Guilin- Limestone!

The physical setting of this charming hamlet (750,000 – it is like the Wyalusing of China) was sublime. Spectacular karsts erupting in fantastic shapes surround the city and the lovely jade Li River flows through the heart of town. The river banks are very well developed with beautifully landscaped promenades. There are a couple of pedestrian centers – these actually prohibit cars! We booked the bamboo raft excursion to Yongshuo – it must really be the place since 50,000 taxi and bus company touts were pushing it so hard as we walked anywhere.

 



I would have photographed this formation but I couldn't see it





Who's thirsty?



As we didn’t arrive until almost midnight, we made a late start on our initial exploration of the city. We decided to head out to Reed Flute Cave. This is the most extraordinary cave we have ever seen – not for its size, shape or geologic formations, but because you can touch EVERYTHING. Everything – the stalactites, cave shields, drapery, the pools, good lord the pools! We saw everyone dipping hands and feet and then people filling water bottles and then proceed to DRINK from them!!!!!! DRINKING THE CAVE FOOT WATER! We must all pray it never comes to armed conflict between the US and China, because we are completely convinced of their absolute invincibility. Nukes would only make the stronger – and glow-in-the-dark.

The cave was also the most Vegas-tastic thing ever. Everywhere in China we have seen that passion for fun and fruity lighting effects – neon rain down the sides of skyscrapers, glowing sidewalks, color shifting city walls, and now this cave. Adding to the “fun” was the ear-splitting chorus of thousands of plastic whistles purchased by tour groups from the hawkers at the entrance. Once upon a time they sold actual reed flutes – for which the cave was named. One hopes they won’t feel the need to re-christen it plastic trash flute cave. The cave is a non-smoking environment, but as the tour lasts about an hour, they realize this may be unrealistic and have liberally provided ashtrays throughout.



Next morning, we were up and out early taking a bus to the pier and then boarding our “bamboo” – pvc raft. Some pilots in quest of verisimilitude? Or succumbing to irony, had painted their pvc pipes green. Whatever, this was an absolutely idyllic way to travel – the river was gorgeous, the scenery lived up to its billing, the fresh breeze and quiet were the first of their kind since??? Corpus Christie? San Fran had cool breezes, but we haven’t had any quiet in a couple of months.

We drifted down the river, relaxing and enjoying the scenery in company with two women from Berlin. They were charmed to discover the bear was a Germanophile with a bit of a crush on Tomas Mueller. We saw herds of water buffalo grazing on the river banks and then at one point a herd drifted into the river right by us – swirling eddies of muck flowing from their hides and back ends making us more careful about avoiding splashes of river water!

The last section of the river into Xiping was still lovely, but less peaceful as we had caught up to a large group of families – all of whom had purchased the wretched water squirters from the ubiquitous peddlers on the shore. They filled these with river water and were joyously hosing down all their friends and other family groups – sadly for us, a couple of groups of young boys thought it would be fun to spray the laowai with the buffalo poo water. They were shocked when everyone on our boat shrieked at them to stop. We have tried to be friendly, nice Americans, however much we cry-baby in this blog, but the feces water was a bridge too far – yes, people were dipping water bottles into the river and drinking here too.

We caught a motorcycle tram into the town of Xiping from the “pier” – a word which here means rock-strewn landfill with a tumbled pile of concrete blocks precariously leading to the road above. A bus took us the rest of the way into Yangshuo. Here at last was the tourist trap of our dreams! Real pedestrian zones with NO vehicles, stall after stall of tacky trash Westerners want to purchase in China, not 2,000 blankets with socks, pirated DVDs and rhinestone barrettes. The streets were lined with adorable cafes, teahouses and restaurants – miserably overpriced, but all offering ice cream and filter coffee! The spell cast by the variety of actual vegetarian options was almost enough to allow us to overlook the three year old boy who dropped his pants in the middle of a row of café tables and let go right there. His family has clearly raised the young prince in the firm conviction that the world is his toilet, and the rest of us should count ourselves blessed to have beheld him in all his glory.

The way back to Guilin was charmingly rural with more water buffalo and rice fields in various states of harvesting. Our aviation based poverty and general fed-upness with trying to get around led us to hunker down in pretty Guilin until we moved on to Hong Kong.