Here we are at the start of our trip down the Li River. This is the part of China that is often portrayed in pictures--high limestone hills, small farms, quiet villages. As you can see, the day we were there was foggy, giving a mystical aura to all we saw.
I will not make many long comments on this blog. The pictures speak for themselves.
Water buffalo along the river.
The back of another boat like ours. The passenger area was actually quite nice and very clean. We traveled for 4 1/2 hours so we ate lunch on the boat as we watched the scenery pass by.
Our lunch was probably cooked in a kitchen similar to this one.
If you think this looks like a snake in the bottle, you are correct. If you notice, there is a bottle of something alcoholic next to the snake bottle. That's because this is the bar on the boat. If we wanted to pay the price, we could have had snake wine with our lunch. It still makes me shudder to think of it.
We saw some small boats with only a couple of tourists on it. I think I liked the bigger boat better.
Other boats passed by loaded with fruits and vegetables to take to market. Some of them were loaded with souvenirs. They kept pace with our boat and the people hawked their wares by standing on the roof of their little boats.
Women doing their wash in the river. The water was COLD. I imagine their hands were numb as they scrubbed and scrubbed.
As we arrived Yangshou I snapped this picture of an elderly man with his cormorant. More about the birds later.
We disembarked at a nice pier and walked for 15 minutes to our hotel. The walk was through a gauntlet of shops with everyone trying to sell us something. Actually, this was one of the best places to shop that we saw on the whole trip. Knowing what I know now, I would have bought more things there.
After checking in to the hotel, we boarded a golf cart-like vehicle and went for a tour in the country. We stopped at a family home which is opened up to tourists. This is the courtyard.
The house was full of surprises. The family had several generations living there. They were Buddhist and here was one of their shrines. Interestingly enough, a TV was nearby and some children were watching it.
Another room contained two of these. If you think it looks like a coffin, you are once again correct. The family is "wealthy" by local standards and the grandparents already have their coffins built for when they die.
The next surprise came when we stepped out the back door. Can you guess what this is? I will say I was very happy it was quite cool. Does that give you a hint?
This picture gives a better perspective. It was the biggest wasp nest I have ever seen. Like I said, I'm surely glad there were none of them out flying around.
Everywhere we go, people are surprised at how tall Jim is. Teenagers, especially, walk carefully by him to see how they "measure up." This lady was no teenager, but she was very curious about Jim's height. So, we took a picture. She may have been amazed at how "tall" he was, but we were amazed at just how "small" she was.
We left the farmhouse at dusk and enjoyed the scenery as we made our way back to town. Here are some of the pictures we took.
Half Moon Arch.
After dinner we boarded some boats to go watch the local fishermen catch fish using cormorants. They tie a string around the bird's neck so he cannot swallow the fish. Then they go out on a boat with a bright light. The birds dive into the water and catch the fish. They can hold 4 or 5 fish in their gullets. They are trained to return to the boat where the fisherman has them hop up onto the deck.
Then he squeezes the fish out into a basket. After that the bird is sent out to catch some more fish. Because of the bright lights we could see the birds under the water catching the fish. It was a fascinating experience. Don't know what the PETA people would say to this, but it works for the Chinese.
No comments:
Post a Comment