Day two of rafting

On the back of the 20 yuan denomination of the chinese money is a picture of these mountains in this exact spot so coming here to see this area was high on our priority list. The second day we were in YangShuo we hired a van to drive us out to this other river where there are actually more of these beautfiul, scenic peaks to see. It took about 45 minutes to get there. It was so amazing to drive through the countryside and see more of this amazing country. The road was barely two lanes wide and we drove through lots of small villages and rice paddies and farms and local homes. Very humble and very humbling. Heidi told us it actually reminded her alot of where she lived when she was on her mission in Portugal. Just small cinder block buildings with what looked like several apartments connected. No running water; just a pump outside where the residents can wash their dishes and clothes.

Here is a fisherman pulled over on the side of the river. That long, skinny little raft looks a little treacherous. Alot of these fishermen use cormorants (birds) to help them catch their fish. They put a ring around the bird's neck so when the bird dives in the river and catches a fish it can't swallow it. Then the bird is trained to fly back to the fisherman where the fish is collected from the bird's mouth.

This was a unique business: they were selling honey. You can see the beehives off to the left of the photo. I don't think I'd like to be hanging out in this tent with that many beehives that close! The honey looked really good -- clear, beautiful amber color and a really cheap price. We were tempted to buy some but we just didn't know how sanitary the bottles were before the honey was filled in so we just took a picutre instead. I loved seeing these snippets of daily life.

More rafting

The rafts on this river were a more heavy-duty version because this was a much bigger river than the river we floated down the day before. This river had quite a strong current and our rafts had small motors on the back where the driver sat and steered us along. There was a lot more "traffic" on this river too. More water buffalos, chinese fishermen, these small tourist rafts and lots of big tour boats. It reminded me a lot of the main channel at Lake Powell. We traveled against the current up the river for about 45 minutes and then turned around and it only took us about 15 minutes to get back to where we started since we were going back with the current.

The water was too swift for the kids to get in and swim and play along the way but it didn't stop them from suiting up and getting wet and trying to get us wet since we were on a separate boat from them -- an easy target!

This photo is a little bit out of focus but I thought it was the most clever of all the tour boats that came by. Isn't that cute... a big gold fish!

Unique signs

We were happy to see that whenever any thing that was written in Chinese had a translation with it, it was always written in English.
I did enjoy the clever translations like this sign on the escalator in the airport. For some reason from this point forward Paul and I were often refered to as "oldsters".

When we checked into our hotel in Yangshuo, we were really impressed with how beautiful and clean our room was. We especially were impressed with our sanitized toilet and the invitation to enjoy and use it "at ease"! So thoughtful!

Most of the restaurants in Yangshuo posted their menus and "specialties of the house" on a poster outside of their restaurant. I didn't take the time to read all of the signs on all of the restaurants but this one definately caught my eye. Needless to say, we didn't stop in for a meal!

Ahhh, relaxing!

Now this is what we came for! To get a peaceful, relaxing ride on a bamboo raft. After biking through all those miles of back country that I have described in the previous posts, we finally got to climb aboard these classic bamboo rafts and get pampered somewhat by our raft drivers. We loaded up ourselves and our bikes on 3 rafts and settled in for a enjoyable hour's worth of just drifting along down this river.
The scenery was stunning and the temperature was perfect underneath our umbrellas and our stomachs were full -- it was really hard to stay awake!

"perfect glass" -- just another day in paradise!

After about 15 minutes of sitting still Colton, Cory and Quincy were well rested and ready for some action. Eric asked his driver if the water was safe for swimming and to prove how good the water was, the driver reached into the river and scooped up a big handful of water and drank it and then pronounced it -- perfect! It took the kids about 2 seconds to change into their swimming suits and start diving in and swimming between the rafts. Even Eric dove in. Paul, Heidi and I resisted the temptation to join them despite lots of enticing. This was really a highlight of the weekend and something I don't think any of us will ever forget!