Somewhere down the lazy Yulong river

Let us not forget we also have free time and Sue and I went out for a bike ride in Yangshuo on Saturday 25th.  It cost 5 rmb to hire a bike for the day (school teachers rate about .50p) and we headed out into the countryside to find the Yu Long river and see the sights.

After about 30 minutes the tarmac finished and we were on mud track and we had acquired a pink lady. She asked if we were going to “Dragon bridge, very beautiful” because it was only about 1 hour away, we said maybe and cycled on.

cormorant fishing, Yulong River, Yangshuo

However the pink lady was dogged and pursued us through villages and across fields and we were pleased she was there one time to put us on the right track when we went wrong.

We were truly in the countryside now riding past people living their daily lives and either being ignored or greeted with Hello! Nee How! We cycled along tracks between rice paddies and vegetable plots, with the river occasionally visible on our left, over and across streams and irrigation ditches and always with the constantly changing vista of the towering velvet covered hills. They are a vibrant green etched with off-white vertical scars close up and fading to dark green, olive and watercoloured mauve and misty grey with distance.

We arrived at Dragon bridge (Yulong Bridge) in time for me to witness an inpromptu cock fight and haggle with the pnk lady for a bamboo raft trip back down Yulong river towards Yangshuou.

I managed to get from 200rmb down to 170rmb for 2 hours on a raft including transporting our bikes. Our lunch companions took advantage of the deal on offer and we set off in tandem, us in the capable hands of Mr pink lady and them being steered by pink lady and, we assumed, her sister!

Maybe I could have got a better deal elsewhere but in retrospect I would have gladly paid 200 or more because we experienced a magical and serene 2 hours on the water that we wll never forget. “Press the pause button” is the expression we use to remind ourselves to savour the moment and we enjoyed several on that trip. Sue said she wanted to paint some of the scenes we recorded but the reality is so awesome it would be impossible to convey without being seen as fictional. (orginal article posted on travelblog.org)

More informations of Yulong River and the bamboo rafting