We booked 2 tours for today, Silver Cave and Li River Bamboo Rafting with the lady who maned the bicycle renting business in front of our hotel yesterday. We paid RMB 120 per person for the Siver Cave Tour which included the admission tickets while the bamboo rafting cost RMB 100 per raft which could actually accommodate 4 people. (Bargain please!)
When we came out from our hotel at 9 a.m, we saw this... quite foggy. It was not a good time to do the rafting as the visibility of Li River would be bad. So we decided to do the Silver Cave tour first.
We waited about 10 mins before a seven-seater van came and picked us up in front of our hotel. The van stopped at West Street to pick another 4 Chinese visitors before continuing our journey to the cave.
Silver Cave...
Silver cave is a splendid limestone cave that located about 25 km from Yangshuo County and it took about 40 mins drive from our hotel. The cave ran trough 12 mountains and the roundabout tour in the cave covered about 2 km.
The walkway leading to the inner part of the cave... although it was cold outside but the cave was actually quite warm where we had to take off our jackets.
Diamond-like stalactites highlighted with different color of lights that make it a dazzling place.
Water reflection shot...
Does it look like waterfall?
Crystal embedded stalactites that actually sparkle when highlighted with blue lights.
They have all sort names for the stones... example the one looked like monkey was named "Sun Wukong" (Monkey King- The monkey character in the Journey To The West novel) and so on. However I had problem of figuring it out, all of them, when the guide introduced except the one shown above.
One building after we exited the cave... we spent about an hour in the cave and once we exited, the van driver was already there, waiting. Soon after everybody was on board, the driver sped off. The journey back was uneventful and we were the first to be dropped off.
By the time we reached hotel, It was already 12:30 p.m. We wanted to go for lunch first before we continued the rafting tour. I just wanted to have a quick lunch near our hotel but the lady tour agent recommended we should try the home-cooked lunch at the farm house beside the Li River. We agreed and she immediately walked us down to the riverbank...
The raft handler whom was the brother-in-law of the lady agent was already waiting down there...
There we go... heading downstream. The first impression of the Li River was its water. The water was so clear that you could actually see the bottom of the river. If it was not winter and the water was not so cold, I would have jump into the river for a good swim.
We reached the farm house restaurant after riding about 20 mins or so...
The farm house restaurant...
When we walked up to the restaurant, it was rather empty and we were the only customers. It was a makeshift restaurants with "attap" roof that built in front of a wooden house. The restaurant just has 3 or 4 tables and no decoration.
The lady owner came to take order and we swiftly placed our order mainly based on her recommendation. She recommended the Li River fish soup, the farm chicken ( we ordered half chicken- min. order) and fried bitter gourd with beef.
The farm behind the restaurant...
Once finished with our order, the lady took a net and basket before walking down to the river. I thought she must be kidding... how long did she need to catch the fish?? Luckily she just walked to the riverbank and pulled out a cage from the water... though fishes were already caught earlier and placed inside the cage before customers ordered, but she still took a while, 20 mins or so to bring back the fishes...
We thought that it was a big fish but it turned out to be 10 or more small fishes like this... our raft handler help out with the cutting and cleaning.
The granny was chasing around before the chicken was caught... she started to boil water and the poor chicken was ready to be slaughtered.
It took about 2 hours (no kidding), from the moment we placed the order until this 1st dish being served. The fishes were cooked with plain water and maybe a pinch of salt. They said this was the best way to prepare the fish... I guess you would get the same "taste" with whatever fish you cook in this way. The broth was stinky for my liking and the fish was too small to appreciate its meat. I stopped drinking the soup after my first sip and hardly finished a single fish, neither did Mrs. Chialat.
The Kampung Chicken... this was quite good and we finished the whole thing.
The fried bitter gourd with "buffalo meat"... I'm not sure if it was beef or buffalo as the meat was damn chewy. We only managed to finish half of the bitter gourd while the beef was left untouched.
Guess what is it inside?
... our white rice. It was cooked with firewood and therefore it has a bit of burned taste. It took closed to 3 hours when we finished our meal there. The total bill came to RMB 120.00
The rafting tour continued after our lunch...
We reached our final destination, Fuli Village before heading back...
Fuli Village was like a ghost town... human beings were hardly seen here.
Broken house...
A rundown town...
Just a couple of stalls selling paintings and souvenirs...
Wood carving arts...
We spent 20 mins in Fuli before heading back...
Scenery on the way back...
Broken Boat...
It was almost "home" when we saw this structure... it was actually a bridge leading to the Liu San Jie Show.
It was 4:30 p.m when we reached the jetty. We bought some local fruits and dried persimmon at the jetty before going back to our hotel... It was just a 10 mins stroll.
We took some rest before coming out again... we were not particularly hungry as we had a long and late lunch earlier, but we definitely need a massage after a whole day of walking. We took a "tutu" to West Street and found a Spa center just where the "tutu" stopped. The Spa was quite "grand" and clean, therefore we decided to try their foot massage. The 2 hours foot massage came with 20 mins shoulder massage (quite good actually) that cost RMB 100 per person.
It was already 9:00 pm after the massage... and we headed straight for our dinner...
There were plenty of restaurants in West Street... but with our instinct, we chose "Mei Jie".
Their menu...
Pork Dish... it was quite good.
Duck dish... excellent!
Staffed Snail... local specialty in Yangshuo. Yangshuo was famous for 18 types of staffed food... and most of which were like our "Yong Tao Foo" - uninspiring. So we ordered the staffed snail.. and turned out to be quite good. You need a little bit of effort in sucking out the meat though.
Empty shell... We counted it has 28 snails in the dish.
All the above dishes were excellent especially when it went with porridge. All the portion was quite big and the total damage was RMB 64
Not sure if we were hungry but it was our best and most satisfactory meal in Yangshuo so far.
After our dinner we took a stroll at West Street for a while before heading back to our hotel and called it day.
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