Yangshuo Oct 26 - 29

Another town - another bullet train!

For our first full day in Yangshuo we took a taxi to Jinlong bridge and paid for a bamboo raft down the river! Each bamboo raft could fit two people in chairs and a guide standing behind with a bamboo pole to row down the river. Our guide was very funny and had us do all these poses on the bow of the boat for photos and let us hold his pole and pretend to steer the boat. Although it was damp and foggy, we had a good time rafting and seeing the amazing karst mountains.

After the tour the four of us decided to get lunch at a restaurant just near where we finished our rafting tour. We had a dish called Beer Fish which is a local speciality and is fish with veggies and a sauce made from beer. It was super delicious! Afterwards we rented bicycles from the restaurant to ride back to Yangshuo with the hope of stopping to climb Moon Hill on the way. While we were too late to climb Moon Hill and still return the bikes before 6pm, it was cool seeing the mountain with such a large half circle missing from the center. (No good photo, sorry.) Back in the city we explored the touristy city center and found a fun food market and ate fried noodles and dumplings. My favorite had pumpkin and corn inside - a yummy combo.

On the 28th we decided to go rafting on a different river and took a bus to the starting location: Xingping. These rafts were larger and made from huge plastic pipes that were painted blue. The boats fit 4 people and the driver used a loud motor instead of a stick. While the weather was much better - first sun we had seen in 2 weeks - none of us really enjoyed the tour as much as the one from the day before. At the end, we did get to see the mountains that are on the 20¥ bill though!

After returning to Yangshuo, Thomas and I decided to hike the small mountain in the middle of the town for a view of the sunset. It was an absolutely amazing sunset and definitely one of the top highlights of our whole trip so far. My photos probably won't do it justice. It was the best ending to our time in Yangshuo.