I arrived at the tour office at 9am, as scheduled. There, I only had a short wait before my guide showed up. That's when the first blip occurred. Instead of a nice minibus to take us out to the launch site, there was a motorbike. OK, I was wearing my flipflops, but I'm an adventurous sort. I hopped on behind the driver and tried not to sit too close. Then, I noticed that there was only one motorbike. Odd. How was the guide getting around. Oh, I hadn't realized that three adults could all fit on one motorbike. OK.
We left town and headed out into what Lonely Planet raves about as "some traveler's best experience in China", the countryside around Yangshuo. We went through small villages and fields, seeing many an unspoiled vista and charismatic farmer. Lovely. Of course, it was a little hard to appreciate the scenery while racing past on the extremely rocky dirt road, sandwiched between two strange men. Quite an experience.
Finally, we arrived at another village where the guide stored his kayaks. There, the second blip came up. While I was occupied photographing a water pump, he pulled out...an inflatable canoe. Ah, no. I wanted a kayak. He explained to me that it was very very difficult to transport a kayak back from Puyi - that he would be forced to rent a tractor. He went on and on and on. Finally, I agreed to try it. We went down to the river. This is where I discovered that I'd be on my own on the river. No other tourists had been interested in kayacking and boyo would meet me in Yuli. After a pause, I realized that I actually would prefer a little time alone, so that was fine. Then, I asked how I would know that I had reached the meeting point. He said, "At Puyi," and looked at me as if I was crazy for needing to ask.
I said, "Yes, well, I've never been to Puyi. How will I know that I've arrived?" He responded that I shouldn't worry, he would take the responsibility of finding me, that it was very easy." I said OK. As I started paddling, he called out, as a last minute thought, "At the fork, go right, and at the island, go left!" Great, right then left. Or, was it the other way around?
After about 2 minutes of paddling, I realized that a) the inflatable canoe was extremely unsteady and eager to dump me in the river; b) sitting in the front of a 2-person boat meant that when I paddled, it was very hard to steer a straight course because vigorous paddling spun me from side to side; c) an inflatable canoe moves like a barge. Far from zipping hither and yon in my kayak, I was barely able to move faster than the current, and if I paddled too hard, I went wildly off course; d) the paddle that I'd been given was basically a child's toy, far to spindly to work well. This was not going to work. I managed to get to the bank, and climbed back up to demand the kayak that I had reserved. I had paid to go kayaking, not to float down the river in this ridiculous thing. The motorbike was gone. I banged on the door of the storage facility and got no response. This was it. I was stuck with the stupid raft. I was stranded with no way to get back to Yangshuo except going downriver and meeting the jerk who guilted me into this raft.
With anger in my heart, I climbed back in the floating hell. After 2 hours of paddling in less and less scenic environs, this anger had increased to hatred. I hated that tour company. I hated the guy who tricked me into accepting this ridiculous boat. I hated the motorbike driver for taking off so quickly. I hated the fishermen and bamboo cutters for staring at me as I floated past them in my ridiculous puffy blue boat. I loathed the tourists going past me in their air conditioned motor boats. I was streaming sweat, broiling in the sun despite my hat, and incredibly frustrated by trying to get that raft to move. I did discover that the Li river is a great place for primal yells and for singing at the top of your lungs. It was a way to pass the time. I discovered a hitherto unknown talent for songwriting. Oddly, all of the songs seemed to be quite insulting about the physical, mental and spiritual attributes of the jerk who put me in the instrument of torture.
Then, I reached Puyi. Of course, I didn't know it was Puyi. From the river, there are a couple of buildings and a big floating factory barge, emitting black smoke. I didn't see my guy. I paddled over to the left bank where I saw a woman with a baby. When I asked, "Puyi?" she pointed downriver. I thanked her and continued on. After about a 20 minutes, I had doubts and asked some fishermen where Puyi was. They pointed back the way that I'd come. Great. While floating downriver, the current had seemed negligible, barely helpful at all. When fighting against it, suddenly that current was a lot stronger. I ｄｅｃｉｄｅｄ ｔｏ ｇｅｔ ｏｕｔ ａｎｄ ｗａｌｋ ｏｎ ｔｈｅ ｒｉｖｅｒ ｂａｎｋ ｆｏｒ ａｗｈｉｌｅ， ｐｕｌｌｉｎｇ ｍｙ ｃａｎｏｅ． Ｔｈｉｓ ａｌｌｏｗｅｄ ｍｅ ｔｏ ｂｅｃｏｍｅ ｓｏａｋｅｄ ｆｒｏｍ ｔｈｅ ｗａｉｓｔ ｄｏｗｎ ｉｎ ａｄｄｉｔｉｏｎ ｔｏ ｓｗｅａｔｙ， ｈｏｔ， ａｎｄ ｐｉｓｓｅｄ ｏｆｆ． Ｉ ｗａｌｋｅｄ ａｓ ｆａｒ ａｓ Ｉ ｃｏｕｌｄ， ｂｕｔ ｅｖｅｎｔｕａｌｌｙ ｈａｄ ｎｏ ｃｈｏｉｃｅ ｂｕｔ ｔｏ ｃｌａｍｂｅｒ ｂａｃｋ ｉｎ ａｎｄ ｐａｄｄｌｅ． Ｉwas on the wrong side of the river, you see. As soon as Iｓｔａｒｔｅｄ ａｃｒｏｓｓ ｔｈｅ ｒｉｖｅｒ， ｆｉｇｈｔｉｎｇ ｔｈｅ ｃｕｒｒｅｎｔ， ｍｙ ｔｒｕｓｔｙ ｇｕｉｄｅ ａｐｐｅａｒｅｄ， ｊｕｍｐｉｎｇ ｕｐ ａｎｄ ｄｏｗｎ ａｎｄ ｗａｖｉｎｇ ｈｉｓ ａｒｍｓ， ｗｅａｒｉｎｇ ａ ｂｒｉｇｈｔ ｏｒａｎｇｅ ｓｈｉｒｔ ｔｈａｔ ｗａｓ ｉｍｐｏｓｓｉｂｌｅ ｔｏ ｍｉｓｓ． Ｇｒｅａｔ． Ｉｆ ｏｎｌｙ ｈｅ＇ｄ ｂｅｅｎ ｔｈｅｒｅ ４５ ｍｉｎｕｔｅｓ ａｇｏ． He continued waving, apparently convinced that I was frantically paddling upstream in his direction by merest fluke and that without his assistance, I would...let's see, continue past? I flipped him off and kept paddling.
