Tonight's dinner?
After a very pleasant breakfast and watching two of the
hotel staff performing their tai chi exercises in the garden outside the
massive, marble reception area, we set forth for the Li River cruise. The morning was warm but very overcast – what
else is new? – so we weren’t able to enjoy the karsts in their full
splendour. However, the mist and
greyness did give the limestone mountains a very mystical appearance. Our boat was very luxurious, with first class
and premium economy (our group) in separate rooms upstairs, and economy class
down below. The rooms were very nice,
with soft leather seating, tables and plenty of leg room. Refreshments, and souvenirs, were available
for purchase and everyone was most disappointed and upset when we were told
that the snake wine was not available.
Both our tour and local guides had advised us to have a large breakfast,
because the lunch served as part of our cruise deal, would be very basic! One of us took a couple of bananas from
breakfast and also packed a few biscuits.
Cat also took the opportunity to make friends with Xu Fei, our tour
guide, and was honoured to receive a jade pendant.
The cruise took us through some very spectacular scenery,
well, what we could see anyway, and part way along the river, the many large
cruise boats were joined by hundreds of the small bamboo punts – these came
with chairs and long outboard motors – which are hired by locals to travel the
most scenic part of the river. We also
saw a number of water buffalo feeding along the banks of the river.
Our arrival at the disembarkation town was met not only by
the usual hawkers, but also by local cormorant fishermen who made more money
from tourists than from fishing. We were
also given forty minutes to help the local economy in the markets and our
meeting point was the local KFC!
Needless to say, McDonalds wasn’t very far away. While we were waiting for our guide, we
managed to convince a couple of very determined lady hawkers that we didn’t
want to buy postcards and they then became quite “normal” and friendly. Cat nearly had a nervous breakdown and had to
be restrained when one lady indicated she would eat him, thinking he was a
dog. Fortunately, my Chinese language
skills came in very handy and it was quickly pointed out that Cat was a
mol! Much understanding and laughter, then
we were also able to decipher than one lady was Lo Lo to the little boy with
her.
We travelled back to Guilin
by bus, passing through the mainly rural area with its farms of rice paddies
and vegetables, as well as what appeared to be plant nurseries. The main form of transport for the locals of Guilin is by motor
scooter or motor bike, with these vehicles being used to transport complete
families as well as produce. Motor bikes
can become small trucks that can carry very large loads. We did wonder where the cage of dogs was
headed …
Dinner tonight is at a local hot pot restaurant, but as one
of us is suffering from man flu and the other said she wouldn’t be eating the
hot pot, we decided to have a quiet evening and room service.
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