Taking a boat down the Li River is something many tourists do, and it was a very beautiful trip. Our boat left port at 9am so we had to leave the hotel in Guilin by 8:15 in three taxis. The taxi drivers tried to sell us on the idea that the boats wouldn’t take our luggage, and offered to drive it down for us, but it was just a scam. The boat trip itself was about 5 hours long, and by car the trip is only an hour and a half, but from the water the view is magnificent. It rained a little bit on and off while we were on the boat, and when it wasn’t raining we went on the upper deck and took pictures. Mom and I talked to some Japanese businessmen that were just thrilled to talk to Americans. The mountains were very awesome, with parts where sheer rock cliffs came down to the water’s edge, and other parts where there were the fog made the distant mountains up against the close up mountains look like a 3d picture, where you have to use the red and blue glasses to see the image. The boat was a little over 100 feet long I think and had two restrooms, a large diesel engine and a kitchen to cook lunch for everyone on board. The food was not so good on the boat, it was very greasy and I also didn’t feel very well so I only ate the steamed rice. I was surprised that many little boats came up to our large boat with things to sell. They took a large metal hooks and attached it to the tire bumpers on our boat, and tried to sell things to the tourists on our boat. Audrey bought something, I don’t really know what it is, but I’m sure we’ll see a picture of it later. The boat arrived as it was supposed to, about 5 hours later in Yangshuo, and again all the high-pressure sales people came up and tried to sell us postcards and everything else we didn’t want. Time is up for now, we’re leaving for Nanning tomorrow early and I need to go to bed. I’ll write on the trip there about Yangshuo and everything else that has happened.
