July 24, 2009 – Day 211 – Guilin, China

Well, it was not a good start to the day: up at 7:30AM to get breakfast but the shop was closed, followed by a cramped, sweaty 2 hour minibus ride to the river. We shared the bus and boat with a family of 3 who spoke no English (we are discovering that there are tons and tons…and tons of Chinese tourists in China), a bit awkward at times on a tiny boat but not bad.

View down the river

Unfortunately, as with any organized tour, our little PVC-painted-green-like-bamboo boat stopped every 3-5 minutes to get out and look at this island, that island, another island, a hill with a restaurant that none of us wanted to eat at but the driver spent almost 2 hours visiting with his friend the owner after he had shooed us 5 into the boat as if we were leaving right away, then a boat party with 4 other boats who were friends with our driver and wanted to hang out and play lame loud music for an hour and a half, and then finally another island with a tiny market of snacks and few tourist trinkets.

Traditional fisherman

It was such a beautiful day and the mountains were clear and high against the blue cloudless sky. The Li River is very long but wide and so shallow that you can walk across almost any part it seems.

Surrounding mountains

The land and mountains are so beautiful and well worth the annoyance of the tour guide who turned out to be quite a jerk. On the way back to our starting point, we had the boat to ourselves because the family of 3 were headed toward Yangshuo on a connecting boat/bus and we were going back to Guilin. It was spectacular.

Seaboat Captain

Travel Tip:

We paid about $17/pp for transportation to and from the river, the guide (who only spoke Chinese), and the boat trip itself. It seemed a bit much but we didn’t have to hassle with trying to find a way back from the tiny village for the 2 hour ride back to Guilin. There was only 1 minibus waiting around the dock area when we came back and it was for us. So it might be best to go ahead and book with your hostel so you at least know you will get back to town!