China, Yangshuo: Cycling for Scenery

A river cruise down the Li River was in store for us when we travelled from Guilin to Yangshuo. However, this was no ordinary cruise; we boarded a "Chinese boat" for the 5-hour journey to view what is probably one of China's most beautiful and spectacular natural wonders (it's even on their currency, on the 20 RMB note!).

Travelling for one year has meant that we have to stick to our budget as much possible; therefore, we decided to take the Chinese boat cruise instead of an English-language one. The price was half the price of the English cruise and, since we only wanted to relax and enjoy the scenery during the trip, seeing all of the massive limestone peaks jutting up into the sky along the banks of the river, we didn't feel that an English-speaking tour guide was necessary.

Half an hour later, four of us were sweaty and exhausted from the hard work we had put in, mimicking a hamster

The boat journey was amazing despite the sky being a bit hazy and overcast. The weather gave the scenery a somewhat mystical feel and we enjoyed watching the peaks roll by nonetheless. During the cruise, we tried to speak to some of the Chinese people on our boat, which was a funny experience. We managed to find one young man from Chengdu who spoke English and translated for us when we conversed with a group of loud (and possibly tipsy) Chinese businessmen on a work outing.

Lunch on the boat was really disgusting. It didn't help that we saw the cooks on the back of the boat, rinsing all of the meat, fish and vegetables with water from the Li River, and ripping poor turtles out of their shells. The river was actually pretty clean but it still grossed us out quite a bit, thinking that our food and dishes were washed with river water. When they served the food, the first dishes brought to our table were deep-fried shrimps (miniscule creatures with heads, eyes and all) and tiny deep-fried fish. Kyle decided to be a vegetarian that day and, after Dan tried the shrimp and fish, he wished he had decided the same, because they tasted G-R-O-S-S.

After the cruise, we had to walk through a really long market full of Chinese tourists. There were so many stalls and so many people that we had to use our large backpacks to "nudge" people out of the way. We have found that the Chinese are sometimes quite pushy people and it felt good assimilating with them on this occasion.

The owner of Yangshuo Culture House, Wei, was waiting for us when we got to the end of the market. He was very kind and picked us up to take us to his guesthouse. When we arrived and checked into our room, Wei helped us organise and book some of our onward travel plans, including our overnight bus tickets to Guangzhou, which would be our next stop in China.

Yangshuo Culture House was an excellent place to stay. The rooms were top quality, very modern and clean, and the guesthouse was small enough to retain a cosy feel. The place was run by Wei and his family; although his wife and mother did not speak English, they were full of smiles and giggles.

One of the best things about the guesthouse was that they provided food to all of their guests. We had large meals in the evenings, with all of the guests seated around a circular table that was chock full of tasty Chinese dishes. We had arrived in Yangshuo in the late afternoon and, after relaxing for a while in front of Wei's large TV, it was time for dinner. We were surprised the first evening, when we went downstairs and joined about 9 other guests for the meal; it was an enjoyable evening meeting new people and talking about everyone's travel experiences and future plans.

During our stay at Yangshuo Culture House, we met a friendly Australian family (they brought one of their aunts and a grandma with them) from Sydney, a couple from London, two Irish girls (Sandra and Collette) and a girl from Wales (Rachel). Sandra and Collette had also stayed in Backstreet Youth Hostel in Guilin, where we stayed. The atmosphere in Wei's house was congenial and we didn't want to leave when our time there was finally up.

Yangshuo is a laid-back town located just 65km south of Guilin and has been popular with backpackers for many years, as well as accommodating Chinese tourists. The main reason why people come to this little town is to experience the amazing limestone peaks that spread for miles around, and this is best done by bicycle.

So, in order to see Yangshuo and its surrounding sights, we decided to hire bicycles with Sandra, Collette and Rachel. The ride to our first stop, a large banyan tree that was well over 1000 years old, was pleasant with the peaks around us framing beautiful green rice paddy fields. When we arrived at the banyan tree, we shared an experience that will be one to remember (hence writing in this journal, haha).

As we walked around the ancient tree, we saw many transparent inflated balls floating on a small pond adjacent to the tree. Upon closer inspection, we noticed that there were people inside the balls, trying to balance and stand up, or to walk inside them (like a hamster does). It looked like tons of fun and we walked over to see how much it would cost.

Half an hour later, four of us (Sandra opted to take photos for all of us) were sweaty and exhausted from the hard work we had put in, mimicking a hamster! It seemed that, as soon as one of us regained our balance inside a ball, the rope attached from the bank of the pond to the ball pulled tight and knocked us over. Check out the photos to see some action shots from this hilarious and fun activity.

