Yangshuo
Trip Start
May 24, 2008
1
52
63
Trip End
Dec 21, 2008
Yangshuo, Guangxi Zhuang, China
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
I don't think we were prepared for how westernised Yangshuo was. We went to brekky and they served us a full cooked English breakfast - bizarre. Yangshuo seems to be quite popular with backpackers and people that love climbing and there are so many bars and restaurants serving 'western' food that you kind of forget that you are in China. It's a picturesque town set on the Li River and surrounded by lots of small rocky mountains. In the afternoon of our first day we went on a boat ride up the river and saw loads of water buffollo swimming in the water. Cool. Along the river we stopped at a couple of small towns that were not so touristy so good to see.
The next morning we had a Tai Chi lesson with our Tai Chi master. He thought it would be a good idea to teach us in the local park which provided great amusement to the locals who also liked to take photos of us looking silly. Tai Chi is a lot harder than I thought it would be and is apparently the basis for self defence and kung fu. I then did a calligraphy lesson and learnt how to write from 1 to 10 in Chinese.
In the afternoon we hired bikes and with a guide went for a ride out of Yangshuo and along the river through small villages and farms to Moon Hill. It was a really nice ride, very picturesque, but I think I chose the bike with the hardest seat - my bum was sore after about 5 minutes of riding! After cycling Peter went for a physical assessment, acupuncture and therapeutic massage with Dr. Lili, a local Chinese traditional medicine doctor who is very popular with the tourists. The physical assessment involves looking at your tongue and fingernails to see what is wrong with you. Bizarre but it seemed to be spot on.
On our last day in Yangshuo we did a cooking lesson at a local cooking school. First we went to the local
market to get some ingredients - thankfully we didn't go anywhere near the section that appeared to be selling dog meat... The cooking school was a lot of fun and very well organised. We each individually got to cook 5 dishes which we then ate for lunch. Quite yummy.
