Friday was a free day for us to do whatever suited our fancy. Elaine and I were eager to see some of the countryside and to hike to the top of at least one of the hills. We invited the group to join us, but they all had other equally tempting plans, and thus it was that only she, I, and our guide Chris headed out of town on new single-speed rental bikes (about $5/day each). We rode for miles, sometimes seeing other groups of tourists on rental bikes and sometimes having the country roads completely to ourselves. We pedaled by farmers plowing flooded rice paddies with water buffalo, flocks of amorous ducks and an old beekeeper tending what looked like a healthy aviary. Little children peed from open doorways in various rustic villages. Incongruously, homes lacked plumbing (we saw several hand-operated village pumps) yet several satellite dishes poked up between old tiled roofs. The mountain scenery was utterly spectacular. We’d heard about Moon Hill, a hike up several hundred stone steps to a huge natural stone arch. Chris asked if we wanted to view it from a distance (his preference) or actually climb up to it, and to his credit – and a handsome tip – he joined us for the trek to the top.
A common “feature” of being a tourist in China is the rather constant barrage of middle-aged and older women trying to sell you something. Anything. Little carved wooden ducks, hats, DVDs, postcards, fruit, cold bottled drinks – you name it. There were several at the Moon Hill trailhead, carrying Styrofoam coolers and offering us water or soda. We declined as politely as possible, having already stocked up on water and oranges. There were even women with their coolers on the way up the hill, but at the very top, some 300 meters above the valley floor, was the oldest, sweetest and by far most persistent saleswoman of them all, perhaps five feet tall and probably in her 70s. We took her picture, and bought several postcards from her.On the way back to town, we found ourselves in the middle of lots of bicyclists, tourists and locals alike, all of us sharing the road’s shoulder while motorcycles, large trucks and tour buses whizzed past. At one point the road led over a bridge where many bicyclists had stopped to view the bamboo rafts, and the girls on the tandem bike in front of me swerved over to stop, catching my front wheel and sending me tumbling to the pavement. As I struggled to extract myself from under my bike, three women rushed to me, leaned over me with serious looks on their faces, and asked in broken English if they could … sell me postcards!
Unscathed and not at all discouraged, we returned to Yangshuo, dropped off our bikes, and headed for coffee and curried potatoes at Minnie Mao’s. We bought a few souvenirs for family back in the U.S., joined the group for dinner, and then headed to our hotel room to catch our breath for just a few minutes before going out on the town. We must have been tired after our adventure because next thing we knew it was Saturday morning!
Saturday involved a bus ride to a riverside village and a boat ride to view the truly amazing mountain scenery. Our boat had about 70 passengers, and we were the only non-Chinese aboard. Everyone had cameras, and we all crowded the rails to snap away at cliffs, waterfalls and each other. The bus ride back to the Guilin airport provided a last chance to "ooh" and "aah" at the countryside, and we enjoyed an uneventful flight back to Macau.
We woke this morning to Easter Sunday, and to our delight seven of our group headed to the beautiful little church on the hill overlooking Taipa Village. This evening they’re all coming over for Easter dinner; Elaine’s cooking lamb and potatoes, and the students are bringing other goodies. It promises to be a joyful conclusion to a perfect holiday!
