes paddling) along a river in one of the most stunning places I have ever seen. And of course the bridge did exist and we made it there by around 12:30, which was very early according to the receptionist who looked very surprised to see us at 1:15. We then proceeded to shower, eat lunch, and nap.

Tooooeeeeeee shoeeesssss!!!

Around 5:30 we figured we should get up and get ready to head to the Liu Sanjie Impressions light show. It was sprinkling when we were heading into the theater so they handed out a bunch of rinky-dink rain coats....

The stage is made up of a portion of the Li River and 12 mountains serve as the backdrop. Here is the basic story-line of the show:

Sanjie Liu is a fairy singer in the myths and legends of the Zhuang ethnic minority. She is incomparably beautiful, and has voice to match her beauty. In the 'Impression Sanjie Liu', what you can see are the impressions derived from the daily life of the people living around the Li River, rather than the specific details of the stories. From these impressions, you will gain a realistic impression on the background of Sanjie's birthplace and understand the beauty of the folk songs' hometown. The performance is divided into seven chapters including the preface and epilogue. At the beginning, the lights are all turned off and the image of Sanjie appears indistinctly in the sky with beautiful songs 'Sing the folk songs, here I am singing and there you are echoing...'. As the lights come up, the twelve hills appear in front of the audients; and a small fishing boat is rowed from the hills. This is the Preface - the Legend of Hills and Rivers. The first chapter is the Red Impression: Folk Songs. On the water, many fishermen are rowing their bamboo rafts in a column. Either standing or squatting, they hang the large red silk in the sky and or upon the water. This red picture symbolizes the enthusiasm and praises the labors of the local people. The second chapter is the Green Impression: Garden. The color green symbolizes nature as well as the vitality. Among the green hills and rivers, the smoke from cooking fires curls upward; herders are heading home with their cattle under the gleam of the sunset. The women, washing clothes beside the water are waiting for their husbands who are rowing the fishing rafts back home. This chapter reveals the peaceful and happy life of the local people. The third chapter is the Golden Impression: Fishing Lights. Hundreds of bamboo rafts with golden fishing lights are spreading all over the river. The rafts, gently rocking make the golden fishing lights dance upon the waters, the straw rain capes, the frolic cormorants and the hills construct a perfect picture describing the simple existence of the people around the Li River. The fourth chapter is the Blue Impression: Love Songs. Under the deep blue sky, and on the dark blue water, the performer of Sanjie is singing classical love songs. Then, a crescent-shaped boat with a charming fairy dancing in is flying onto the surface of the water. A group of pretty and young girls, dressed in red or white are bathing around the boat. In this blue world, these beautiful girls seem to become the notes of Sanjie's love songs. The last chapter is the Silvery Impression: Performance Grand Ceremony. As the 'Wonder of Lijiang Culture', this scenery reflects the traditional ceremony in Sanjie's hometown according to the legend. Over 200 Zhuang girls form a long column across the bridge over the Li River. Their silver dresses make the river shimmer in a mysterious manner. In the Epilogue, the fishing rafts are rowed farther and farther from the audience while the beautiful songs of Sanjie are still echoing among the hills. The girls on the bridge present their thanks for the audience with their affectionate folk songs.

I’ve been to musicals and plays in downtown Denver, London, and on Broadway. Those were good…..but this was great. Unfortunately my camera wasn’t able to really capture how truly incredible it was. I even got chills a couple times because it was so amazing. 

Introductions

CUTEST little girls. Fave.

*Check back later for videos of the light show*

What? More Stairs?!! (Day 2)

Chelsie and I thought we were done with stairs for a while after the Great Wall. Oh man were we wrong. Today we first headed to the Butterfly Spring Park to see lots and lots of butterflies and eat wild honey. Or at least, this is what the advertisement said we would be doing. In order for us to get to this park we had to take a taxi to the bus station and then take a bus to the park. The bus was actually a van and there was no scheduled time of departure – just when the van got full, we left. We picked up passengers on the way there, at random stops that I would certainly not be able to find without some serious assistance. Once we got there we got our tickets and headed into the mountain…..

We walked through a cave that was all lit up and then we came across this bridge like the one you see in movies. It made me think of the Jungle Book with the real people when the girls are on their jungle sight-seeing trip with the professor and Katherine goes across the bridge that she isn’t supposed to. If you haven’t seen it, just imagine a super high bridge in the jungle. Chelsie was a little nervous about it but it proved sturdy and we made it across safely.