Our next stop during our bicycle ride was Moon Hill. Moon Hill is an amazing limestone peak with a half-moon shape (Moon Cave) carved out, from wind and erosion, of the top portion of the peak. We hiked 45 minutes up to the cave and were granted splendid views of the surrounding countryside. After a brief rest to take photos, we continued hiking to the top of the peak and arrived at the summit, which was an area smaller than most living rooms. There, we had a 360 degree view and we were able to take in the true beauty of the area. There were so many limestone peaks surrounding us; it was fantastic!

Many women were working at Moon Hill, selling cold drinks, postcards and other items. They would follow us up and down the peak, trying to get us to buy something from them. At one point, a really old woman (must have been at least 70!) walked for about 20 minutes up some steep stairs, just to sell us a bottle of water at the top. It was impressive how hard the women worked to make money for their families to get by.

Cycling back to town, we decided to take the "scenic route". We don't know about you, but every time we have chosen a more scenic route in our travels, it has always ended up taking a lot more time. Normally, this would not be a problem, but since Wei and his family have dinner waiting at the guesthouse promptly at 6pm, we were in a high state of panic at 5:45pm when we were still smack dab in the middle of rice paddy fields and limestone peaks.

After a quick phone call to Wei to tell him that we would be late, he told us (being the nice guy that he is) not to worry and that dinner would be delayed for us. Our arrival at the guesthouse was around 6:45 and Wei kept his promise - there were several steaming plates of delicious Chinese food waiting on the common table. After dinner, all of Wei's guests settled down in the common room to watch one of our DVD's, "Notes on a Scandal", which was a very good film liked by everyone in the room.

The next day, we hired bicycles again, but instead of riding to our first stop, we loaded the bicycles onto a bamboo raft and took a leisurely 45 minute cruise down the Li River to a nearby village, Fuli. The raft was half-submerged in the water and we thought for sure that we would sink. Five Westerners and four bikes (Rachel didn't cycle on the second day due to a hurt knee), a driver and engine on a few pieces of bamboo was a lot of weight, but we made it to Fuli dry and in one piece.

Fuli village was an old, poor village with much charm. The small and narrow lanes in the village gave it a quaint feel and the village was very quiet. We walked all the way through the narrow streets to a large weekend market where a lot of trading was going on. There, we saw many disgusting things, including a chicken getting its throat slit in front of us before having its blood drained into a bowl beside it. The chicken was later thrown into a basket in which we saw it still wriggling a few minutes later. Whilst we didn't capture a photo of the chicken getting its throat slit, we did snap one of it in the basket afterwards and you can see this and many other gross photos in our album. In addition to the gross-out photos, you will also see some great shots of villagers hanging out in the streets, people busy getting suctioned for medicinal purposes, or unhappy children picking out a box-full of baby ducks and chicks for future meals.

Once we had our fill of Fuli village, we cycled back to Yangshuo. After this second day of riding, we were all pretty exhausted, but a few of us decided to walk around Yangshuo in order to not miss the sights. Sandra joined us and we walked along the town's famous West Street, which was lined with souvenir shops, hotels, bars, cafes and restaurants. On this street, Sandra tried green pea ice cream and let us each have a bite. It was not very tasty and probably would take a lot of getting used to. We then bought a cup of some kind of gloopy dessert that looked like snot, but was actually alright when you ate it – we shared this one with Sandra.

After we left West Street, we stumbled upon a Chinese outdoor gym area, with many metal pieces of exercise equipment along the path. Dan and Sandra gave some of the exercises a go and were both quite lucky not to have hurt themselves. At one point, they nearly fell on their faces on a treadmill of sorts when they couldn't get it to stop.

While Dan and Sandra were "exercising", Kyle was challenged to a game of ping pong by an 11 year-old Chinese boy. No formal games were played but, after half an hour of playing, the little boy definitely had the advantage over Kyle. The sky started darkening and we heard thunder, and that was our signal to get back to the guesthouse as quickly as possible. Fortunately, we made it back just in time to miss the heavy showers.

Our overnight bus to Guangzhou didn't leave on that final evening until 9pm, so we were able to have one more dinner with our friends at Yangshuo Culture House. We were sad to leave the pleasant little town, but we said our goodbyes to everyone anyway and thanked Wei and his family for such a great experience. When our bus pulled up at 9pm, we were shocked. The bus was swanky, a large Volvo bus with three rows of bunk beds; we felt as though we were travelling in style yet again in China!