I got up at 6:00 a.m., yeah, in the morning. I walked around Yangshuo for awhile, watching the people and taking pictures. Then I headed back to the hotel, logged onto the Internet and then had breakfast at 7:30 when Anne came down. After breakfast we headed over to the 7th Heaven Cafe and met up with William, the owner. I bought a couple of woven wicker hats to reduce exposure to the sun. They set me back ¥10 each ($1.25). I probably got ripped off. Yeah, whatever. William took us over to the kayak place and we loaded up a one-man kayak for him and a two-person kayak for us. It cost Anne and me ¥100 each ($12.50) for the kayak rental, dropoff and pickup and a ride back from our destination.

As we were getting into the kayaks I noticed a pistol sans barrel in the water. The kayak was not extremely comfortable, and I had a difficult time getting my camera and backpack in between my legs. When I paddled, the water would roll down the paddle and into my lap or onto my backpack (containing my camera). This was not ideal. It was about 95 degrees with bright sunshine. Fortunately, it was a little cooler on the water and there was a little breeze. I had lots of water with me this time and some snacks as well. Despite the hats and plenty-o-sunscreen, I still managed to get some color on my arms and legs.

Within a few minutes of starting, I started to feel some tightness in my chest, like I was straining myself. Anne agreed to do the majority of the paddling while I took pictures. Fortunately, there was a decent current, so we actually made good time, despite my lack of meaningful assistance. It took us about three or three and a half hours to go 17 km (10.5 miles) down the river. The scenery was amazing and I took many pictures. William said that we made great time and we arrived an hour before the truck was supposed to pick us up. William called from the town but it still took more than an hour for the truck to get there.

While we waited for the truck to arrive, we watched the locals going about their daily routine. Three young girls were swimming in the water. Three young boys were fishing with thin bamboo poles, hooks, worms and a styrofoam peanut for a bob. A woman came down and washed her laundry; another washed a modern stroller in the river. Someone up river was was fishing with explosives. Groups of people were loading reeds or river grass into boats, which they would sell. A modern boat, similar to the one that had brought us down the Li River from Guilin, docked at the little jetty and a bunch of Taiwanese tourists got off and headed up to the "town." I can only assume that a bus was waiting for them, as there was nothing in the town and we did not see them around when we left.

Eventually our transportation showed up and we headed back to Yangshuo. The scenery on the way back was incredible, with little villages nestled between and among the huge limestone formations. We hit a water buffalo vertebra on our way out of town and thought we might have blown a tire, fortunately this was not the case. I had no real desire to wait around in the heat until the tire got fixed.

We took showers when we got back to the hotel and then headed out for some shopping. We went to every scroll place in town to see what they had. Ian had said that you could get a large scroll for as little as ¥20 ($2.50) if you bargained hard enough and well enough. I saw a number of dragon scrolls that I liked. I asked about the prices in the first store we stopped in and was told that the large ones were ¥150 ($18.75), the medium were ¥85 ($11) and the small were ¥60 ($7.50). We finished walking around the store and then headed out without showing any more interest and the woman running the store followed us out and had dropped the price of the small scrolls to ¥17 ($2) by the time we had left.

If we showed the slightest interest in most stories we would get a great deal of attention and steadily dropping prices. Of course, the two exceptions to this rule were at the places that Anne and I saw scrolls we really liked. Doh! Anne seemed to have an affinity for bamboo and landscapes by famous painters. She especially liked one with gold around the picture, gold tassles on top and ceramic knobs. Anne asked the price and the lady asked if Anne wanted it quoted in dollars or yuan. Anne said "either, I have both." This was a bad move. They know you are a rich American and jack up the prices. The price quoted? $85. Yes, eighty-five US dollars! By the time we had left it was down to $40, only twice as much as the starting price for most of the scrolls. As if.

Now, it must be conceded that some scrolls were obviously of higher craftsmanship than others, and we seemed to have a knack for picking out the nice ones. So, while it may be possible to get a 'generic' large scroll for ¥20, it was unlikely that you would be able to get a really good one for anything close to that. But $40? I don't think so. The generic scrolls were ones that the local artists could create, others were of a higher quality and still others, like Anne's, were done by famous people.

