Kitty and The Germ » 2009 » October

Yangshuo

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

We love it here. This little resort town is full of westerners, cute as hell and has a ton of stuff to do. Once we checked in to the hotel, we went immediately on a bus that brought us to a boat tour. We were excited to go because it is the exact spot pictured on the 20 Yuan note. We saw water buffalos and cormorants fisherman (they put a collar on cormorant birds and keep the bird on a leash–the bird catches the fish, but due to the collar can’t swallow). We found a great resto with food we loved.

Town

Engaged

20 Yuan

Water Buffalos

Raining

Cormorants

The next day we went on a serious bike ride. We were the only ones wearing helmets. I loved my bike and felt like we were in the Sound of Music when they are singing the doe a deer sequence which of course prompted me to sing the entire “Sound of Music” songbook. We stopped along the way and got on a bamboo raft and went down the river on it. Another great time. Marc’s ass was soaking wet, but it was worth it.

Yangshuo

Bridge Work

After the raft, we were back on our bikes and had lunch at moon mountain. We found out that there had been a hot-air balloon accident and 5 people were killed. A woman on our trip wanted us to go hot-air ballooning with her the day before but we wanted to go on the bike ride. She waited until the afternoon and that was when we found out that the balloon had burst into flames and Dutch tourists were killed. This lady’s argument was that it was so cheap, cheaper than anywhere else in the world. I think it might have something to do with regulations, safety training…

Moon Mountain

Beautiful Weather

Idyllic

Somethings Are Larger Here

In the evening we went to see a light show, created and produced by the same guy who did the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. It was on the water with a mountain behind–setting the scene. What I couldn’t get over was the number of people involved in the show. There are 2 performances a night and we were told that only in China could a show like this be possible. anywhere else would cost far too much. There were over 600 fishermen alone. Everyone in unison, lots of children dressed in traditional costumes–beyond impressive.

Light Show

The following day Marc and I went to a cooking class. yes, a cooking class. It was outdoor and hilarious. We had to wear hats and we looked like KFC employees. We made 3 dishes. Two of which we will try to recreate. One dish was sweet and sour pork which was delicious but involved deep frying. who the hell is deep frying in their house? The other was a Kung Pao chicken and green beans which we will try to recreate. It was a really fun afternoon.