Li River Cruise, Guilin

When you are on a cruise on the Li River in the Guilin region, you are not alone.  Dozens of boats leave more or less simultaneously every day to view the dramatic Karst mountains of the region (including the model for the painting on the back of the 20 RMB), but don't let the crowds dissuade you--each boat has plenty of room to get around, and the Li River is wide and accomodating.

Each boat has an outdoor kitchen in the back where chefs work throughout the river cruise to prepare food for the passengers.  Unfortunately, the boat is divided between Chinese and foreigners, and so is the food.  My fantasy is that the food on the Asian deck was far better, because our food was a bit on the bland side.  The truth may be that despite all the fun I had watching chefs on various boats that none of the food matches the quality of cuisine in an average Chinese restaurant.

The food was especially disappointing considering that much of it was sold directly from the river.  Men on these pseudobamboo rafts (maybe some of them are still actually made out of bamboo, but the sheer number of them caused me to doubt that) paddle alongside the boat and sell fuit to the passengers, but also fresh fish to the chefs on the back of the larger boats.

Once we neared Yangshuo, the bamboo rafts abounded.  They had a paddler and then 2 chairs with an umbrella overhead so that the people who hired the raft could sail in comfort down the river.  At one spot there was a little lift at a drop in the river, so you could experience the brief exhiliration of the drop (think the drop at the end of the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' ride--we are not talking Class 3 rapids), and then have the boat hauled back up to do it all over again.

This was definitely the most peaceful and beautiful day of the trip.