Adventures in Yangshuo June 26th (Day 6)

What a day! We awoke very early again, but this enabled us to view the mountains outside our hotel in the morning mist. The beautiful reflection of the mountain peaks in the water, with lush bamboo and other trees in view. Our guide organized a bike ride for the morning. I had visions of biking on rural country roads. Well we were driven from our mountain retreat to the actual town of Yangshou where we rented the bikes. When we rented the bikes, Melanie bought a fresh flower tiara - I guess if you don't have a helmet, you may as well make your head look pretty. Both of us have not been on bicycles for a long time. Our adventure began with riding our bikes on the city streets, avoiding all the other people on bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, rikshaws, cars, buses and trucks too (oh I forgot all the people crossing every which way). Gradually we left the town behind us and we were on a road next to fields of rice and various other crops. On the other side of the fields were the beautiful mountain peaks with occasional farm houses.

At one point we veered off the paved road and onto a rutted rocky dirt road for some off road biking. Our guide told us this was the short version, but I'm skeptical. Although this was the morning, it was very hot and humid (yes mom we had bottled water with us). We stopped only to take a few photos, and then went on our way. At one point Melanie insisted I pose with a farmer's water buffalo that was tied to a tree next to the road. Then the farmer's wife came out insisting that we give her money for taking the photo of her buffalo (which we did). When we reached another paved road, it was terrific since it was mainly downhill until we reached the town again. We finally stopped after an hour and half we were drenched with sweat from every pore of our body.

We then drove an hour back to Guilin and had lots of interesting conversation with Wei Li, our guide. We really have a much better understanding of China's "family planning" laws and the impact on people here. We then had lunch at a local Chinese restaurant with both Wei Li and the driver. The lunch included delicious dumpling, pot stickers, sweet potato noodle dish with pork ribs, bok choy, and delicious pumpkin done in a tempura style and a spicy noodle dish (lunch for four with beer and a tip was the equivalent of $13!)

Then it was off to the airport for our flight back to Beijing and sadly leaving Wei Li. While waiting for the plane at the Guilin airport, a thunderstorm came through, but our flight only left 15 minutes late. We flew a different airline, China Southern. This flight we had a lot of turbulence and then about nearly 2 hours into the flight we were being told we were landing. Although all announcements were in Chinese and then English, it was difficult to hear the stewardess. We thought we were landing in Beijing, but it didn't look like Beijing. Sure enough we landed at another airport, Nanyang to drop off and get more passengers. We were so happy to finally arrive at our hotel in Beijing. We're one flight away from Indigo! It's exciting to be meeting up again with our friends from our 10/28 group - two couples had arrived in Beijing on the 26th too.