Wondering and Wandering

Day 2 of the National Holiday road trip took us about 50 kilometeres from Zhuanghe to Bingygou which translates to Ice Valley Channel and is know as the Guilin of the North. There were parts of the Bingyugou Resort that had an amusement park atmosphere and there were other parts that, on the map, appeared to be more remote places to hike.

We took as many of the scenic boat tours as we could to see the water channels and the beautiful rock formations, but one large area that we had hoped to see was under reconstruction so the boat did not stop for passengers to disembark.

After many false starts into amusement park areas, we finally found our way into the outer reaches of the resort where we could hike along paths that meandered up and down along a very small river. After following the meandering path for a long time, we found our way to the beginning of a steep, steep staircase that went on and on up a mountainside....seemingly never to end. Finally it did and we were rewarded with a remarkable Buddhist temple that was built in a cave. The temple was a very spiritual and calm place to be. The hike down the other side of the mountain was more steps, but thankfully down is not as intense as up. We ended up in a parking lot far from where we needed to be and broke down and took resort transportation back to the centeral amusment park area that we had hiked away from many hours before. Oh the difference the hours can make! The resort was now packed with Chinese vacationers. We hot -footed it to the quay to catch a boat out to the main gate and thankfully fell into Mr. B's car.

We were hike happy and exhausted. Mr. B. hustled us up the road about an hour to Qingdui which is just an odd roadside town. Stayed in a very comfortable hotel and had a great dinner in our own private dining room. Mr. B joined us for dinner. We had an interesting eggplant dish that included an unknown seafood. After a communication session that resembled charades the seafood was revealed to be conch meat. It was very chewy, but tasty. We also had steamed clams and another dish was cold marinated clams. A fourth dish was a hearty noodle soup with large and tasty prawns. Please remember that food plays a big part in adventuring.

In the morning, Leslie was kind enough to entertain us all as she helped two locals who were struggling to put up an inflatable arch outside the hotel doorway. The inflatable arch was to mark a wedding that was taking place in the hotel later in the morning. Really and truly, the arch probably would not have been set up without her help. She drew quite a crowd. We did not stick around to see if the wedding party would have a larger crowd. Brides should not be upstaged on their wedding day.