Merrell/Chong Family travels: A day in Yangshuo countryside

On the morning of the 5th we had plans to travel up the Yulong river and travel back down to Yangshuo via actual bamboo rafts. This is supposed to be the quintessential Yanshuo experience. You can go as far as 6 hours upstream but most people opt for a 50 or 90 minute float back down to Yangshuo. Unfortunately Nick got food poisoning the night before and was still tied to the bathroom so we decided Syd and I would go do the float and then report back to Margaret and Nick so they could decide what they wanted to do. Syd and I caught a ride upstream where you might expect we would find a bunch of bamboo raftsmen and then we would have to bargain and negotiate for a float back down. Instead the tourist experience was the sort of regimented, efficient and perhaps somewhat impersonal experience we have found in much of China. We found a huge car park capable of holding dozens of buses if necessary. It was mostly empty. On one end of the car park was a ticket office. You buy your tickets there, no bargaining. Then you walk 100 yards across the car park to the place where they take the tickets you just bought and punch them and assign you a boatmen. When we got there a family was in the middle of arguing with the ticket punchers because grandma was apparently over 70 and thus banned from the ride. But no one wanted to stay behind with grandma. We weren't allowed to punch our ticket and pass through the turnstile until the family had decided what to do with grandma. At that point there was another argument between two boatmen. I'm not sure but I think the two were arguing over who had to take Syd and me not who got the privilege of taking us. The loser stomped off to the rafts and motioned for us to get on the one he chose. I started calling him Mr. Grumpypants. The raft we were assigned was clearly the most decrepit of the lot. I am heavier then average here but our raft was already partly underwater before we every got on. Also ours was the only one without a sun umbrella. The scenery down the river was beautiful but the water was very slow moving and it was very hot and humid. I really wanted that umbrella and was very glad I hadn't signed up for a longer float. Mr Grumpypants continued to grumble and spit and never said a word to us. The only relief was the occasional low rise dam that we had to slide over. My weight combined with our half sunken raft didn't help Mr Grumpypants mood here at all. When we got to the end of the river we hopped off and Mr Grumpypants pushed off without even a chance at a tip which was good since he wasn't going to get one.
Despite our experiences Margaret decided to give the float a try. She and Syd headed back up the river and got a raft that wasn't sinking, an umbrella, and a nice boatman. Sounded like an all together different experience.

Bamboo rafting down the Yulong River

Buying grilled fish as you float down the river

By the afternoon Nick was feeling better and we all went for a bit of a bike ride. We explored up and down the main road in the area. The road was mostly lined with fields and along the road were people selling produce from the fields. Margaret bought sliced mangos. Eventually we wandered off the main road on to some village roads. We were heading for Longtan village. This is a village known for a small set of early Qing dynasty buildings which are still being lived in and are preserved in their original state. We found a typical ticket booth selling tickets for "Longtan Pool" It seemed almost deserted but we bought tickets and went through the turnstyle. This seemed to be a rather pathetic and nearly abandoned tourist site. There was a pool with a tacky dragon sculpture and a few bamboo rafts even worse then the one I had that morning. There were some fake trees with weird pink and orange leaves. The whole thing was deserted. At the back was a path that supposedly led to the village but said it was a mile away. We gave up and left. As we left I decided to follow the road a few meters around the abandoned tourist site to the right. I stumbled on an alley that was only about 3 feet wide with a small sign indicating the old buildings were just down the alley. There was some old man sitting there and the kids asked him if we could go down the alley and he said yes. Sure enough we found the old building just down there.