The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
May 10 - Cruisin' Down The River on a Saturday Morning
When we got to the river, the boats were rafted up, ready and waiting for yet another four-hour run down the river. The cooks were busily getting a head start on preparing probably the same lunch they serve every day. It wasn't long before the ducklings showed up. I guess my snobbish side shows when I get around tour groups, but they always make me think of little ducklings following their mother ... except in this case it is a tour guide with a flag. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against tour guides. It's just the following the flag part that I have a hard time with.
Wait, is that Emeril on the boat next to us? Guess not. As the boats filled up, they untied from the rafts and in what looked like a variation on Chinese driving patterns, eventually headed down the river toward Yangshuo. The Guilin landscape tells its story far better than I ever could, so I will shut up and let the photos carry the story for a bit.
Do you see why we ended up with 500 photos of the trip today? Everywhere you looked was a postcard shot!
Yes it was definitely a day for pictures. Here is a picture of Margene taking a picture of me taking a picture of her. I'm not sure if Marv is after an art shot here or just looking for some natural cooling. But eventually the group started to collapse with carpal tunnel symptoms in the shutter finger, so it was on to lunch. The food was decent, although by no means memorable (the french fries were a strange but appreciated touch, however) ... and they even had free beer!
The Chinese 20 RMB note has a picture of the Li River in Guilin. We were told we would be going by the spot where the scene came from but they probably timed lunch to blow that away since I never saw it. We certainly had no complaints about what we DID see, though. I'm just glad we didn't try to save a buck and take one of the econo-cruise options!
© 2008 Restaurant Doctor
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