Yangshou Day 1

Well, if I'd had known the personal guides were this cheap and this good, I 
would have gotten one in every city! Once again tripadvisor.com steered me right 
and my guide Amy is the best. She's probably about 50 years old and has lived in 
Yangshou all her life. She also speaks fairly good English. She picked me up at 
9 AM and we walked over to rent two bikes for the morning. We then set off to 
explore the countryside for about the next hour and a half. This is place is 
beautiful with these "mountains" cropped up all around the town. They're these 
limestone structures called karsts that happened many years ago after a bad 
earthquake and flood. It makes the whole area very spooky and sort of surreal 
looking. Kind of like being on a movie set. So as luck would have it (I still 
think that Big Buddha is a little ticked), I get a flat tire but luckily all 
along these bike trails are these old (and I mean like 80 year old) guys that 
fix your flats and this cute little guy takes his time taking the tube out (it 
had a hole in it) checking oit for leaks, etc.) all for $2! While he's fixing 
it, this little 90 year old lady keeps bugging me to buy these flowers she's 
selling. The whole thing is a hoot! After getting the bike fixed and cycling the 
countryside, we stop at a place along the Yulong river where I board this cool 
bamboo raft for a two hour "cruise" down the river while this driver with a long 
bamboo pole is pushing me along and steering the raft. I felt like a Pharoah 
floating down the Nile! Meanwhile, Amy has taken the bikes and gotten a truck to 
transport them to the end of my 2 hour river cruise. Very convenient! 
 
After the cruise, we hop back on the bikes and head over to this restaurant to 
grab lunch. As I always like to eat what the locals eat, I try their beer fish 
platter. A fresh fish (head and all!) cooked in beer with rice and vegetables. 
Very tasty! I didn't eat the head, since it was mostly bones, but the rest was 
great. We then start cycling some more and Amy asks if I'd like to see her 
village where she lives. I figure, how cool is that? So we veer off the road 
down this path and we get to her house which is a cluster of 4 or 5 little homes 
(in essence her village) all surrounded around some open famr land. She invites 
me into her house and we eat these pomelos (kind of like a grapefruit but 
several layers of skin to peel off. I get to meet her husband, who had just come 
in from working the fields (he's a farmer by trade) and she then shows me around 
the fields and she let me have some fresh kunquat and persimmon fruits right off 
her trees! I had never eaten either of those so that was really neat. We then 
pedal back into town and I take about a 2 hour break back at my hostel to just 
chill. We then meet back up for dinner and go to this local place almost right 
across the street from my hostel where they cook in these clay pots. Great food 
but very spicy! We then walk around the town in the area where no cars are 
allowed and lots of shops and restaurants. It was funny to stop and bargain with 
some of the people and watch them chase you down as you walk away continuing to 
lower the price as you keep saying no! 
 
We then drive over to this evening light show that the town puts on every night 
which describes the history of the town and a love story of two kids who wanted 
to marry but werne't alowed (sort of their Romeo and Juliet). Amy got me the 
tickets and got m,e to my seat and then I just met her after the show. So I get 
lucky and sit next to these 3 older women from Singapore who speak both English 
and Chinese. They were so friendly and were interpreting the Chinese for me 
throughout the show. They even had snacks which they shared with me (sort of 
sour fruits, but they were good) and then as it got cooler during the evening, 
they bring out this flask of some sort of Asian whiskey and ask me to have a 
drink with them, so... when in Rome! It burned all the way down my throat but it 
warmed me up quick! Thank goodness I had my bottle of water with me to chase it! 
After the show, Amy took me back and dropped me off at my hostel. So if you do 
the math, I paid her about $1.50 an hour for her services. That's incredible. 
Tomorrow morning 
 she's picking me up early so we can catch a sunrise over the karst mountains. 
Should be awesome. 
 
Hope everyone is doing well and that your Thursday is off to a great start! 
 
Jeff