real bamboo

After a quick tour of the village, we got to take a ride on some legitimate bamboo rafts.
(See first video at the bottom)

At the first stop we made, some farmers brought their water buffaloes over for us to feed.

I took this picture from the near the water buffalos (from almost the same place where the Windows XP wallpaper picture was taken).

Then we stopped on the river and one of the guys from the village put on a cormorant fishing show for us. It only took the birds a few seconds to bring up a fish. (See second video at the bottom)

We went a little bit further down the river after the cormorant show. At one point one of the men paddling the raft lost his balance and fell in (and it was probably about 35 degrees out). The other drivers gave him a pretty hard time.

If I went back (which I would like to when it’s warmer) I would probably stay in Yangshuo over Guilin. Guilin was fine, but it was a lot of traveling to get to any of the scenic places. Yangshuo is much smaller and has many scenic areas close by for biking or hiking.