Xi'an and Beyond: Continued

We made one last village stop on our trip down the Li River.
The people were so nice and glad to see us.
These people had a pool table in their front yard.
I think they used it more as a dining table.


Home grown bacon.

When we got back to the boat, our captain was sitting on a bamboo raft with another guy.
He motioned for us to get on.
I wasn't sure what was going on, so I called Jerry.
He said to hop on and they would take us for a short ride.

You know my motto, "Go with the flow!"


Our new bamboo boat captain.


He took us around the bend to a place on the bank where a lady had a small camp set up.
And the little old ladies selling stuff were on us like flies on a water buffalo.


She was frying up small fish and taro cakes.


We were kind of skeptical at first bit but decided to try one anyway.


They turned out to be really good...with a nice cold beer.


She kept frying and we kept eating.


After we had our fill of fish and beer, we got back on our original boat.
I don't think she was drunk, we only had one beer...she was just real happy!


We both were.


So we cruised on down the river taking in the beautiful scenery and counting the water buffalos.




What a great trip...Like I said before, "It just got better and better."


Then our boat pulled ashore to a town called Xing Ping.
This lady was waiting for the tourists to get off the boat and take a picture of her with the birds, then she would hit you up for a tip.

Then as Jerry said, a driver was waiting to take us to our hotel about 20 minutes away to a town called Yang Shuo... My new favorite place in China!
Population 30,000.
The first hotel seemed great...Right on the river.
So we checked a couple of different rooms for the view and checked in.
Here's the room.
You just can't beat the view...and only $20 a night.


Beautiful view...and the landscape's not bad either!


This waterfall was just down the street.


Great place for a Kodak moment.


This is West Street.
It got its name because of all the western food shops.
Pizza, steaks, burgers...most of the restaurants catered to the western tourists that came here.
In my six months of being in China, this place has the most foreigners and English speaking Chinese.
I actually had spaghetti carbonara for dinner...and it was good!


Plus plenty of Chinese shops.
This lady is taking the silk worms out of the cocoons.


Then this lady stretches the silk over this bamboo arch.


I was so excited about this place that I was up before sunrise every morning.
This shot is from our balcony.


And then, I would go for a walk along the river and take pictures.











Then we went out and had a real western breakfast.
Bacon, eggs, French toast...

Later we walked around town and met some of the locals.


Global Jim...Global Cafe'

And don't forget the pagodas.





Later, we took a bamboo raft across the river.


There was a man renting out his horse to ride.



And a lot of local fishing boats.











Everywhere we went, people would shout out "bamboo boat?"
Eventually, we decided to go for a ride.
This one old fella stopped us, and we said we wanted to go to Fu Li.
He said "120 kwi"...we talked him down to 70.
Keep in mind that my Chinese is pretty rough... and he spoke NO English.
We still managed.
I have never let the language barrier stop me from doing anything here in China.
If all else failed, I would just call up a Chinese friend to translate for me.
But I didn't need to do that very often.
He gassed up the boat and got another chair, so we could spread out and be comfortable, and we were off.

He kept his cell phone on, so his wife could keep track of him.


Are we having fun yet?


YES


He even let Gloria were his hat...She sure looks like a local to me!!


Every now and then, a cruise ship would pass by full of Chinese tourists.

That away!


This is about as rough as the water ever got.


These people were dressd up for the people on the cruise ship.
They had one guy fishing with his birds too.


It was all part of a show for the people on the big cruise ship.
That's why they pay the big bucks...we got it for free, thanks to our bamboo boat captain.


They even had a floating dock where the locals would do traditional Chinese dances.


Our captain knew they were going to put on this show, so he hung around for us to see it.





What a perfect day!



Warm, sunny and beautyful.


I noticed some water buffalo grazing in the water nearby, so I motioned to our guy to get a little closer, so I could get a good shot of them.


That was just too COOL!


Then, we returned back to Yang Shuo.
In China, it is not customary to tip.
But I had handed our guide a 100 yuan bill and told him to keep the change.
All that haggling for nothing.
Mind you that 100 yuan is about $12.
I thought that was pretty good for 2 hours of pure bliss.


Back in town, we tried to figure out what to have for dinner.


We found a place called Jimmy's Cafe'.
With a name like that you can't go wrong.


We had a local speciality..."Beer Fish."



Ok...that's all I can post tonight.
There's still more to come.
Like Christmas in Yang Shuo!!



Jim