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.

trip to Yangshuo post number one.

It has been a long time, yes, getting a working web site, and the time has been a challenge, especially the former. My computer too has been a challenge pretty much the entire trip. Time for a new one.

To the trip: trains, boats, buses, taxis, bicycles, and uber too, but no airplanes. The trains involved fancy pants bullet trains like the ones below. We were even in car # 8 which happened to be number one in line behind the engine of front car since there does not seem to be an engine. However, what ever magic these use, they do go fast and smooth. And above ground. Elevated tracks nearly always unless in a tunnel which is also pretty standard in the mountains. That is us plus a friend below.

We actually rode in two trains. One a bullet train, the other an overnight sleeper which was a "traditional" old train replete with bumps, clickety clacks, rattles, shakes, jerks and all kinds of noises. Here a clump of us are looking out the window opposite the six stacked by threes beds in the "hard sleeper" that part of us had on the outbound trip. (See Laura's blog for more photos of the hard sleeper).

and here is Lydia in the top bunk of the soft sleeper that we all had on the return. Patt and I had a soft on the outbound trip too.

Reading, playing cards, eating, looking out the windows and talking did not take up all the time.  Getting in an occasional nap was a good thing to do on the bullet train too.  As did Patt and John Paul.

Notice the electronic message board at the back of the car behind Laura in the bullet train. It is keeping track of the speed. 246 KM per hour for those keeping track.  

The waiting room for the sleeper. The train stations are HUGE.  In fact China does HUGE well.  some of the newer train stations we were in are seemingly miles long and wide — no exaggeration - seriously no exaggeration.  Ginormously large.  

This was taken quickly (well what did you expect ) from the bullet train window as we went through / over a small town.  Note the "interstate" is doing the same thing.  Note the tunnel through the mountain.  Note the old train tracks and trains in the lower portion of the photo.  There is a lot here.  In most towns there is building of overhead trains or highways.  Concrete overhead transportation structures are under construction most everywhere you would happen to look.

and one of the prettier farm scenes.  There was a lot of farm/agriculture too, just most not as well tended.  Apparently the rural communities are becoming depopulated of young worker age people leaving the elderly and children as the worker age go to the cities for opportunities.  Can't say I blame them as the farmers I saw were pretty much working alone in a field and bent over at the waste in some form of what looked like pretty hard labor.

More on the Yangshuo trip to come in future posts.

Patt's birthday —days two and three.

The continuing celebration of Patt's birthday drifted over to her actual birthday which was the 28th when we had the cake baking the previous day. Big deal blowing out candles and singing happy birthday in a couple of languages and posing for pictures. There were some eager candle blowers and some poaching of the blowing going on— two guesses as to who and they will both be right.

On the 30th we continued the celebration with this view from the 37th floor of the Ritz Carlton Hotel downtown. Yes indeedee! The RITZ ! From our full floor to ceiling wall to wall windows this was the view to the south. Down in the green square if you look closely at the lower edge, there is a statute to a famous leader and author of a Little Red Book, who would probably be a bit uneasy with some of the changes that have occurred here in the last year or two.

Especially with the light shows that go on at night. The buildings put on amazing light shows.  "Running" lights, changing patterns, shapes, blinks, colors that move and shift and from a recent visit I know there is western music too. We are talking uptown. Oh yeah, we stayed at the Carlton, as we called it, for the night, enjoyed the spa, the dining, and we are talking just a bit of luxury. Open the door to the room — the curtains opened. Press a bedside button— they closed. It was a tough evening  though - 45 channels and no ESPN.

As part of the birthday celebration, Patt gave the kids gifts — to the three boys, European soccer/football team uniforms. We took the kids to school the next day and here is bashful, reluctant student (not a chance) John Paul with his Barcelona uniform with his teacher — who loves him - and he her.

and a little less enthusiastic Luke with his Arsenal uniform heading with some serious encouragement toward his classroom. He too is loved by and loves his teacher, but is less visible in showing it.