Then we came across the stairs. There were so many it was ridiculous. And there were no signs telling us how to get to the butterfly part so it was pretty much a guessing game. We ended up climbing a bunch of stairs to get to a scenic overlook and then coming back down and going down a bunch of stairs to get to the butterfly part…..

I really liked this tree....it felt very Amazon-ish

Land of the frogs

You’ll notice that there are no pictures of butterflies. It’s because there were maybe 4 in the whole freaking greenhouse thing that they were supposed to be in and none of them would hold still long enough for a picture. However, we walked a little further and found LOTS of butterflies……

Disappointing.

After that it was off to Moon Hill. The lady at our hotel told us we could take a motorbike there, and she wasn’t lying. As soon as we came out of the butterfly park and headed down to the road, there was a lady asking us where we were going. We told her Moon Hill and she asked if we wanted to go by motorbike. For 10 yuan each? Yes please. We’re cool like that. Again, we were anticipating a hike, but not the zillions of stairs that seemed to never end. Here’s an equation that I discovered today: Theresa + asthma + serious elevation/altitude change = my lungs don’t work. I felt like my heart was going to beat right out of my chest and there definitely wasn’t enough oxygen in the air. We were accompanied by 2 Chinese women who spoke surprisingly good English (most of the people that we’ve encountered who speak English have been young people). They carried coolers with water and drinks in them in case we needed them and we had some good conversation while we struggled up the stairs. It was quite the challenge, but the view from the top was entirely worth it.

I asked the lady "Is that bamboo?" She said "mm-hmm" completely uninterested....guess it's kinda standard for her

Oh stairs..... :(

This is the one of the main pictures you see when you Google "Yangshuo". Try it.

Our lovely tour guides/providers of mango juice!

Moon Hill from the bottom

After we reached the bottom, our “tour guide” ladies invited us to go eat in their village that was just 2 minutes down the road. We thought, heck yeah we want to eat in your village and get the real China experience! Turns out we were just going to a very pricy restaurant where we weren’t really sure what we were about to order. After quite a bit of confusion and questioning of the cuisine we decided not to eat there and just headed on to our next adventure. ….

To round out the day we decided a little mud was needed. So off to Moon Water Cave we went. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what we got. We were dropped off about 200 meters from the cave and walked down a little path lined with flowering trees and home-grown chili pepper plants.

When we got to the actual cave entrance we went into a little changing room and changed into our clothes that were soon to be very muddy. I decided the least amount of clothing would be best so I wore a bathing suit. We also made a friend in the changing room…..

We put our bags in a little locker and changed into some “water shoes” that were just sandals that numerous other people had definitely shared. Hard hats on, we headed into the cave. We were led by a lady with a flashlight who abandoned us about 100 meters into the cave and told us to “wait a moment” while some other people caught up with us. Well, waiting got old and we took some pictures. These turned out to be some good “before” reference pictures.

On our trip through the chilly cave our guide pointed out some cool rock sculptures. The sleeping tiger is pretty hard to see, but it was really cool. The Chinese doll and two children were right next to each other and she said it was a very famous rock sculpture in this cave and that the doll watched over the children.

Sleeping tiger

Chinese Doll

Two Children

Lotus Flower

We walked past (and looked longingly at) the hot spring, but our guide assured us that we would be back there after the mud. We went up some stairs with a very very low ceiling (“watch your head” was something our guide said several times throughout our trek), over a bridge or two, through another “watch your head” part, and then all of a sudden we were at the mud! Our guide became our photographer and we got…….muddy. We were excited to discover that we could float in the mud, but disappointed that we couldn’t write with our fingers on our mud-covered stomachs. And then we discovered a slide…..

Getting ready to take the dip!

Floating!

After our mud bath it was hard hats back on and headed to the hot springs to wash off. Our guide had some fun with my camera hahahaha.

Once we got to the hot springs our guide gave my camera to some other lady and headed off with another group, so there are sadly no pictures of us sitting in a giant pool of warm water trying to rinse the mud off of us. Darn. Well, 35 minutes of rinsing the mud out of my bathing suit, 2 sessions of scalp-scrubbing hair shampooing, 5 disgustingly muddy q-tips used to clean my ears, and a somehow muddy white towel that I used to dry off after my shower later, it was time for dinner. Delicious fried noodles and dumplings is what I chose and it was a lovely way to end the day.

And here is a picture of the adorable baby shoes I got last night: