YangShou

Well, this is where we began today.... on the road again. There we were, riding on a bus through China when suddenly we saw it.... the tip of the Mountain View we had been waiting for since planning the trip in our Utah Kitchen!!! This photo happened only moments before the Li River Cruise. Our Guilin bike tour yesterday had already begun to pull us out of "China" and into clean refreshing beautiful heavenly sites.--My lungs are clearing up..and we met some awesome people to chat with on this trip. Some UK Friends laughed it up with us about washing our our clothes in Xian, hanging them to dry, and finding that they smelled like poo..aka worse than before they were washed. ha ha Good times. I'm glad we met fellow travelers who were really soaking Guilin in as much as we were.

The road trip ended and we stepped off the bus awe struck at the beauty around us. Starting from left to right..we've got Denmark friend black shirt, Denmark friend stripes, and me! ha ha I saw this picture and found it hilarious that my backpack is present but I in fact am missing! I wish we would have exchanged names, but we made good friends with these two guys and gave them our contact info...so hopefully we hear from them again!

There were two types of vessels to take and we chose the bamboo rafts!! The one on the left is ours, if you look super close you will see me behind those two tall guys. I wondered what the cruise would be like considering it was just a raft. It was so smooth and relaxing! I loved it, and I know Curtis loved every bit of it!!

And we begin our journey with a picture of this guy. He is very cute...but taken.

Aw..yes. Gorgeous isn't it. The bus and the cruise routed through Wada hostel cost us 130 Chinese Y. Not a bad price, and honestly I was not disappointed, and neither were the fellows with us. I have heard that you should NOT use the tour groups right off the train station, but stay at Wada Hostel, and go through them and you will not have to worry about it! The only thing I would suggest is staying in Yangshou verses paying again to head back to Guilin. Yangshou is worth the stay.

Glossy water, beautiful mountains, bamboo trees lining the shore...It was heavenly. The picture above does not deliver justice to the beauty we had. Not to mention, we had a gorgeous sunny day to make the trip absolutely perfect! A beautiful breeze around every corner...

fun stops along the way...

Just dazzling views.....

We really could not capture it with our camera, but look at the views we did get.

Just stunning. The layers went on and on..

There was sooo much to see though, and so we chatted with our fun friends from Denmark. We found we are traveling in opposite directions, and so we exchanged tons of information to help each other out. One of mine and Curtis's favorite things has been meeting friendly people along the way. For us we have found so many people who share common interests with us, and seem to travel very similarly to us. It's been very informative to talk to others, its been comforting to find similar experiences..It's the best.

More cool mountains

Whoa..so cool in real life

On the Li-river cruise you will pass by what is considered some of China's most famous scenic views, including a mountain view that can be seen on all ¥20 bills.

It was pretty windy :-)

but the wind was nice, and had it been snowing I'm not sure it would have made a difference because the views were so awesome!!

DENMARK!!!

:-) Sometimes when you travel for a bit its easy to get tired, but the best moments come when you are doing cool things because no matter how stinky things can be you have a blast despite it. Our friends told us that married, dating, and platonic travel all comes with its hills, and deep getting-to-know-you moments. Just knowing that made every thing light and breezy again, and look how cute we are together! 

Curtis Take: I look goofy in this picture.

Enjoy the photos without captions. We took so many, and I added a ton so...there you go. Hong Kong's internet has been so fast so I am taking advantage!!

Us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He looks look a ninja in training. Said in Mr Miyagi's voice, "You must first learn to master the Cormorant Fishing Stance, only then will you have the power to become The Crane and defeat your enemies." The Li River cruise makes a stop for tourism purposes. You can use the toilets (holes) out back with curtains, you can pay 5 Y to hold birds many locals use for fishing, and wear a cool hat...

You can by some tasty crabs... ???

that they will then fry for you on the spot...,

and if you are lucky enough to be with someone cute like my husband they will actually eat it, AND give you this pose for a camera shot..which is priceless to me.

Second pose attempt

Initial bite

Got what he paid for...mmmm crunchy fried stuff! Boy does that look refreshing and tasty. Wish I could have joined him and other adventurous travel friends, but unfortunately I filled up on tasty almond crackers and delicious lemon muffins..so there was no room left for non-appetizing taste-singeing experiences like this one.  It was really fun to stand around watching people try interesting things fried on sticks though!!

Curtis Take: It was like eating rocks!

look at the bamboo on the shore line... so awesome!

Ooow oow make sure to get a good look at this photo. This was something I did not think I would be able to describe, so I'm glad it was caught on camera. On the Li River there is so much beauty and then suddenly there is a HUGE black void. Everything just ends instantly. We all tried to keep left,  but I think a few boats were lost. Imagine if Columbus had traveled east instead of west...the Earth is round theory would still be a sham. 

We love the panoramic setting on our camera. This is how it looked all the time.

Me and my bag of goodies!!

Something fun to see along the cruise are the water buffalo. There is a cute baby feeding.

Look at the sun shoot through the mountains!!

Here are some more fun friends..Andy, and our UK friend. Andy is living out here, and our UK friends are traveling for a few months. They are headed over to South America too!!

Well, the cruise ended, but they sold us another tour for Yangshou while on the cruise. We were off to more fun..

Here's our vehicle! You may not be able to make it out, but that big trailer, that is about to carry all of us is being pulled by a motorcycle!!

Denmark and UK friends..and Curtis

Denmark!!!! Me and Andy! I like shouting Denmark!

Some construction we passed with bamboo scaffolding!

