Guilin Trip, Day 6

After several days in the town nestled amongst the karst, it was finally time to bid our adieu to Yangshuo that morning as we all clambered aboard the buses and drove off into the countryside...and when I mean off in the countryside, I'm talking way, way off the beaten path here. After driving for several hours through the countryside, we actually reached a point where we had to leave our normal-sized buses and clamber aboard mini buses (not much more than oversized vans, really) which took us even deeper into the countryside, to a small village. 

Our temporary abode turned out to be a sizable lodge-like structure, with a "dining room" downstairs (a bunch of wooden tables and chairs) and the upper floors all contained rooms for two or three people, with a weird mix-and-match array of toilets (some rooms had western toilets, my roommate and I had a squatter that took forever to flush.)

Shortly after arrival, it was time for lunch, where I had the pleasure of meeting the baby daughter of the family who owned and ran the little lodge, and their dog...or at least we all honestly thought it was their dog when it walked in and sat at my table to patiently wait for hand-outs, until someone chased it out.     

Shortly afterwards, a large group of us set off to hike to another little village about a mile or so away, or at least I think it was only that far. It took a while to get there though, considering the fact that we had to take extremely narrow paths (no wider than one person) that cut weaved over and around hill after hill, all of which were covered from top to bottom with rice terraces. 

I'm pretty sure this is some type of bamboo irrigation system here. 

After braving the journey, at last we arrived in the small town, and promptly headed over to the village school there to meet some of the local children. 

Many of us had brought small gifts or candy for them (along with simple school supplies). Unfortunately, we didn't exactly have much time to play with them afterwards due to the fact that we had to turn around and head right back before it grew dark. 

Thus, it was back into the rice paddies for all of us. 



















Here in this photo you'll see a woman from the Yao ethnic minority, which were fairly prevalent in the area and quite easy to spot due to their distinct dress. Unfortunately though, as many of us learned later on, they too had fallen victim somewhat to the epidemic of over-commercialization of culture that has spread throughout this country - while some of us were eating dinner, they actually entered the lodge to try and sell us "home-made" blankets and scarves (and unsuccessfully tried to convince us that they were the ones that sowed on the tags that said the scarves were made in the Middle East, though they never tried to give an excuse why). 

Fortunately though, the day didn't end upon a sour note, for around 7:30 PM, we all went to the school just several buildings away, where we had a small party with the local schoolchildren there.....and where one ten-year-old had quite a bit of fun with my camera. 

Now, as for pictures I actually took that night....the little gathering started off with a little fire, where after some of the children sang for us, several girls fro the group got everyone to do the Hokey-Pokey. Then, as a treat, two local Yao women stood before us all to expose their hair.

Okay, I'll admit, that doesn't sound exciting in any way, shape or form, at first. Mind you though, the women of this ethnic group not only abstain from cutting their hair, but they keep all hair that falls out and incorporate it into some peculiar, ever-growing hairpiece of sorts (all for some reason that I have since forgotten. I want to say it has to do with some belief about their soul existing in their hair, but I can't verify this assumption).  

After that odd display, the party got much less formal, as for a while we all just played in the school courtyard with the children or just attempted to talk with them in our limited, limited Chinese.


Then finally, they got to show us their classrooms, where we gave them pencils, notebooks, and candy as a group present to them from TBC. 

Unfortunately, the festivities couldn't last forever, for after all, these were only children, and by no means could stay up the whole night. We finally said our goodbyes, and headed back up to our lodgings, where most of us quickly turned in for the night. 

My apologies for not writing in very much detail as of late - the workload's been pretty heavy recently, and.....ack, I don't even have the energy to elaborate on that as of now (groan). 

Hopefully you'll all be able to enjoy these pictures. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to publish this post and then promptly nod off right here in the TBC library.