Today started pretty early with me having to be at the entrance of the hostel at 6:45am to wait for my bus to the pier. Turns out the bus only arrived at 7:40 to pick me up. The ride to the pier took an hour and the tour guide explained the upcoming bamboo raft trip to us. On the bus, I found out that the 230rmb I had paid was only for the boat ride to Nine Horses Mountain 九马画山 and if I wanted the complete ride to XingPing Pier 兴坪码头, I would need to top up another 98rmb. Being on the way there already, I decided that I might as well fork out the entra bit to get the complete package.
Upon reaching YangDi Pier 杨堤码头, I was paired up with a group of three other tourists, two ladies and a guy, who were also heading to the same destination. Each bamboo takes four passengers and it is actually more of a PVC pipe boat than a bamboo boat. We had a boat captain who asked if we wanted to tip him for extra services, namely a running commentary and pitstops along the way to take photographs from the shores. Since it was just 10rmb per person, we agreed. And my generous companions offered to pay for my share. The ride along the river was slow but really peaceful. The bright sunshine, scattered clouds and towering karst features made the ride so scenic and peaceful. It was something I could never get tired of. Along the way, I offered to take photographs of my companions and email them the photographs once I'm in Singapore.
The ride took about two and a half hours and when we reached the end, we had to walk through XingPing old street before taking a bus to YangShuo. My boating companions graciously invited me to join them for the afternoon since I had no plans for the day and I accepted. They had wanted to ride to the surrounding areas to check out the views. When they went for lunch, I left their company to check into my hostel and deposit some of my belongings in my room. At a whim, I decided to have KFC since there weren't many shops open at noon that seemed decent or clean enough. After lunch, I went over to join my three new friends and it turns out that they had already rented two electric scooters. Not the skatescooter kind that you find in Singapore, but full fledged scooters that had electric motors instead of petrol ones. The two older ones rode on one scooter while I rode pillion with the youngest of the group. Electric scooters are really common in China, just as in Taiwan, and they have a mileage of about 50km on a single charge.
We rode out of town and headed towards Ten Li Scenic Spot 十里画廊. However we could not find the place and went to Longtan Ancient Village 龙潭古寨 instead. The place had a small lake with a sculpted white dragon in the middle and surrounded by a ton of wilted lotus leaves. Quite an dismal sight. Past the lake, we entered the ancient village where it was a ton of old architecture married with modern fixtures such as electrical usage meters, painted walls, torn maps of the place. It would have been nicer if it was left in its original state, but that would not have withstood the invasive impact that domestic tourism has in the attractions in China.
On the way back from the ancient village, we passed by the YuLong River 遇龙河. Since it was sunset soon, we stayed there for a while as I took some long exposures of the sunset. It was the first proper sunset I've seen ever since I came to China. It was obscured by smog in Beijing and by fog in Huangshan and Zhangjiajie. The bright orange sky behind the silhouette of the Karst peaks was really amazing and I look forward to catching even better ones tomorrow evening.
Back in the town, I said goodbye to my three new friends as we parted ways since they were returning to Guilin tonight. I met up with my two friends that I made in the Guilin hostel, who came to Yangshuo today on their own too, and we had dinner in one of the many restaurants along the waking street 西街. As there was three of us, we could try the local speciality, spicy beer-cooked fish 啤酒鱼. There was no beer taste or alcohol taste and the fish dish tasted more like Assam fish.
Yangshuo has quite a vibrant nightlife as the walking street becomes very crowded at night and the stalls all come to life. There are quite a number of pubs and bars, as well as a variety of local food and souvenir shops. There is also a side alley dedicated to western restaurants such as German, Italian and French food, Chinese standards of course.
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