We awoke to chicken clucking and crowing outside our window onto little balcony.
We had a few minutes before breakfast to wander around the village one more time before heading out for today's ride. What happened to the newly clean bikes we had yesterday morning?!
John led us back across the "wind-rain" bridge but then the group stopped. Randy's tire had a slow leak. Dave decided to ride ahead and get through the previous day's construction area at his own pace. We had to backtrack about 20 miles to the main road. We told John we would meet them at the turn onto today's new route.
Home construction in this area of China is mostly post and beam.
Besides rice, tea is a big agricultural crop here.
While waiting for the group to catch up with us, we noticed several cars decked out in celebratory bows. We postulate that these are wedding parties taking advantage of the first of a seven day national holiday in China. We were warned this morning to expect lots of traffic as we go through several cities today. Millions of Chinese leave on vacation during the "Golden Week" holiday.
Our early morning route was along a river.
This entire bridge was covered with pagoda structures.
Chinese like to celebrate by firing off thousands of firecrackers. This scene was repeated throughout the day. Yes, those red scraps are blown firecrackers, by the many-thousand.
The smoke clearing in the background here is from more firecrackers. John warned us this morning to keep an eye out for firecrackers thrown from the back of cars - it can be very unsettling to have one explode beneath your motorcycle.
In Longsheng we ran into the holiday traffic. Not too bad, but it did slow us down.
Another wedding - this time the bridal car was videographed from the open back of a van. We gave the couple a happy honk as we passed. I hope we added to the memories of their day.
John warned us that even though the road out of Longsheng was good, for some reason it is slippery even when dry. Unfortunately, we had light rain. Dave didn't experience any extra movement from the bike, but several others did mention a little squirrelly action.
Traffic was steady, and the holiday brought out some crazies. We had one minivan attempt dangerous passes several times and even raced through a parking lot to get ahead of a truck!
This mishap, once again, begs the question of why there is such a sheer drop off from many roads. Besides this accident, we had a bus slide into a car right beside us as we were passing. The rear end of the bus started to slide into our lane, giving us a heart-stopping moment.
Late morning found us entering the well-manicured city of Guilin, and the Karst mountain resort area.
Even after a month in China, I am still amazed by what people carry in traffic on scooters and small utility bikes.
Our introduction to the region is via roads strewn with debris, blocked blue barriers and overgrown weeds.
But as we approached the resort town of Yangshuo, the surroundings became neater and better maintained. The mountains begin to close in on the town and the road.
What a grand entrance to the park.
The road to our hotel is lined with produce vendors.
We reach the resort hotel, Yangshuo Resort Hotel, around noon. Since we are so early, some rooms are not ready, including ours. So we ventured down to the riverside cafe and had lunch with Mary Jane, Steve and Marilyn.
We opened the door to our room and said WOW - worth the wait. This is a two-night stop, and I see a hot bath in the very near future.
