Not sure if we mentioned it after our first bike ride, but riding bikes here is very interesting. To begin, they don't give you helmets (their is one joint in town where you can get a helmet, but it costs 50 yuan to rent a bike versus the 10 - 20 everywhere else) and no one else rides with a helmet either. And riding on the "main" roads to get out to the countryside seems daunting at first, but from the bike it seems to make a lot more sense than from a car. First, there are a lot of bikes here and pedestrians and bikes converted into buggies or truckycles (a tricycle with a pick up bed on the back) and scooters that don't go very fast. So, if you are biking at a decent pace you are actually going faster than a lot of the other traffic on the road. Even a lot of the motorized vehicles, like trucks, don't go very fast because they are so underpowered. Once you are actually on your way, the traffic doesn't seem nearly as bad as it does to look. That is, once you realize that people honking at you is more of a "hey, I'm here" instead of what I've always taken honking in the US to mean--you are doing or have done something wrong (swerved into my lane, waited too long after a red light, etc.). Luckily, the road out to Moon Hill was closed in one direction, so it was rather pleasant with only a few cars to bother us as we cycled our way out to Moon Hill.
As usual, not more than a five to ten minute cycle out of town and we were in the midst of farms. We got to watch the farmers planting and some water buffalo doing whatever it is that water buffalo do. We passed over a rather scenic area of the Yulong River (Yangshuo is on the Li River but the Yulong is close by) and stopped for some photos. After our hike we headed into the town across the way for lunch. On our way we met a young man who professed to be studying tourism and had a survey he wanted us to answer, we obliged and answered a few questions about how we liked the area. Nearby to where we were stopped a man was putting on a show with two monkeys. Not sure what kind they were, but one was larger and one was smaller. They were atop stands and had chains around their ankles, They were dressed up in doll clothes with funky hats and had little sticks that they were supposed to be holding behind their heads, but were resting on when their owner wasn't paying attention. It was very odd--they were some human looking and chained up like that, it was just a sad sight. We declined to pay for a photo.
Instead we managed to find Luna Cafe and were rewarded with a wonderful Italian lunch from a rooftop where we had a great view of the karsts we had just climbed. It was wonderful. We headed home (as Reid mentioned, the short way) and were rewarded with a shower and some time to do some laundry before we headed off for dinner. We returned to the clay pot place and met a French couple finishing up their 10 month trip in Southeast Asia. It was fun to compare notes and hear their recommendations on the countries we have yet to visit. After dinner we headed up the street to find out if the optometrist was still open--the only place we've seen with contact solution that we desperately needed. They were open! The young man in the shop didn't speak any English, but luckily the containers were similar enough to what we have in the states that we were able to pick something out and he told us the price via hand signals. We then wandered back through town and there was a live guitar at Bar 98, a spot where we've enjoyed a couple meals, so we stopped in for a couple beers to enjoy the evening and the live music. After a week here, I think we've finally figured out where we're going just in time to leave.
Alright, well I'm going to sign off so we can figure out how to get to Laos from here before we call it a night.
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