Wilkens Wanderings: October 2012

We spent the Chinese holiday in rural China, outside the town of Yangshuo. We stayed at a place recommended to us by some friends, the Yangshuo Outside Inn. It is owned and operated by a European who decided 11 years ago to transform some simple, traditional mud dwellings into a hotel. It is a really fun place to stay. He has a pool table, ping pong table, and toys for the kids. He has bikes to rent cheaply for the day. There is a good restaurant on site which is where we ate most of the time. We did venture into town for an evening and at a really good Indian restaurant. Yumm! Most of the week we spent outside. We hiked up to a plateau in the Karst Mountains. We kayaked down the Li River. We biked in the countryside for hours to local destinations and through small rural villages. We took our time and stopped at anything that looked worthy of exploring. We found a bee keeper asleep in his tent next to his hives. We woke him up and shared some hot honey water and bought honey right out of the hive. We had tea in a 100 year old home from the Qing Dynasty that is now for rent for vacationers. We went out on a bamboo raft to watch fishermen fish with cormorants. And then got to have one perch on our arms! It was a very fun week. Nice to be outside in nature, away from the smog of the big city. It was really interesting to see a different side of China. Rural verses the Big City life with which we have grown accustomed.