Isaac with his Manchester United uniform and neighbor/friend on way to Tai Quan Do lesson pausing to look tough(?).  I took the two boys on a local bus on about a 30 minute ride /walk from our apartment complex to their lesson site.

and on occasion the little two do get quiet and like for me or Grandmama to read to them. They do listen well. And bring piles of books.

Guess who knows their numbers? ……. and no it is not Luke!

A couple of evenings ago Luke put some plastic blocks together that had numbers on them and proceeded to ask Grandmama what they were.  As Grandmama answered with apparent confidence "that's a two, a four, a five" and so on and did it to in random order too.  Luke seemed quite surprised - turned and ran to his Mom and announced that "Grandmama knows her numbers".  We are so proud.  

All this and just a day or two before her birthday too.  The day before Grandmama/s birthday We all walked to a nearby mall, (not a problem as there are lots of them) and had a nice western meal at a somewhat famous restaurant.  More parties and cake and celebrations to come as there are multiple days of celebrations planned for Grandmama's birthday now that she knows her numbers.

Getting there involved the riding-of-scooters for the kids and they are good at it.  However making an excursion with them is a bit like that famous old super bowl commercial about herding cats.  Actually there is a lot about these five that reminds me of the difficulty of "bringing in a herd of longhairs" (quote is from the comercial)

It is fun to watch them sail down a road though and sail is a good word to use here as they move so smoothly and effortlessly across down a greenway.

and will come right at ya — but you already knew that.

nooo —mine — noooo—— Mama ——aaaahhhh—nooo———wahhhh—mine  ———nooo

Julianna, after much saving, discussion, debate and a little shopping tried out these roller blades.  Despite the obvious obstacle course in the store, she was successful in navigating around the store enough times to convince herself that indeed she would make the biggest purchase she had ever made.  So now at most every opportunity, she is outside roller blading instead of scootering.  Note Isaac in the background, he too is quite the roller blade aficionado.  His savings are a bit short as of current date.

and Grandmama gets some snuggle time with Luke who really likes to look at photos on her phone

Got here and it is so nice too.

We have, after a bit of traveling, arrived to see grandchildren and as is evident from the photo below we were warmly and enthusiastically greeted.  Lydia after being dismissed from class across the way, ran to see her Grandmama. sweeping right past John Paul.  

(Also finally got good access to internet for a brief while here.)  

Julianna was just a little bit older, and I enjoyed the interplay between older sister and youngest brother as they passed in the same "adult free" (mostly) zone for kids to move freely to get to parents around the pick up area — there are 2,000 or so kids to be let out.  Thankfully not all at once and there is a definite order to the dismissals.

Luke coming at you and John Paul going away can flat out ride a scooter.  Fast and somewhat without regard for whomever may be on the sidewalk.  Could in the future probably serve them well if they rode motor cycles in Hanoi.

Julianna and friend walking home from school,

At the end of the block is Laura and Matt's apartment complex of a bunch of buildings.  Some only 9 stories tall, some 17, and some 25.  These in the foreground are about 27 to 35 which seems to be about the norm for this area.  Yes it looks like canyons to me.  I do not know what it looks like to them, home I reckon.

Patt has some eager learners for a new craft — knitting.  Of course they are trying to switch hands as neither is lefty so it has some translating to do and Patt tries to knit righty so it is knitted brow time too.

Very eager students too.  They get a lot of attention and we are glad to share it too.

I went with the boys to their school with Isaac and such fun to watch the dynamics as they begin the day so differently.  John Paul is READY to be there, Luke, not so much.  Both boys have on Wake Forest shirts if you will note.  They saw what I was wearing and would have on nothing else.  Like I said earlier.  We are well greeted and received.

And Lydia and I went to Ikea and a "date"  and actually got out of the store!  We did go down and up staircase to accomplish the exit — being foreigners has its advantage from time to time and that was one of them.  (Going on dates with the kids is one of my favorite times here.  We do lunch and a walk around someplace)(sometimes it involves transportation, sometimes not- this time not as Ikea is walking distance away — if you are not afraid of a walk)