Wednesday, July 18, 2018
We thought we’d start out early today, but needed some sleep. We went for breakfast around 8 am, again eating on the riverbank. It was a little more overcast than yesterday, and had a bit of a breeze, but promised to be just as hot (forecast high of 97F).
After breakfast, we jumped on some bikes and rode to Moon Hill. The ride was only about 20 minutes. The first part of the ride, on our hotel road, was the worst. It’s supposedly closed to traffic from 7 am to 7 pm as part of the ‘Yangshuo River Scenic Area’, but we can’t see evidence of that. There is a steady stream of vehicles on it all day. The main road was actually better for biking, because it has a wide shoulder for bike and scooter traffic.
Moon Hill Scenic Area costs 14 yuan/$2.75 CDN per person to enter. We locked up our bikes and bought some cold water from an elderly lady who approached us.
The hike up only took 20 minutes, but it was the sweatiest 20 minutes of our lives. Chad had to wring his shirt out. The trail consists of 880 steps to the top and is not for the faint of heart on a 97 degree day. But we made it! There are some nice views of the mountains from the top, but we didn’t linger long before heading back down.
At the bottom we bought some more water from the other elderly lady who had been hounding us, to make it fair. Then we hopped back on our bikes, rode the 20 minutes back to the resort, and collapsed in our igloo of a room.
Luckily the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat has some strong air conditioning.
We popped into the restaurant for a quick bowl of ice cream that Chad had promised the kids in exchange for their labour. Then the boys jumped into the river to cool off for a bit, and Mallory and I both did some reading, before going back to the restaurant for lunch.
For lunch we split some spring rolls and chicken curry rice. Again – cheap, delicious, and no need to go off property to eat.
After lunch, the kids wanted to stay cool for a bit. I was itching to get out on a bike again, and Chad wanted to come with me. We left the kids with explicit instructions not to go in the water, and set out for a ride. (Mallory spent the whole time reading, and Liam on his iPad, in the room.)
Chad and I rode down the pedestrian path to the end and then onto some local roads. We were hoping to make it to Yulong bridge, but owing to a couple of wrong turns, we didn’t quite make it before deciding to turn back so as not to keep the kids waiting too long. Unfortunately, that is right about the time I got a flat tire on my bike. At first I thought I was just getting tired because the bike felt like it was getting more and more difficult to move. In hindsight, I understood why! Chad chivalrously took the flat tire bike and let me ride the good one home.
We were back after 90 hot and sweaty minutes, totally parched despite drinking 4 bottles of liquids on our ride. Chad and Liam went out to the river with inner tubes. Mallory was still reading in the cool indoors, and I took my book out to the riverbank. We whiled away the last couple of hours before dinner in this fashion before showering and going down to the dining room.
Dinner was the shrimp specialty, egg fried rice, and a fried broccoli with garlic dish that was perhaps the best thing I’d eaten yet on this trip. We also shared a fruit plate. We were ready at 7 pm to meet our taxi driver for the trip into town, because we had tickets for the 8 pm Impression Sanjie Liu show.
I expected good things from the show, particularly after finding our seats and seeing the way the natural amphitheater was set up. We’d heard that the show uses the water and the surrounding mountains as part of the show.
But we all agreed afterwards that we were a bit disappointed by it. I expected more lights on the surrounding mountains, and Mallory thought she would see water fountains.
It turned out to very much be a stage show, focused on the actors. There were a large number of them (around 600), which I suppose was impressive, but it fell a bit short to my mind. Then again, they run 3 performances nightly and it often sells out, so what do I know?
After the show, we met up with our taxi driver again for the return trip, stopping at an ATM to pick up enough cash to settle with the hotel. Then we came back to the room and packed up in anticipation of checking out early in the morning.
Cook Family Travels 