Finally, I reached the other bank and had the opportunity to tell the guy exactly what I thought of his "kayak trip". He said, "I don't understand. Many Chinese people have taken this canoe and are very happy. I knew that I had no chance of getting my money back, so I at least tried to make him feel like a jerk. It didn't do much good. Tour operators in Yangshuo have thick skins from dealing with a constant stream of angry, cheated customers.
We trudged into Puyi's one main street where I discovered that my mode of transit back to Yangshuo was the local bus. The bus that didn't leave for another 40 minutes. I got to sit around, in wet things for 40 minutes waiting to board the local bus. In Yangshuo, they'd actually tried to charge me 50 yuan extra for my transit back to Yangshuo. This was particularly funny when I saw what the transit was - a 1.50 rattletrap minibus. When I mentioned how poorly organized this entire thing was, I was told, "It's OK, you just didn't like the boat."
After all of that, I arrived back in Yangshuo in a pisser of a mood. I decided to have some down time and after a much needed shower, I set off on an epic quest for edible food. My quest was unsuccessful, but as a side bennie, I did try 3 new restaurants. Then, it was time to get changed and head over to the highlight of my trip, the performance of 'Impression of the 3rd Liu Sister' on the Li River. This is an entire theatrical event involving 600 performers, multiple costume and lighting changes, all on the Li river with the karst peaks as a backdrop. Absolutely brilliant! The directors are geniuses. Since they are the ones in charge of choreographing the
Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies, I might actually watch. It should be fabulous.
I arrived back at my guesthouse in a much improved state of mind, thinking that Yangshuo really was a wonderful place. I was tired, happy, and ready to go to bed. Then, I saw them. They were everywhere - baby cockroaches. My bedside table was absolutely covered in them. I saw at least 30. I am not well equipped to deal with cockroaches. I am lucky enough to not have extensive experience with them. They seemed especially excited by my box of nescafe packets, which was covered in them. I have no clue why cockroaches want to be caffeinated, but apparently they do.
I raced back downstairs and announced my problem. A girl came back upstairs with me, carrying a rag. Together, we threw out nearly everything on that table. I didn't care that these were things I'd carried around for a month. They'd been contaminated and needed to be removed. For example, my dental floss had cockroaches on it. Would you use cockroach floss? Neither would I. At my insistence, she wiped down the area with bleach before leaving. OK. In this room, I had already dealt with 2 black jumping spiders, now cockroaches. That was it. My opinion of Yangshuo calcified. The place is a pit. Stay in Guilin, visit Yangshuo. Unless you enjoy living in filth while being hounded and ripped off at every opportunity - it takes all kinds.
The next day was my last in Yangshuo. I needed to be on a bus to Guilin by 4pm, to catch my 6:40 train to Guanzhou. I spent the morning repacking my bag, trying very hard to ensure that I would not be the unwitting transporter of sightseeing cockroaches. Then, I had a (bad) lunch and hung out in an internet cafe until it was time to catch my bus.
Once I'd boarded the bus, I felt much better. I think that Yangshuo, like Xi'an was just unlucky for me. I should have worn more red (red is considered a lucky color in China). I'm sure that over the years to come, I will forget about the cockroaches and pushy vendors, and remember the beautiful scenery and placid water buffalo. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to go, and boy, was I glad to get away!
In Guilin, I was actually dropped off at the train station. I had plenty of time to shop for snacks before boarding the train. Once the train had arrived and we had all shoved our way aboard, I happily settled in to my soft sleeper compartment. Well worth the extra money. I had a lovely bed in a four bunk room. I was sharing with an elderly man who was traveling with his two daughters. The daughters were actually in the next compartment, but they kept running over every few minutes to make sure that Baba was OK and didn't need anything. It was so sweet. The 'girls' must have been in their 50s and they were devoted to their father. Every time he would settle down for a rest, one or both of them would come in to make sure that he had tea, slippers, food, a pillow, etc. Finally, they decided to switch, so that one of the daughters could watch him. So, I ended up sharing with the younger daughter while Baba went next door with his elder daughter.
That was it. My time in Guangxi province was at an end, and I was on to new environs. Did my luck improve in Guangzhou? That would be telling! ;)
Update: I've just met a Dutch couple who stayed at a place called The Giggling Tree. It is 5 km outside of Yangshuo, on the river, fabulous food, a lovely courtyard and private rooms for 100 yuan, all spotlessly clean. It provided bikes, motorbikes, tours and tickets. They had a wonderful time and were incredulous when I told them of the cockroaches. Just an fyi, in case anyone is planning on going there.
For pictures, please see http://picasaweb.google.com/christine7world/GuilinYangshuo
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