So, we headed to another shop that had scrolls by the same artist, which Anne had seen on the way. The cost here? $80. This price had dropped all the way to $75 when we left. OK, so not a lot of realistic bargaining going on here. So I went to a place that had a couple of scrolls that I liked. It has glass doors and air-conditioning--not a good sign. Most of the shops don't have doors at all and only a fan or two. I ask how much for the scrolls, ¥150 ($18.75) for the dragon, ¥80 ($10) for the bamboo. That is it, no other negotiation, nothing. I walk around the store a bit, no other offers, I eventually leave without ever getting another price. I guess no scrolls today.

I had talked to William about seeing cormorant fishermen while kayaking and I thought he had said to come back at 7:00 p.m. Apparently, he said 4:00 p.m. Ooops. We got to the 7th Heaven, where we were supposed to meet for dinner, at 7:00 p.m. and William was still out kayaking with the other Imaginative Traveler group. He showed up at 7:50 p.m. and I asked him about the cormorants. He had a long dicussion with a couple of people and at a little after 8:00 the two of us, and his friend Nick, headed up the street. We got into a motorcycle with a sidecar and off we went. This poor driver didn't know what he was getting into.

I had a very comfortable seat, as opposed to the others, who got bumped around a bit. The driver started up the road but at the first traffic circle he made a left. William stopped him and they had a lengthy discussion, then we turned around and headed out of town in the other direction. Apparently, the driver thought we were going a couple of kilometers up the main road to a village there. Instead, we headed off the main roads down some truly atrocious excuses for roads. Rocks, ruts and potholes were plentiful. We even had to stop for a truck that was blocking the road while the workers were repairing the road. William got out and shoveled the large pile of dirt out of the way so that our motorcycle could get by.

We also passed a truck that was parked and a guy sleeping in a tent next to the truck. After a while we headed onto an even worse road that required us to get out and push on several occasions. Eventually, we ended up on a bicycle track which ended in the village itself. We parked in a little field by the town at about 9:00 p.m. William and I got out and walked down to the water. There were several cormorants on the shore, but no boats. I took some pictures of the cormorants and then we headed up the shore to a bend.

We saw a light coming across the water, which eventually resolved itself into a boat with a bright light on the front. As it got close to shore I thought I could see fish jumping out of the water in front of the boat. In fact, they were cormorants. You could see their heads breaking the surface of the water and bobbing up and down. The boat and cormorants came up to the beach and the cormorants came out of the water. A guy got out of the boat and picked up the cormorants by their necks and put them on top of the boat.

William went over to the boat and talked to the guys for a while and then came back and asked if I wanted to take a ride on the boat for ¥30 ($3.75). Let me think about that YES! So I got inside the low cabin, which was open on all sides. The cormorants sat on top of the boat and off we went. We went upstream for about 30 minutes and then turned around and the pilot turned on the light in front and got 8-9 cormorants into the water. The light consisted of three, bright lightbulbs with a metal shade that pointed to the water in front of the boat. The boat headed down with the current at what appeared to be a fairly slow pace. The pilot steered the boat with his foot while watching and calling to the birds. The cormorants dove down under water and grabbed fish before returning to the surface in front of the boat.

The driver kept up a running conversation with the cormorants, as if they were sled dogs or something. Once he stopped the boats and called to some of the birds that had fallen behind until they caught back up to the boat. It was amazingly cool, although I had problems taking pictures: I was on top of the canopy and there was light and my flash, but the shutter was slow and not able to keep up with the action.

We got back to the shore and I gave the guy a ¥50 note. He had to go back up to the village to get change. Then we headed back to the cab and found that Nick had walked back to town. No more bumpy rides for him! The cab, of course, was still there as he had not been paid yet. So we headed back over the nice roads and arrived back in Yangshuo at around 11:00 p.m. The total cost of a three hour tour of the Chinese outback? ¥35 ($4.40). I headed back to the hotel and was surprised to find that Anne was not back yet. She wandered in a bit later but I was not really all that coherent, so our conversation was nothing to speak of.

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