We made it safely, and parted with some of our friends to drop our bags at the Youth Hostel 11. It was a great place with Wifi in the room, and I'm glad we stayed. The movies they played in the lobby were strange, and so we did not hang out there much but it was sooo nice.

It's become a common thing to have the shower and bathroom combined. Do I like it? I forgot to answer that question from earlier posts. If the mirror is not in the bathroom then its fine..., or if I don't have to use the bathroom. It's not terrible though. The great thing about this place is that it is super cheap to get your our room, and if you do, you can shower in the shared showers, and use your bathroom for other bathroom things. What is a shared shower? It is an enclosed private bathroom, but in the hallway that anyone can use.

After dropping our bags off and previewing the hostel... toilet, shower, sink...Check! We headed off for our next tour!

The tour began in the local village. The houses are made of mud bricks. The colorful papers are warrior symbols warding off bad spirits. The mirror above the door is to reflect bad things from entering the home. It's amazing to see where these people live. You will see people with super expensive attire living in mud houses..with TV. Some.

Someone opened there house to us, and let us see what it was like inside. This is the kitchen. Such a humble place. It was amazing to see how these people survived, and think of all that I have.

Better view of the kitchen

This is the family room....

AND of course this is the view of the family room from outside.

Touring the houses was so interesting to me. I just couldn't imagine it. I think to myself, I know I could live there. I know I could camp for the rest of my life, but I don't think I would. 5 minutes away there are these ginormous skyscrapers, super nice hostels for little money, it's not what matters most there maybe. I have thought it over in my mind, over and over...it can't be because they have no money. They work so hard, and sell so many things, and build bamboo rafts and other amazing things...why mud huts? why not bamboo huts? maybe it doesn't keep the water out. I'm not sure, it's just so unreal. I would stay here just to help build different houses... to put better plumbing in. What would it mean to these people to live in my house?

After being seriously humbled we were off to use the locals crafty bamboo rafts.

So amazing. Look at the colors, and the view, and the cute man.

It was so beautiful here.

So, this is me...huffing a little about jumping off the bridge. Curtis explained to me that we should and could jump off the bridge into this super deep water. I thought it was a fun idea, I even got my swimsuit on, but it was colder as it got later.., and Curtis was still game. Meh..I passed.

Everywhere in China Cute girls get all dressed up and get their pictures taken by friends or boy friends. It's very funny, but look how cute she is.

We took the rafts to Rice Paddies, where we got to pick rice!

Then we got to stop and feed the water buffalo. Some how the Water-buffalo pictures were placed at the bottom of the post..so you will have to read about the fun adventures we had towards the end!!

Curtis asked the Raft guy if he could row.

He is so awesome, and willing to really get his hands dirty. He was doing a great job, but the raft guy eventually took back the stick because if you look closely all the other rafts are gone. The raft guy had to work 3 times as hard so we could catch up and not miss the fishing show! It was worth it though. We had fun, and the raft guy was super nice...we think...we did not know what he was saying to us as it was all in Chinese.

The fishing show! It was so cool. These birds would jump in the water and bring fish back to the boat. The method is a sting tied around the throat to prevent swallowing. It does not hurt the bird, but does not allow the cormorants to swallow. The trainer takes fish and throws them into the water. The birds dive in after them, and then come back to the boat and the trainer takes the fish and repeats the method. After training the trainer feeds the birds to keep the birds loyal.

4 cormorants sitting on a raft.

Curtis Take: One fell off to take a bath.
Julie: Do you mean baft?
Curtis: What are you talking about? No, one will get it.
Julie: Bath does not rhyme. :-)

Look at the cool buildings made of mud bricks!! Very interesting landscape as you get close. The people also have created dining rafts outside there houses to eat and cruise on the river with..still confused about the mud bricks.

We ran into our Denmark friends again!

Curtis poetically posing..deep in thought!

So I've got my feet up and I'm not standing! I know I'm a baby...but earlier..like 3 minutes before this I saw some people fighting off a snake on there raft.

This is the type of picture you get with a crappy camera..so awesome.

This is a locally made lift to bring the rafts back up the river.

Looky here..what have we found? It's our three-minutes-ago reptilian friend. You should have seen the raft guys beating him off their boat. Still think I'm a baby?

Look closely!!! That plus symbol at the top of the bridge is my very own Curtis!!

This is right before he dove off and plunged into the "refreshing" water! He said it was warmer than a regular lake. He had a ton of fun!!!! I'm glad he loves to do things like this!!

It was a great first day in YangShou. The cruises and tours were exactly what we were looking for. This place is in the top five worlds most beautiful places!!! But before you go away...read further and look at the water buffalo. More to come, Yangshou has a ton to offer!!

Whoa Mama our close up experience with water buffalo!

It was fun to be so close. This was right before I met the baby that belongs to this Mama. The baby came over to snuggle? or push me away from his mom a few times with his head so he could go feed. The baby was a little overly protected of his mom.

They gave us some food and told us to only give a piece or so to each WB or they would get pushy. I fed one and it was fun. They don't bite, but man o man do they want the greens. They started to follow me everywhere!!!

I gave up my leaves to Curtis, and got some shots of him feeding the WBs. He had fun and was giving them more than their fair share. The guide saw that I did not have any leaves so he came over and handed me a bushel, and when Curtis's Hungry Hungry Buffalo saw what I had they came over to me..

Curtis grabbed the camera and took shots of me running from the animals that would not go away. The farmers also thought this was funny, probably amped up because of my hair, and they let the buffalo chase me!!!! So...there I am running away screaming like a girl, like a girl would do if a few water buffalo were chasing her!!