Monday, July 16, 2018
Today was a planned late start. We had a driver picking us up from the Secret Courtyard at 10 am, so we had some leisurely time to get up, have breakfast, and stroll around the village where the hotel was located. It did indeed boast some pretty views of the karst mountains. This was the first time we’d seen the sun in a week – it’s amazing what getting out from under the smog of the Chinese supercities can do to improve your outlook on life!
Breakfast at the hotel was a much more modest buffet than what we’ve had for the past few days, but certainly adequate. Our driver met us on time, and we set off for the Longsheng Rice Terraces (which are also sometimes known as the Longji Rice Terraces).
The first hour or so of this trip was on highways. The mountainous scenery was attractive. We passed the ticketing gate for the terraces about 75 minutes into the trip. Our driver purchased our tickets for us. “Oh, we’ve arrived,” we thought. Nope. The journey to the base of the cable car took us another hour on a road that grew increasingly smaller and increasingly more windy, yet was now clogged with tour buses. And our driver was insane. He passed every other vehicle on the road, passed on blind mountain corners, passed with oncoming vehicles present – he did it all.
In hindsight, I should have given the kids some Gravol before the trip. By the time we arrived, they were definitely green around the gills. But we made it in one piece, and that’s what mattered.
We decided to grab something to eat before heading up to the rice terraces. There were several places to eat and buy souvenirs.
We found a table at one of the local restaurants, and ordered the local specialty, bamboo rice, as well as some plain rice and fried cucumbers (which turned out to be a stir fry) and drinks.
It came to 71 yuan/$15 CDN and it was all tasty. Stomachs full, we headed over to the cable car. Of course, there is never not a wait in China – so we queued up for about 45 minutes to get a car.
Finally on our way, we rode the cable car to the top of the terraces.
It was busy at the top, but definitely not as busy as some of the attractions we’d recently visited.
There is an extended viewing area at the top of the terraces that gives you several excellent vantage points, but the real fun is hiking down into the terraces themselves and seeing them up close, include the irrigation systems that have been put in place to service them.
It’s pretty impressive how these mountain villagers have made the treacherous terrain work for them. In addition to the rice terraces, here and there we would see terraces growing corn and other crops as well.
Back up on the main viewing platform, we bought some ice cream before taking a return cable car down the mountain (thankfully with a shorter line this time). There are lots of places to buy food and drink and souvenirs at the top of the terraces. You can even rent a traditional costume and dress up to take a photo of yourself.
Back at the bottom of the hill, we met up again with our driver, who was sleeping in the restaurant where we had eaten lunch. The restaurant staff came out and spoke to us, telling us we had been undercharged for lunch. We knew this wasn’t true, because we had ordered items from an English menu with prices listed alongside. We think that our driver had lunch after we left, and told the restaurant that we would cover his bill. That was definitely not part of our arrangement, and didn’t improve our opinion of him. We did not pay any more.
Before driving back, I did give Liam some Gravol at his request. The road did not seem quite so bad going back down, or maybe I was just desensitized to it. We knew it would be a longer drive going back, because we were going all the way to Yangshuo; however we did not expect it to take more than 3 hours like it did. To make matters worse, our driver stopped for a smoke break when we were 20 minutes away from the hotel. His agency will definitely not get a favourable review from us.
As we got closer to our destination, we were amazed by the karst mountains that started to crop up in the landscape. They are surreal. It was twilight, and almost too dark to see them by the time we pulled into Yangshuo Mountain Retreat. This is our home for the next 3 nights, and it is gorgeous. We know we’ll love it by the light of day.
We were exhausted from our hiking and the drive, and we went down to the on site restaurant for a quick bite to eat. The menu is pretty extensive and features lots of western dishes as well as local dishes. Prices are higher than some places we have eaten, but inexpensive compared to home, with meals in the $5-10 range. I had a plate of spring rolls and a coconut juice for a total of $8 and both were delicious. Chad had the Longzhou style fried rice, which he said was good, but the heat blew his head off.
We retired early. More adventures to come tomorrow.
Cook Family Travels 