yangshuo
Took an overnight train from Guangzhou to Guilin and from there, a 1 hour bus journey to Yangshuo. Many people said Guilin was boring so I decided to stay longer in Yanghsuo. It is after all one of China's great landscapes. It is dotted with cone-shaped peaks that sprout out of the ground without following any particular pattern. Kind of other worldly.
I was met at the bus station by the ususal rag-tag of hawkers. One particularly persistent one turned out to be canvassing for the hostel I had choosen from the book. So I relented and allowed him to guide me there. This turned out to be a mistake. Not the hostel, it was cheap and central but the befriending this bloke. He pursued me like predator for the three days I was there. It wasn't intimidating, just annoying. He was mostly offering to get me hookers, arrange tours, etc, etc. I grew tired of hearing ' He-low, you ready for happy-happy?'. The bloke couldn't take no for an answer and soon I found myself dodging him. Best to get out of the town during daylight. On two occasions, he even came knocking on my door. I kept quiet and didn't answer.
So I rented a bicycle and went off cycling in the countryside. It's very beautiful. The old villages, the paddy fields, rustic. The only snag was the poor weather. Always misty. It was hard to see the entire surroundings. But I suppose the advantage is that there were not many tourists becuase of the time of year. I did bump into some sound Dutch people so we arranged to take the Li River tour. A big boat with five europeans. We followed a normal route that took in some of the best rock formations. It is an incredible sight. Each rock has a fancy name and a history behind it. It's very much a landscape that one would typically associate with China.
One evening I went to watch the fisherman use cormorants to catch fish. It's amazing that these birds can be trained to dive, chase and catch fish. It's kind of cruel too. The birds are half-starved when the fishing begins. Their hunger increases the sharpness of their hunting so they are successful on many dives. The probelm, for them, is that the fisherman has tied a little string about the birds neck so that it can't swallow. The fisherman then pulls the fish out of the birds throat and the process is repeated. The stupid birds obviously can't figure out what happened.
We watched this traditional method from a barge-type boat that illuminated the fisherman and his sampan with the birds. There were quite a few tourists on board, trigger happy with their camera's. In their quest to get a better shot, they piled onto the front of the boat in a frenzy. There are no hand rails. The boat hit something and this short, portly women toppled along the deck and overboard. Three others lost their camera's. It's a shallow lake so she was quickly recovered. The baot didn't sink thankfully. But I have to admit that I found it hilarious. All for a photo!
I was met at the bus station by the ususal rag-tag of hawkers. One particularly persistent one turned out to be canvassing for the hostel I had choosen from the book. So I relented and allowed him to guide me there. This turned out to be a mistake. Not the hostel, it was cheap and central but the befriending this bloke. He pursued me like predator for the three days I was there. It wasn't intimidating, just annoying. He was mostly offering to get me hookers, arrange tours, etc, etc. I grew tired of hearing ' He-low, you ready for happy-happy?'. The bloke couldn't take no for an answer and soon I found myself dodging him. Best to get out of the town during daylight. On two occasions, he even came knocking on my door. I kept quiet and didn't answer.
So I rented a bicycle and went off cycling in the countryside. It's very beautiful. The old villages, the paddy fields, rustic. The only snag was the poor weather. Always misty. It was hard to see the entire surroundings. But I suppose the advantage is that there were not many tourists becuase of the time of year. I did bump into some sound Dutch people so we arranged to take the Li River tour. A big boat with five europeans. We followed a normal route that took in some of the best rock formations. It is an incredible sight. Each rock has a fancy name and a history behind it. It's very much a landscape that one would typically associate with China.
One evening I went to watch the fisherman use cormorants to catch fish. It's amazing that these birds can be trained to dive, chase and catch fish. It's kind of cruel too. The birds are half-starved when the fishing begins. Their hunger increases the sharpness of their hunting so they are successful on many dives. The probelm, for them, is that the fisherman has tied a little string about the birds neck so that it can't swallow. The fisherman then pulls the fish out of the birds throat and the process is repeated. The stupid birds obviously can't figure out what happened.
We watched this traditional method from a barge-type boat that illuminated the fisherman and his sampan with the birds. There were quite a few tourists on board, trigger happy with their camera's. In their quest to get a better shot, they piled onto the front of the boat in a frenzy. There are no hand rails. The boat hit something and this short, portly women toppled along the deck and overboard. Three others lost their camera's. It's a shallow lake so she was quickly recovered. The baot didn't sink thankfully. But I have to admit that I found it hilarious. All for a photo!
posted by Ciarán at 8:40 a.m.
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