Another hot day in Yangshuo (like every day in China, actually), but after a bit of rest in the morning, it was out to the next activity. Since midday was bloody hot, we chose the nearby Water Cave to visit. First, there was an underground river in the cave through which we were taken by boat, followed by a 45 minute or so walk through the caverns. Our cave guide, Alice, showed us the various formations and commented on their resemblance to actual objects (just like in any other guided cavern walk)...we saw an elephant, a mother/baby, a woman in a long dress, a snake, and many other odd shaped stalagmites/stalactites. One major difference from caverns at home was that no one seemed at all concerned if visitors touched the formations. Another was that all over you could see the wires and lights, exposed and dangling about. The final difference was that when we were about 5 minutes from the end, Alice used a phone (land line!) to call the boatman to come pick us up.
We also got to go into a mud bath in the middle of the caves. It was freezing and kind of yucky to be swimming in all that mud! I had a tough time going in and wasn't really in the mood, but Cathy was thoroughly enjoying splashing and floating around in all the mud. Kaydi really enjoyed the slide they had made, and must have gone down it about fifteen times. She got me to join her once, and I'm glad I did because the in-cave photographer took really good pictures of us. There were a few opportunities in the caves for washing off, but the mud was rather persistent and clung to us despite our efforts to wash it off. Kaydi and Julia enjoyed the hot spring pools before we left, but the adults declined, not wanting to immerse ourselves in anything warming after the cooling effect of the caves and mud bath.
Once outside there was another cold swimming area. We all swam and played in the water. The were parallel ropes, and Kaydi hung from them like a sloth, before splashing into the water. She also did a few major cannonball jumps as well. She and Julia had a good time messing around, while the adults tried to get some additional mud off their bodies.
After showering and resting a bit, we went to see the famous pedestrian street in Yangshuo, West Street. We had some time there to take in the assortment of vendors, characters, and western(ish) style restaurants. No one objected to the thought of a pizza dinner, when Julia and Kaydi noticed the signs for brick ovens! After a quick bite, we were picked up and taken to the Liu San Jie Light Impressions Show. It was a sound and light show on the Li River itself--designed and choreographed by the same person who did the opening number for the 2008 Beijing Olympics--and even though we didn't understand the story, it was pretty spectacular! There were hundreds of actors/singers/dancers/boat people entertaining the enormous crowd with all sorts of activity...hard to describe but probably on youtube to behold! I'll try to upload a couple of pictures (wish me luck) to give you a sense of it.
The last day in Yangshuo left us a few hours for a return trip to West Street to do our actual shopping. There were a few bargains to be had and a couple of things we hadn't yet seen much of in China. Once packed up, WeiWei recommended a stop at Shangri-La en route to the airport. By then it was pouring, but she told us that it was mostly indoors (or in a covered boat) and not to be missed, since we'd not ventured (much) farther afield to the minority people's area. Well, we all agreed that this was the most touristy and hokey part of our trip to this otherwise lovely area...there were costumed people engaged in various activities characteristic of several minority groups (seemingly), but it was so staged and inauthentic that it was oddly funny, if not bizarre. Anyway, it was our last stop before hurrying to the airport for our trip to Shanghai...our last stop in China.
Thanks for the beautiful pictures and wonderful description of your trip - it brought back memories of our similar trip a year earlier (especially Yangshuo and Beijing where we did similar things). Your daughter is real cute - great smile and eyes - I'm sure she really appreciated the trip. (And I'm in a similar situation as you - she no longer wants me to be "friends" with her on facebook...).
Posted by: Tk Legrand | July 29, 2010 at 09:32 PM