Yangshuo Day 5

Ok, so my lazy day was a tad thwarted by my having to move hostel. When I booked from Guilin I could only get 4 nights in Monkey Jane's and then I booked 3 more in Charming Inn. I only realised late the night before that I had already had the 4 nights. They passed remarkably quickly.

However, as the new hostel was only 100 yards down the road, it was hardly too much effort. I dropped off my things and joined some others for a coffee. I also decided to extend my stay in Yangshuo (pronounced Yangshwa, like WAr) by 2 more nights and get a bus directly to Nanning (near to the Vietnamese border) from here, rather than return to Guilin. I could not extend my stay at Charming Inn, so I booked a third place at a cheap rate. The Chinese holiday finishes and all the rooms drop in price. I paid Y70 at Monkey Jane's, Y80 here, and will pay only Y30 at Showbiz hostel.

I took a walk, hoping to find a quiet river spot. I failed. The Yunlong river was not so easy to reach on foot and I tried and failed to find the path we missed on the bikes. Instead I found dust, touts, motorbikes, and hot hot sun. I met up with Clara and some others for dinner before we set out to the river to watch the cormarent (dunno how to spell that) fishing. We had booked a tour through Showbiz and were dissapointed to find our boat huge and full of trigger happy tourists of every nationality. The boat chugged along the river a little way before meeting the fishing boats. Long narrow wooden boats covered in the larger than I expected dark birds. The boats are manned by just one chap who steers the wheel behind him with his foot, controls the speed with a long bamboo pole in his left hand, and, with another pole in his right hand, gently nudges the birds into the water, and under to swim for fish. When I say gently, I mean violently.

With the lights out, we could see quite well, but it was difficult to take any good pictures (yeah, I thought I might as well join them). The birds were determined enough, but rarely caught anything. Perhaps our boat scared the fish away. The birds certainly were not bothered. When a bird did catch a fish, it would begin to gulp it down before being rudely scooped up by the driver who then, taking the bird by the neck, deposited the fish into his basket.

Eventually we stopped on the shore and the birds jumped off to air off. They stand, proudly opening and wafting their wings to dry off. Of course, at this point they are bombarded by hoards of silly humans crouching and flashing their bright lights. Some of the lucky birds are then lifted up and popped onto the arm of the first willing volunteer, who attempts to smile, while being at the same time a little frightened and perhaps a little repulsed also. Some of the poor Chinese children are forced to accomodate the celebrity birds and no doubt have nightmares for weeks.

After we returned, I took a walk down by the river and sat quietly in a dark spot. As you may have sensed from my tone, I had become tired off sooooo many people and needed some space. I had not really enjoyed my day, began to see recently made friends leaving, and suddenly found myself in a low mood. I made my way back to the hostel and decided to shave for the first time! I gave it a month, and it wasnt exactly working. It took me over an hour (Im no expert with a razor, being used to electric, and i had to use scissors to get it short enough to start!!). I may grow it again, because I cant be bothered to shave all the time. We will see.

I then went out and got drunk, getting in at 3.00. You can probably guess how the next blog entry will start.