I still have not been able to upload the pictures from Yangshou and Guilin as I did not take them with my own camera and I am waiting for Clare to come and set it up so that I can actually load them for you....
But I will continue with the stories..
Clare and I decided after much deliberation that it made more sense to just call the guy at the travel agency in the train station and pay the overemphasis price. We had try to find one of the open tourist kiosks throughout the town, but we were met with very little success. We found several of the kiosks, but they were all closed in the middle of a friday afternoon--which reminded me once again that this is China. So we called him back and I attempted to bargain with him on the price, knowing that 250rmb is more than we should have to pay, especially because it is no longer the tourist season and he offered me a rate of just 200rmb, but made it sound like this route was by far the worst way to do it and for the extra 50rmb, we could do everything on our own and not have to pay attention to the tour groups and such--which was more appealing to me, so I agreed and booked us on the 250rmb cruise, slightly regretting it. I also inquired about a massage because the hard beds of China has really began to take a toll on my bones and I heard that there were good massage places in Guilin. Again, I got a little screwed on this endeavors as I got booked into a massage place at the nicest hotel in Guilin. It was 100rmb for the massage, which is still cheap in western standards, but if I were to tell a Chinese person about this price, they would shriek at the high rate. Overall, it was a nice massage, except you keep your clothes on, which I was a little surprised by, but it made me feel more comfortable about the whole procedure.
It was a good massage, with her massaging everything except my groin, including my robust buttocks, which made me giggle like a little school girl. She also jumped on top of my back, digging her knees into my back and massaging my body--quite an amazing maneuver.
When it was done, amazingly enough, the woman nodded at my compliments and then began following me saying, TIP! TIP! TIP!, which is something you never, ever, never hear in China. It was the strangest thing. She did a good job, but 100rmb is a lot of money-but I decided to oblige the request, since it is so rare. I stopped and pulled out some money and she saw a 50 note and pointed to it-- TIP TIP! and I shook my head. No way was I giving another 50note, but I did settle on a 20 and went on my way.
The next morning, we awoke at 5:15 to take the shuttle down to the pier and go on the boat ride outside of town. It was scheduled as a 2.5 hour long boat ride and the car was scheduled to pick us up at 6am sharp. He arrived about 10 minutes later than he was expected and we could immediately tell that he knew he was late. He raced through the empty streets of Guilin and got onto the highway in mere minutes. Clare became worried when he got on the freeway because we didn't know exactly where the boat trip started, but we assumed it was in the downtown area. Not true. We were in the car for about 30 minutes while it flew down the highway, trying to get to the destination by 7am, which we made just in time. We were quickly shuffled out of the car and escorted to the boat. We were in the middle of farm country, which basically equated to the middle of nowhere. As we got onto the boat, we quickly noticed that we were the only ones on the boat and the driver of the boat quickly got the engines started and we were off. Immediately, I knew we had made the right decision. Although the process seemed shady, we were now sitting on a long tour boat, the only tourists of the river. We had our own personal moments on the Li Jang river. It was an amazing hour, cruising through the low river. taking in the beautiful scenery--hundreds of small, ragged peaks, all in dense green colors lined the distance, reflecting on the calmness of the river. It was a beautifully odd combination of both serenity and chaos. The river, still and calm as we rode through it, clearer than I thought any river could really be in China. The peaks, small in size, but rugged and fierce--something major happened here not so long ago in the timeliness of the earth and it was violent.
The scale of the mountain range reminds me of my admiration of the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, just off the rugged landscape of the Yellowstone Plateau, where I spent some of my most formative summers. These were much different, both in size and distance. The Tetons are a huge range of mountains overlooking the Snake River, while this smaller mountain of the Li Jang river, go for miles upon miles, every turn in the riverbed presents a new series of mountains. I took Clares cameras and spent most of the time on the outside deck on the loud, rusty metal ship that took us through the low river channels.
Eventually, our solo journey came to an end as we met up with the other tour boats, which we about and hour and fifteen minutes ahead of us. We stopped at an island together and we were told to get on another boat, which was equipped with Chinese tourists who instantly got very excited when the learned that two Westerners would be joining their cruise. The next 45 minutes of the cruise was spent stopping periodically at different places to basically waste time as we were close to the end, but the tour stated that it was 2.5 hours, so they have to make it seem like your getting every minutes worth.
I felt like we got our moneys worth--as I said yesterday, the thing you need to remember in China is that it really doesn't matter how much you paid, as long as you feel okay about it. You can afford to get ripped off on occasion in China.

The boat ride does end directly in Yangshou, but just outside of a small village, where there are tour buses that will either take you back to Guilin or to visit Yangshou. Every westerner for some reason simply loves to visit Yangshou, which is also known as Yangers. It is about a 30 minutes ride from where you get dropped off. We were told that it was easy to get a bus ride from the town to Yangshou, but as we arrived, we discovered that this was not entirely the case. We had done more of a budgeted trip, and they didn't cut us a deal on a bus, so we had to attempt to figure out transport. Luckily, a couple from Belgium were in the same boat as we were (pun intended). For whatever reason, their tour bus has just left without them, so they needed to fend for it on their own. We quickly found a cab driver that offered to take us to Yangshou for 50rmb each, which we bargained with her down to 30rmb for all of us. This is another example how too little is never too little.
In the car ride over, we discovered that the couple lives in Brussels, works for the main airline in Brussels, he is a pilot, she is a flight attendant. Because of their jobs, they have traveled all over the world--going to every country on the planet. The woman was a frequent flyer to Africa--this week she will go to Rwanda and live for 10 days. It was interesting to get their take on the different travels, especially Africa.
Upon arrival in Yangshou, we decided to have an early lunch with each other. They took us to a western restaurant that was really an American restaurant. Bacon, Eggs, Pancakes, Burgers, Lasagna, garlic bread--good food and not too expensive.
There was not much discussion while we were enjoying our food--both Clare and I were simply amazed at how delicious everything was--you tend to forget that things taste differently than Chinese food!
The rest of the afternoon was spent shopping and bargaining for different things. I spent a lot more money than I had budgeted for the trip, but I was able to justify it because I had spent so little since my arrival here in China. Overall, I have spent less than 600usd since I have arrived here, plus my monthly salary. I had not really purchased many of the things that I wanted to make sure I bought before leaving China, and I found all of it in Yangshou.
The biggest splurge was on a Chess set that when I saw it, I knew I needed to have it. The original price for the set was 850rmb, which was just ridiculous. Without much effort, I was able to get the price down to a mere 200 rmb and the final sales price was 180rmb. I will send a picture of it in the near future.
Yangshou serves as a good base camp location for going and checking out much of the local area. It is only 50 rmb to rent a motorbike for the afternoon, and the bike tours are very famous. There are many listings on-line for guide services, which usually include a tasty Chinese lunch. We didn't do any of these adventures as I know I will be there again sometime soon.

here's a good link to Yangshou: http://www.yangers.com/