Saturday, March 14 – Li River Boat from Guilin to Yangshuo

We started off the day well – I slept until I woke up. We both showered and got dressed and somewhere in there we decided to try to get on a boat to Yangshuo. That meant we had to hurry. We'd been told that the last boat left at 9:30 and it took 30 minutes to take the taxi down to the pier. Now we'd have no time for breakfast! We packed in a hurry and went down to the lobby. Sue checked out and grabbed a Danish from the Chinese buffet breakfast while I arranged a taxi. The concierge said we could make it if we had 'good luck'. The drive to the pier took us through some major streets in Guilin that we'd not seen before. Again, it became clear that you don't really know anything about the place you're staying at unless you take a cab and tour around! The big clean streets with workers manicuring the hedges and flowers on the boulevards were a stark contrast to what we'd seen on the road into Guilin from the airport and on the road out to Longsheng yesterday. Maybe I was too harsh when I said that there was nothing at all appealing about Guilin. Today was a bright sunshiny day – even if it wasn't really warm – and things were looking up. Our taxi got us to the boat terminal at 9:25. The driver walked us into the building and showed us where the ticket counter was. There were a few 'tour group' type people still in the building, but otherwise it looked like everyone was already on the boats. The taxi driver explained to the ticket seller what we wanted. An initial look of 'oh, oh, you're too late' – not a good sign. But she said okay we had to hurry. How much? 285 Yuan. What? Each. No, that's not right. We're not paying that. That's $106 Canadian dollars for the two of us. Sue offered her 300. She didn't seem to understand at first, but then smiled and shook her head no. No, 570 Yuan. Why so much? This can't be right. Okay, we have to hurry. I'll give you 500. No, the price is 570. Sue finally pays her 570. We get our tickets and hurry out to where there are still 3 or 4 big riverboats tied to the dock. We are to board the red one. We get ushered on and the porter asks us to join a table for six where there are already 4 Chinese men making themselves comfortable. They don't look too pleased to have us sit at the end of their bench seats. But there are no other seats on the boat. Doesn't take long for the boats to leave port. And then we're cruising down the river. And there are those 'Chinese' hills on either side. Sue goes up on the upper deck and clicks a few photos while I sit at our table with our backpacks. The men pour us some tea. The sun slowly starts to warm things up. Eventually I too go up to take a look at the scenery. The air is still cold up on the top deck. We have our photo taken a few times as the boat rumbles on. There's a steady string of boats just like ours, some ahead, one or two following. That's too bad – they're in all our pictures! Why can't we be just the only one that knows about this river? But there are also little one-man rafts, some of which paddle up to our boat and tie-up. The guy on the little raft steps up onto the little ridge around the perimeter of our big boat and slowly works his way around, trying to convince people on the inside of the big windows to buy his jade pieces or woodcarvings or roasted peanuts. At around noon the scenery looks like it is about to end, maybe that's it for the mountains – but the show inside the boat is just beginning. Up on the enclosed upper deck the crew have set up a row of tables down the middle with a line of stainless steel serving pots. It's a big Chinese buffet! Piles of dishes at the beginning of the line. Pails of hot food coming up the stairs from the kitchen at the back of the boat are being put into the serving tubs. Then, while the crew is still preparing the dinner and getting more dishes, a couple of Chinese tourists jump-start the line by helping themselves to the food! Others look on nervously, but since no workers are around, they too take plates and begin serving themselves. Suddenly a couple of crewmembers show up and they shout at the food scoopers angrily. You're not supposed to start yet! Awkward, awkward. What are they supposed to do with their plates half-full and now it's all on hold? It takes only another couple of minutes until the girl on the P.A. system downstairs announces that dinner is served. In the meantime Sue has now gone to ask one of the crewmembers what this is all about – and discovered that yes, the food is 'free'. So that's why our ticket was so expensive! Well, then we will eat too, although by now we've actually seen many of the dishes they've been hauling up from the kitchen and about the only thing that looks even mildly appealing is the tub of French fries. When we finally dish some into our plate we discover that the fries are completely cold, and don't taste very good. But we eat some, and Sue has a bit of white rice, we have a couple of orange wedges and we each have a small glass of beer. Then we hurry out, quickly before the 4 Chinese men arrive at our table with their HEAPING plates of food. The way these Chinese people jam the line and butt in and pile food onto their plates and schmacks loudly as they eat and suck on their teeth after they've had their third or fourth helping – you'd think they hadn't eaten in a week! It's not a pretty sight. We'd rather stand outside on the deck in the chilling wind than sit down there and watch and listen to that. And while the customers are digging into their food, the servers – the workers on the boat – are sitting on little stools down behind their 'serving counter' – eating like crazy themselves! When the boat is nearly at its destination, not surprisingly, the Chinese tourists who had the best seats on the deck above have ALL jammed downstairs near the exit door because now they're so anxious to get OFF the boat. And guess who's at the front of the pack? The 'stewardesses'! They've changed out of their 'uniforms' behind the counter (off comes the skirt, on come the blue jeans, etc) and are beating it to the front of the boat so they can be the first ones off. We lug our red suitcase off the boat and are immediately greeted by a Chinese girl wearing a straw Vietnamese hat: Are you looking for a hotel? Yes. I smile. She catches my smile. Do you already have a hotel? Yes. Which one? The Morningsun Hotel. Oh, that is very close to here. And she leads us up the street and shows us the way. The street is a walking street. But you can't walk easily here – far too many tourists and too many hawkers. It's like so many back-packer destinations we've been to. Lots of trinkets and souvenir shops. Lots of coffee shops and internet cafes. Lots of pizza places and travel agencies and tour operators. Lots of flags flying and music playing. Cobblestone streets, for sure. But it's quite a change from Guilin. And at least it looks like we'll be able to eat and drink here. It doesn't take us long to get to the Morningsun hotel. It's just over the bridge and past the construction site for the first McDonalds which will open here later this month. Our 'guide', Ping Li, gives us her phone number and we arrange to meet tomorrow morning for an excursion. Check in is easy. We want a 'warm' room and are assigned a 3rd floor room facing the street – it's got a balcony where the afternoon sun will warm us, and it has a modern 'Western' (i.e. toilet) washroom. Even a tub, so that we can warm up. We leave our bags and go down for a bit of a walk and some lunch. Lots of food vendors in the streets. We opt for a small cafe and I have a cheeseburger (not bad except for the burger) and fries and a local beer, Sue has banana pancakes and a good cup of coffee. Then we go for a walk, buy a bottle of wine, browse some cheap pirated DVDs, bump into our 'guide' again, walk around the block, come back to our room. Sue sits on the balcony and reads until the afternoon sun sets behind the 'Chinese' hills. Rudy goes downstairs and visits with the girl at the front desk. Back upstairs we try to get our A/C unit to give us some heat while we pile on the extra blankets. At around 7:30 we head out for supper. It's freezing cold as soon as the sun is down. We're not very hungry (maybe the pistachios we snacked on this afternoon spoilt our appetite). We walk down West Street – crowded, lots of (Chinese) tourists. We choose a small restaurant that has a fireplace and sit right next to it – it's still cold! Sue has soup, Rudy has an apple pie thingy and coffee. We talk about why it is that we don't really like it here. Are we jaded? Spoiled? This feels as 'fake' as Disneyland – it's like all the other 'Lonely Planet Guide' backpacker meccas. It's a bit like going to Tijuana, or the Red River Ex. Maybe if we had a hotel that had a decent heater and a reliable internet connection? We wander around, buy some Nescafe so we can make coffee (instead of tea) in the room. We're back in our room shortly after 10. It's still very loud out in the street, but at least it's warmish in our room.