Get up, pack up, check out, eat breakfast, load suitcases and baggage onto bus, go to Li River and put Vee’s hat, purchased from the ‘Great Wall’, on our guides head – check. This reminded me of a phrase comedian Peter Kay used “booked it, packed it and f*cked off”.
Here are some other gems from the great comedian:-
Here are some other gems from the great comedian:-
• When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bike. Then I realized that The Lord doesn't work that way, so I stole one and asked him to forgive me.
• My Dad used to say 'always fight fire with fire', which is probably why he got thrown out of the fire brigade.
• I saw six men kicking and punching the mother-in-law. My neighbour said 'Are you going to help?' I said 'No, Six should be enough.'
• If we aren't supposed to eat animals, then why are they made out of meat?
• I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers.
Li Zhao Wei
The boats line the river three abreast and it must be a bit hectic in peak season. Fortunately, in the depths of winter there were just 4 boats taking the 4 hour cruise down the river to Yangshuo, with lunch included.
Kitchen on the rear lower deck
After nine days we'd perfected the Chinese stance for photos
Carlo and Vee
We set off down the Lijiang (jiang means river in Putuonga) sailing towards The Karst Peaks
Fengcong karsts or peak cluster karsts have cone shape peaks and best found near Xingping town
Fenglin Karsts rise nearly vertically like trees 30m-80m and are widely found around Guilin town
Li river originates from Cat Mountain in Xing'an County, north of Guilin. It flows 437km passing Yangshou, Pingle and Wuzhou into the West River.
There were plenty of ducks on the Li river and birds of prey circling above, none in this picture though!
A.k.a 100 miles art gallery due to a lot of poems, literary works, paintings, drawings and photography emanating from this stretch of the river.
Han Yu, a great poet in the Tang Dynasty had written the most popular poems praising the Lijiang
Foreign visitors are charged more than Chinese tourists and sail in separate boats
Lijiang is shallow and hence all the boats are flat bottomed
The hills are often described as grotesque - seems a little unfair..
The hills were lush and green
click to be transported there
Nine Horses Galloping on Fresco Hill - as the guide said you need a good imagination..
Click to admire
The local work force
Arriving in Yangshuo we're mobbed by local market traders (hiding in this photo)
On dry land Li gives Stef and Vee a shrink wrapped fish for New Year - we're still not sure what to do with it...
Yangshou is a vibrant and interesting town and you could spend a few days there - we had 20 mins
Plenty of local craftsman, cool bars and restaurants
West Street
And that's it for the China trip. We will definately go back to Guilin and Yangshuo in the summer for a w/e or more, being 90 mins from HK. We'd probably rent motobikes and see a bit more of the countryside. From Yangshuo a taxi picked us up and we speeded straight to the airport to fly back home. A top trip and we'll visit a lot of these places again in more depth.
Up coming blogs:-
- Our first Chinese New Year in Hong Kong
- Hong Kong - Transport
- Hong Kong - Kowloon Park
- Hong Kong - Motorbikes
- Australia 1 - Sydney
- Australia 2 - Melbourne
- Australia 3 - Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef
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