Guilin, Yangshou & Ping’an

Taking a boat along the Li River from Guilin to Yangshou took us through spectacular Karst landscape, slightly marred by the huge procession of other boats in front and behind us. We had decided to stay out in the sticks to get away from the backpacker bars and KFCs and though this always seems a great idea when booking up, when you take a taxi ride out of civilisation you begin to have second thoughts. The guest house turned out to be fantastic, nestled right amongst the hills. After a friendly Malaysian tour group left we had the place to ourselves.

The owner of the hotel took us out for an early morning bike ride through the countryside, weaving between rice paddies and remote villages. 5 hours and 30km later we peeled ourselves off the bikes and despite the aches and pains it was certainly one of the highlights of our trip so far. When we got back we found an eight legged lodger in our room, about 20cm long and looking ready to bite :)

Making a hasty retreat back to Guilin, we took a series of local buses out to the rice terraces of Ping’an, known as the ‘Dragon’s Backbone’. Much excitement took over the driver on route and we discovered he had run over an Adder. It must have been highly prized as the conductor scraped it off the floor and put it in the boot for safe keeping, complete with cartoon tyre marks striped across its back.

The rice terraces are a very impressive sight and were being harvested as we arrived. Although we didn’t get to see them in their full glory it was nevertheless interesting to see villagers go about their work. After some cool walks along the terrace paths we stopped off at a local school and kicked some ass in an East vs. West basketball match.  You may think I look twice the height of the other players but I assure you this is just a trick of the camera.

3 comments so far

Mum
October 20th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

Where do I start with all these lovely pictures…..the scenery is stunning….mind you I wouldn’t want to be climbing any of those mountains!!Think the pic of you both in the mountains is lovely, unlike that ‘creepy crawly’what the heck is it?…doesn’t look very friendly, unlike the group of smiley Malaysians….the ladies all look like Suet Wong. Had trouble working out the rice ‘container’ your Dad says it’s bamboo?? I hope you let the kids win the basketball….I love the 2 little cuties. Is that the couple that you met early that got ill?

Mrs Shipton
October 21st, 2008 at 4:22 am

smart arse dad is right, that’s how they cook sticky rice in bamboo in this region. The people in the photo with us are four lovely travelers from Israel, not Caz and Asa but he is all better now and back on the road. We did climb one of those mountains but emmitted the pictures because we both looked so sweaty and disgusting once we’d reached the top….keep the comments coming!

Mum
October 21st, 2008 at 7:50 pm

I’ve looked at the map……..BRILL…….haven’t you travelled a long way?…….I tried following on the world map at home but this is much easier……whats the name of this place that you are flying to on Friday?

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