YangShuo, a day of bike riding!

  Our hostel was amazing. The staff was super friendly, helpful and kept the place very clean. There was also a restaurant/lounge that was attached to the hostel that served us some of the best Chinese food that I have had so far on this 5 month adventure. Having the restaurant there was really convenient since the hostel itself was about 1.75 miles out of town. So on our first morning we filled up with fresh yogurt/fruit/muesli and banana porridge then went to talk to the front desk staff about some of our options for things to do. One thing that we were all excited about was renting bikes and riding around. We weren't going to let the cold, wet weather deter us. Here's the tour that we took:

Shawn rolling is pants up for this long wet ride!

Left, riding into town. Right, Trisha checking out our route.

This goes out to you, Donald (that's a heart that I'm making with my hands, FYI) !
Check out the karsts in the background (Check out the link to learn more about karsts).

Yes, that is actual bamboo being used as scaffolding.

Right, One of the roads that we biked down was a muddy pot-hole mess. I think that 

I made it out the cleanest of the three of us.

We passed a few tiny villages along the way. The rest was all countryside.

This man was out walking his water buffalo.

    We made the ride a little longer b/c we wanted to see the big Banyan tree which was planted in the Shui Dynasty about 1400 yrs ago. I had never seen a tree this old and honestly didn't know one that old could still exist. Of course the tree ended up being in a scenic area, meaning that the government has privatized the area and now a fee must be payed to enter. But 20rmb each would be worth it, right?

Trisha looking like her mom in this photo and heading to see the tree!

That clump of tree in the middle of the photo is all the one giant Banyan tree.

This is the trunk of the tree, it is being decorated for the new year.
Fireworks are also being set off next to the tree, not sure the reasoning.

It was funny that there was a barrier and multiple signs stating "forbidden entry"

yet there were about a dozen people walking around under the tree, pinning

new year banners to the tree and setting off lots of firecrackers.

Of course I found the one guy selling some food. He was selling
mochi stuffed with sweet spices and sugar. Delicious!!

    This next part made me think of Donald b/c he would have shaken his head in embarrassment b/c I managed to find the one water buffalo that I could pay to ride. I've never ridden any kind of animal before, not even a horse (maybe a mini pony at a county fair when I was small). Jumping into riding a water buffalo bare-back was crazy, I could feel all his muscles moving as he walked. I gathered quite the crown during my 30 seconds on this creature :)

Wahoo!

    After coming down from my high of being on the buffalo I was was starting to get cold. It seemed that Trisha and Shawn had been cold for awhile so we decided that getting back on the rides would warm us back up. It seemed that we were really close to Moon Hill, one of the most famous karst in Yangshuo. Off we rode...

By the time we got this area we were still cold so getting off our bikes
did not seem like a good idea. It also meant that we didn't want to pay
the fee to get into the scenic area to get a better picture so you have to
look through the trees to see the cave at the top of the hill.

It was all SO beautiful.

   The bike ride from Moon Hill was about 4 miles from the town center. It seemed like a 40 mile ride back b/c we were still cold and we all had very sore rear ends from riding on the rock hard seats for 3 hours already. Shawn was in the most pain and I think if it was possible he would have paid big bucks to just catch a ride back and not have to ride the bike back. We all made it back in one piece and stopped at the main shopping street to do some people watching and grab a meal.

Left, the entrance of the pedestrian only shopping area, West Street.

There was a HUGE New Year celebration set up, camera crews and all. Apparently,
the town dinner was going to be televised. We picked a restaurant on this block
so we could watch the action.

Beer fish is a local dish, fresh fish from the Li River
cooked in beer. Shawn and I were pretty excited (Trisha
does really eat fish).

Clockwise from bottom left. Lemon chicken, beer catfish, mushroom soup,
steamed buns with preserved vegetables. Everything was good, my only
complaint was that the catfish were so small there wasn't much meat. Each fish
 was about 7inches long and weren't gutted, that sort of creeped me out.

The aftermath.

Then we huffed it back to our hostel.

Yangshuo Village Retreat.

Topped the day off with another great meal at the hostel.
Dry sauteed green beans, Belgian fries (the hostel is owned
by a Belgian couple), Curried potatoes and Sichuan style beef ribs.

A great first day in Yangshuo!