We arrived at 6.30 am and with a crap nights sleep, we was ready for bed again but they didn't have any beds available at that time so that meant we had to kill some time before we can have shut eye. Danny and Elliot discussed the idea of building a raft in Guilin, so that we can row our way down to Yangshuo so we set out to the other side of the river with no materials and a pen knife for our tool. For some reason we thought we were going to find huge bamboo trees, which we were able to cut down (with our pen knife) and find some rope to bind it all together-if only it was that easy. After about 20 minutes of looking around, we found a built bamboo raft tied up to a tree (it was like it was meant to be). So with our great engineering skills, we decided to take this one and try and make it better. After about 30 minutes, realising we didn't aquire the skills to develop this raft into the Titanic, we slowly walked back to our hostel with the dream still alive. The plan was to get up early on Tuesday morning (4am) and start our venture down the river. Later in the evening, we decided it would be wise to see a Chinese gymnastic/acrobatic show while we're in the country, so we managed to find one on that evening. We were the only foreigners there and we found some good seats right in front of the stage so we could study their movements. It was a mixture of gymnastics, acrobatics and ballet that told a story of how the Chinese people have developed, or atleast that's what I got from it. Obviously boys being boys we found the acrobatic stuff amazing with them doing so many crazy stunts but it was a first for us all to see a combination and it is definately recommended by us if you're ever in China.
first move saw him crashing on the floor and his second snapped his board (what a flop!). He got up and saw the positive by saying that he could use the board as a paddle on our raft with our hockey stick that we stole from the luggage storage from the hostel.
The next morning, we made our own way to the rice terraces, which is the main reason for tourists visiting this place. It took us about 4hrs on a 2 bus journey with some proper locals on it. The dragon backbone rice terraces are over a huge hilly/mountain area and there is a trek that the book recommends to do to see all the best views. This was what we wanted to do but we got lost big time and when we asked for directions with our limited chinese, they pointed the same way we came but that was too far to go back, so we carried on walking for 30-40 mintues and realised we weren't gonna make the last bus back. So we had to hitch a ride on the back of some hill billy truck and managed to get a minibus to the bus station for the last bus back to Guilin.
After spending the evening at a supermarket to stock up for our journey, we were ready for our raft. We got up at 4am the following morning, went into the luggage room and stole a rubber ring to aid the floating of the raft and made our way down to the river in the dark. We found the raft with our torch (see we were really prepared) and carried the beast down to the river. Danny and Elliot got on first, with me holding on to the rope, testing if it would float. They were barely floating but we thought we may as well give it a go, so we all got on and the raft tipped straight away with us causing a huge splash and losing my flip flop in the process. Elliot, my hero, grabbed my flip-flop in time like he was catching fish with his bare hands. We saw the raft floating away with the current and with it was the skateboard, hockey stick, the rubber ring and our dreams of rafting down to Yangshuo. We got back to the hostel all dripping and we tried to leave as quick as we can but the guard wouldn't let us leave, asking about the rubber ring. We tried to deny all knwoledge because he couldn't speak English but the english speaking receptionist came down and we ended up paying for it. Our dreams have been shattered but you got to admit-What a fucking story!!
first move saw him crashing on the floor and his second snapped his board (what a flop!). He got up and saw the positive by saying that he could use the board as a paddle on our raft with our hockey stick that we stole from the luggage storage from the hostel.
The next morning, we made our own way to the rice terraces, which is the main reason for tourists visiting this place. It took us about 4hrs on a 2 bus journey with some proper locals on it. The dragon backbone rice terraces are over a huge hilly/mountain area and there is a trek that the book recommends to do to see all the best views. This was what we wanted to do but we got lost big time and when we asked for directions with our limited chinese, they pointed the same way we came but that was too far to go back, so we carried on walking for 30-40 mintues and realised we weren't gonna make the last bus back. So we had to hitch a ride on the back of some hill billy truck and managed to get a minibus to the bus station for the last bus back to Guilin.
After spending the evening at a supermarket to stock up for our journey, we were ready for our raft. We got up at 4am the following morning, went into the luggage room and stole a rubber ring to aid the floating of the raft and made our way down to the river in the dark. We found the raft with our torch (see we were really prepared) and carried the beast down to the river. Danny and Elliot got on first, with me holding on to the rope, testing if it would float. They were barely floating but we thought we may as well give it a go, so we all got on and the raft tipped straight away with us causing a huge splash and losing my flip flop in the process. Elliot, my hero, grabbed my flip-flop in time like he was catching fish with his bare hands. We saw the raft floating away with the current and with it was the skateboard, hockey stick, the rubber ring and our dreams of rafting down to Yangshuo. We got back to the hostel all dripping and we tried to leave as quick as we can but the guard wouldn't let us leave, asking about the rubber ring. We tried to deny all knwoledge because he couldn't speak English but the english speaking receptionist came down and we ended up paying for it. Our dreams have been shattered but you got to admit-What a fucking story!!
Guilin photo link:
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