Hello again from Yangshuo. We've had another very interesting day! We' d booked a taxi for 8am, to take us to Yangdi, about an hour's drive away, so we could get a bamboo raft down the river to Xingping (about a 2 hour journey on the water) then a local bus back to Yangshuo. Sounds simple in theory......but this is China, and nothing seems to be completely straightforward! The taxi turned up on time, and we were just slightly apprehensive when we saw it was the same driver who had collected us from the airport. At least it cleared up one mystery for us - the reason he was driving with his head bowed, looking as though he was asleep, was because he was texting on his mobile phone! Very safe!
Anyway, we reached the end of our journey without mishap, except that, instead of being handed over to our boatman, as the receptionist at the hotel had said we would be (and we were clutching a very important slip of pink paper to give him, which we had been told not to lose under any circumstances), we were ushered into what appeared to be somebody's kitchen - or was it a tea shop? - quite hard to tell the difference. There was a small dog in the doorway, which we had to step over, and some hens in the back kitchen which were flapping about but not going anywhere, so I think they were tied to something, or had their legs tied together. We were told to sit down, and had two glasses of green tea put in front of us, and whilst we sipped away, a heated debate ensued between the woman who served the tea, the taxi driver and another man, with a few gold teeth, who had just wandered in. We didn't know what was going on, but every now and again they seemed to gesticulate wildly in our direction.
After a few minutes, the taxi driver left, the woman carried on sweeping the floor and the other man went back out too. We finished our tea and sat wondering what was going to happen next, when the man with the gold teeth reappeared. He was accompanied by another man, with even more gold teeth, who gestured that we should follow them. Once outside, we realised that we were indeed near the river, but we were escorted there very very slowly, with some kind of a debate still going on. Tony showed them the very important piece of pink paper, and suddenly, there were beaming smiles and lots of nodding all round! The man with the most gold teeth stuffed it into his pocket, and went off, the original man, with fewer gold teeth, ushered us to a line of rafts, and after we'd clambered accross about 3 or 4, he seemed to be satisfied, issued us (surprisingly) with a pair of life-jackets, and we were off! It really was a wonderful trip, drifting down the river with the amazing limestone peaks looming on all sides. We overtook, or were overtaken by, other rafts, mostly heading the same way, their occupants calling out 'Hello, how are you, pleased to meet you' and some of them squirting water pistols in our general direction, which they found hilarious (no direct hits though, or their might have been an international incident!)
After about an hour an a half, the boat man headed for the bank, gestured to us to remove our life-jackets and get off the raft. We were a bit confused, as it didn't seem to be Xingping, or any kind of a town at all, but it was an important landmark, as the limestone karst peaks at this point feature on the 20 Yuan note. All the other rafts started coming in too, and then we realised it seemed to be some kind of a police checkpoint, as there were three rather bored looking policemen sitting in deck chairs writing out more very important pink slips of paper for the boatmen. I thought I'd go back to the raft, but the boatman started waving wildly for me to get off, and get our bags off too. There was another heated debate going on between the next boatman and his passengers too, and then we were all shepherded up some stone steps to road level, where the boatman pointed excitedly at an awaiting golf buggy. He was trying to give Tony some tickets, and I was trying to explain that we weren't going to pay any more money, when a very nice Chinese girl who had been on the next boat explained that for some reason the rafts couldn't go any further, so the golf buggy would act as a shuttle to take us all into the town, which was only about 1km away. The tickets were for the buggy, but no extra cost. Life is so much easier if you know what's going on!We decided to wander around Xingping for a while rather than going straight back to Yuangshuo on the bus, and try to find somewhere to get a cup of tea. We battled our way through market stalls selling everything from hens in bamboo cages, to spare parts for motorbike engines and eventually found a little open fronted noodle bar and sat outside where they had child- sized tables and chairs. Several people stopped to stare at me eating my noodles with chopsticks, and all the school children on their way home to lunch shouted 'hello, hello, nice to meet you'. We watched all the people returning from the market, most of whom seemed to have bought hens, carried upside down by their feet, apart from one lady who gave hers a ride home on a moped, stuffed into a bucket which she clutched between her knees as she drove.
Nicely revived by noodles, rice and green tea, we made our way back to the bus station, found the bus to Yangshuo, and settled down in our seats. Well I settled down, Tony found that he physically couldn't fit his legs anywhere apart from in the middle seat of the back row, with his legs in the aisle. Even then, there was barely room for his knees, as the aisle was really narrow. We waited and waited, the bus was completely full, but no sign of a driver. After about half an hour, a man got on and started waving his arms about and shouting. There was a lot of shouting from the passengers, more shouting from the man, and then everyone started leaving the bus! We didn't know what on earth was going on, but a very nice young man said 'Follow me' which we gladly did, and he explained that there had been an accident in the middle of the town (a lorry had lost a wheel!) so no traffic could get in or out. We thought the town was already in chaos, but that was nothing compared to the complete gridlock that was now going on! We walked in a convoy of bus refugees to a point beyond the main area of congestion, and scrambled aboard a bus which was waiting there. The only seat available was on a small wooden box at the front - so at least there was room for Tony's legs, until another 20 people squeezed on and he had to tuck them under his chin!
By the time we got back to Yangshuo we were very stiff, hot, and covered in dust which blew in the windows each time we passed another vehicle!
Luckily we spotted a sign for Dr Lily Li massage, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, as I had seen one of her leaflets in our hotel. We decided to have a shiatsu deep tissue massage which worked wonders for my neck and shoulders, but was rather painful when she used her elbows on my sacrum! Tony was on the next table, being pummeled by a small Chinese man. I would have liked to watch, but couldn't see, as I was face down with my face in a hole in the couch. All I could hear was him exhaling loudly as he had all the air forced out of him each time the man pushed down on his back!!
After that I had acupuncture on my elbow (which has been troubling me since New Zealand) and I'll go back for another treatment tomorrow. Sorted.
Back to the hotel, a nice cold beer, shower and ready for another wonderful meal. Goodnight.........,,