Mooning over the Li River!

We will be really nostalgic to leave this wonderful place! We can't wait to get on Trip Adviser and highly recommend this hotel here in Yangshuo. I paid up my bill this a.m. and it was about 600RMB for 3 wonderful nights, 3 great breakfast and two loads of laundry (plus free Internet mostly available! we think they shut the router down at night!) which is under $100 American dollars!! So yesterday Qin (Gao's wife - he was working in Guilin yesterday) picked us up with a very comfortable van to drive us to our bamboo rafting trip. No putt-putting for us! We bought flower wreaths from old ladies as we got there to wear as we floated down a branch of the Li River. Pat and I were on one raft with a woman poler (punter, whatever) and Marilynn and Joyce on the other. Reclining rattan seats with an umbrella and off we went! Very peaceful, lots of "Ni hao!"s from passing boats - didn't see any other foreigners on the water. Qin had told us we would stop for pictures but we didn't quite know what that meant. Turns out there was a wall dam where we exited the raft and waited while they rolled it up onto the wall. We then sat back down and slid off onto the upstream side for maybe 15 more minutes of floating. Very peaceful, gorgeous scenery! We turned around and got back to the dam. Same procedure only this time as we slid down, both Pat and I got soaked! at least the bottoms of us! There were stands where photographers were taking our picture many times and then soaking wet we were led onto the stand to purchase pictures. We each bought 3 and they were laminated (they got Joyce and Marilynn for maybe 6 or 7 each!) and off we went. Pat had on knit pants that weren't going to dry so she stood on the raft with her bum facing the sun, backwards (to the hilarity of our punters!). My cargo pants are nylon so I did the same position for a bit (of course, we had to take pictures of this ridiculous position that will be posted when the other 3 ladies get home, I hope!) as we rode along. Qin was there to greet us with the van driver after our 1.5 hr. float. We headed off for a neighboring village to see "Moon Rock", a karst with a big hole moon-shaped and more markets to buy things! and pose for pictures.  Then we headed to her village, where we shopped for dinner in the local market. We had Qin there now to tell us what some of the bizarre things were! We were all a little freaked out by the "butcher shop" area with big pieces of animal hanging. Pat had a close encounter with a heart of some animal! The chickens were all in cages and villagers going home with one dangling from their hand, wings flapping! And of course, all kinds of fish still swimming around in tubs! We took the scenic short cut through the rice paddies and fields on narrow walkways from the village to Qin's family home. We met her auntie, mom and dad and later her 5 year old son whom the auntie picked up at school at 5 - he's in kindergarten. She showed us his sheet of homework of math and how he would learn to do it on an abacus. I didn't get it!! Not smarter than a Chinese 5 year old, I'm NOT! We went out to pick beans (looked like BIG lima beans! I'm not a fan!) and some oranges from a nearby grove. We sampled one right by the tree and then she had us bury the peels! We assumed this was someone else's grove but she explained if people see the peelings, they'll know the oranges are ripe and would take some. This was her family's plot. The government divided up the land and gave each family plots in different areas, so they would have a wet one for certain crops and dryer one for others. We saw lotus plants waiting for the roots to be dug up, various kinds of "lettuce" which is what they seem to call ALL greens that we've been eating, rice that had mostly been harvest (with bundles of stalks drying for animal fodder in winter), strawberry fields (she said they are ready from February at New Year to April). The father and uncle were busy constructing and repairing a side house for the upcoming wedding of Qin's brother - big event with feeding over 100 people, 3 times a day over a 2 day celebration. But the couple will live in Guilin. I thought it was unusual for Qin to be living with her mother and father, with her son (3 women all share one bedroom, and it looked like one bed!), father across the living room in another room. Gao, the husband lives and works in Guilin. It seems he works for a tour company but does these other tours on the side. He and Qin, it sounds like, are trying to create their own business, having home stays on the farm, the home dinner, etc. So she quit her job at a hotel here when her son was a year or so and she has been working with Gao on this for awhile. Her English was excellent and she was so helpful! Gao had built this separate building that was a dining hall with big round table, and two bathrooms (Eastern, of course) off it. I think this is in anticipation of more tourists coming. We helped in the kitchen peeling the peas and beans, Mama cooked in this gigantic wok, rice cooker was going, several greens dishes and we had a lovely spread. Oh, we each helped stuffing the fried tofu balls with a pork, onion mixture that was later deep fried! We ate, had oranges and pomelo for dessert and walked through the fields out to the main road to meet our driver again. Off we went to the magnificent sound and light show! It was put together by John someone who did the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics. There must have been 500+ there in the outside theater (and a second showing at 9:15 p.m. - in the summer they do 3 performances a night!). Over 600 mostly minority Chinese participate in the show, floating in boats and platforms over the water, with the gorgeously lit karsts in the background! It was breathtaking! Fortunately there was a guard going up and down the aisles making the men put out their stinky cigarettes!! Very helpful! The show was about an hour with the finale of about 200 people, in silvery lit up costumes seeming to "float" - we think there was a submerged platform raised up) over the water towards us. It was worth every penny, we all agreed! After a great night's sleep, warm shower and terrific breakfast, we paid up and that's when disaster struck! Pat, so organized and efficient with her little black tie-on purse in the front where she keeps everything, couldn't find her credit card. We backtracked in our minds and had stopped the day before starting out at a bank. We looked at the slips from the bank and concluded she must have left it there. Maybe a good Samaritan had turned it in! Jan called Gao who gave her Qin's phone #. She got the info on which bank and decided Pat should go with her husband down to the bank. Qin would meet them there. Off she went! When she returned, she showed me the mode of transport - a MOTORCYLE! Pat, a bit China-traffic-phobic! - said she got on, grabbed him around and closed her eyes most of the time, through the tunnel, over the bridge where they met Qin. There is a question at the end of getting money that says "Take Card" and apparently she had just walked away. The guards checked her passport, another bank officer opened the back of the machine, and there was the card!! Our angel is watching out for us!! Soon Qin will take us to Silver Caves here and then to the airport for our last night at the airport in Shanghai. Zai jian!