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November 24, 2005
Li River Excursion
My last full day in Guangxi Province started out at 1000 with a bus ride to Xingping with a fellow traveler, Alina from Scotland. The one hour, 5.5 Yuan bus ride was pretty uneventful except the scattering of cute children we saw along the way.
Once in Xingping we took a short, 2 Yuan ride down to the river boats in a three wheeled death machine with no suspension…vowing to walk back if we lived to make that decision. A bit of confusion and many attempts by vendors to sway us into purchasing some trinkets or foodstuffs, we boarded a 15m long shallow-hulled boat with a the tour guide, the boat captain, a nice French couple, a Spanish woman from the Canary Islands and a few Chinese tourists who did not speak English.
Soon we set off on our 50 Yuan, two hour cruise (“…a two hour cruise…”) up the Li River towards Guilin to view up close and personal the breathtaking limestone mountains. Within twenty minutes we pulled over for what seemed to be a “these are my friends and relatives selling food, buy something” break. Another twenty minutes later and we were still standing there wondering what was going on. That is when Alina interrogated our guide and learned that the boat was not licensed to transport foreigners—you see, a lookout for the boat captain had seen a police patrol boat coming down the river and we had to (literally) wait for a “the coast is clear” signal.
Once back on the river we got into the thick of some stunning scenery. Lucky for us, the day was clear and sunny. There are many fantastic photos in the photo gallery (or soon will be) if you care to have a peak. Fan-fucking-tastic.
Occasionally the boat captain would start pointing to specific mountains and described in Chinese what the individual mountains were named, a brief history, etc. Most of us just looked at the peaks in awe and somewhat confused.
The boat trip ends after two or so hours and we all head up for Xingping Highstreet on foot where the bus to Yangshuo awaits Alina and I. Since we didn’t dare take the death scooter again, and we didn’t pay enough attention to the route to and fro, we became predictably lost. All in good fun. Half an hour later we board the bus packed with domestic tourists and begin the slow journey back to Lisa’s Café…stopping frequently to pickup and drop off locals.
All bitching aside, the trip was amazing…I have these images of the jagged, unique limestone peaks etched in my brain…probably forever.
Posted by stu at November 24, 2005 01:41 PM