Yangshuo trip post # 2

This is what makes Yangshuo famous, the Karst Mountains along the Li River. A scene from here is on the back of the 20RMB bill - look it up on the google. It looks sorta nice like a calendar picture from the river too.  The boats are small four passenger things that make stops going down river.

It was not the prettiest of days and did rain a bit from time to time but we had fun and did not get too wet despite proximity to the water.

Julianna rode with friends on another boat being the big girl in the family which she is fast becoming.

Another sightseeing activity that is quite popular in the area is bicycle riding which we did. Here we got sidetracked by watching a man fishing from a bamboo raft in a road side canal. He was sneaking up on a catfish looking fish and slapping the water over the fish with a stick and apparently stunning the fish, successful about 30% of the time I reckon. The canal was a tangle of sunken bamboo but surprisingly somewhat clear.

 Laura had Luke as a bicycling partner.

and Matt had John Paul and Isaac.

Julianna and Patt rode solo

and Lydia and I were partners, and obviously not all riding was country road.

This being a tourist town there was the proverbial night market done up nicely with all sorts of opportunities for souvenirs, street food, ethnic (German, Mexican, Italian and so on included).

One evening Patt and I and the "Big Three"- Julianna, Lydia, and Isaac - went alone to the night market. Well, as Grandmama was carrying some money, and I think I mentioned there were opportunities, and she did have grandchildren with her and there were some pretty dresses, and well — what do ya think?  yeah we thought so too.  Julianna now has this dress and Lydia a different style but from the same vendor.  Buy two and the price comes down. We had stopped at numerous of these stalls and had pretty well established the going price.  

Isaac and I had meanwhile pretty well tried out all the sound making devices available and settled on a wooden frog.

While Matt and Laura and their friends were doing stuff, Patt and I and another person were taking care of a bunch of kids. Much of the time it involved little more than an occasional separation of lego players which when you have a box full of legos is not hard to do.

Other times it was intensive and involved playing Uno with multiple languages and in Luke's case skill level (good thing he liked being a partner most of the time).

in the afternoon we went outside and Patt did a super job organizing a tug of war between two groups of the kids.  There were seven per team. Our grandkids were heavily invested in one of them.

The kids loved it and wanted to do it again and again. Staff at the hotel and other guests stopped what they were doing and watched. The kids appeared oblivious and were intense in competing. Though tiring, Patt and I had a grand time.

and since it was there and we were there and the weather called for rain, like it had every day we were there, and since we like adventure, off we went to a rather famous cave.  Stalactites, and stalagmites abound, colored lights and we have showtime.  Extensive caves, sometimes narrow passages, and sometimes a little low it made for close walking.  also a few big grand rooms.

Off one passage way was a series of springs that had been separated into various pools and streams.  There were various hot springs - some too hot to enter, some quiet comfortably warm, others cool or outright cold.

Deeper into the cave past more creeks and walking through water, was a large mud bath. As it has a bit of a unique odor, the kids were not much enamored of it.

Also a little dark, and after the warm springs, a little cool so they were less than enthusiastic about entering. Matt and I however did the full deal. Floating and swimming was a hoot due to the thickness of the mud/water, you are actually about half out of the water/mud.

and Matt and I did get full benefit of the medicinal effect of a total mud bath.