Does it seem like I always end up on a raft?

… first time on just the bamboo variety though.

We arrived in Yangshuo last night after several metro transfers, a train ride, immigration clearing out of Hong Kong, immigration clearing into China, two high speed trains, then a shuttle ride 30 minutes or so to our hotel.  Next, a short walk to downtown for more great food.

The landscape is striking, the karsts much taller than I imagined.  Yangshuo is not the small village I imagined, but a pretty large city with a lively nighttime downtown.

We left early for our bike ride through the countryside.  Once out of town, small villages and little traffic, mostly e-bikes.  This is type of  bike I chose to ride today – a little electric scooter that goes pretty good.  Mine was just like this lady’s bike.

We arrived at our rafting starting point. Our ride was a handful of bamboo lashed together with twine with two metal lawn chairs attached in the middle, and a ‘gondolier’ of sorts with a pole who plied our way down river.  There were small little dams every so often that they put a ramp over like a slide.  You lift your feet up so your shoes don’t get wet.  It worked well until the last one.  My shoes stayed dry but the seat of my pants – soaked.

Next we biked on over to a cave inside one of the karsts.  There was a mud bath and a hot springs inside.

This evening, several of us opted to take a cooking class.  We first visited the market.  It was like a big warehouse full of meat, (yes, all kinds) vegetable, fungi, fish, live snail, eels, rays, turtles, crawfish.  We got our supplies and went on to the kitchen to make a spicy cucumber salad, pork and chive dumplings (like the potstickers you get at Costco,) eggplant with mixed vegetables and a local specialty with fish.

Tomorrow we leave for a layover night in Kunming.