Biking along the Yulong in Guilin - and up to the Rice Terraces

11-20-2010 [written 11-20-2010, Bus: Guilin -->Longsheng Province, Dragon Backbone terraces - 2 hrs north from Guilin].  Watching the full-moon coin hang serenely above the mounts....much in the same way bricks don't. 

The two sudden freezing days in Yangshuo have caught my body by surprise. I went down with a fast and furious cold for a day. I'm guessing that the day of biking along the beyond-picturesque Yulong river in that weather didn't help. However, Dr. Lily's herbal tea mix did help - she is a local "witch doctor" with marinated snake-jars in her parlor who has examined me and said that my kidneys could use some support [which she has proceeded to give me 2 Lbs of - specially mixed herbal tea]. This eye-of-newt brew was my food for the next day as I crawled into my "cave" and let my body recover. Also, thanks to the many healing techniques I practice, I'm coming out of it as quickly as I went in. As my Mama says: "getting sick is simply our body's way of asking us to slow down." Perchance, my occasional case of FOMO [fear of missing out] gets the better of me when there's much to see....  The warm weather has returned to us today, and I am using this opportunity to journey north to Longsheng province where the Dragon Backbone rice terraces lay sleeping in the mountains]. 

These long bus rides allow me to "core dump" my impressions in the blog. 

BIKING ALONG YULONG RIVER

I'm reflecting on the delicious day of mountain-biking along the Yulong river. The weather was grim and I was biking in a rain poncho. The narrow country road lay between the small "minority" villages, where many a water buffalo graze and village women pedal the ancient-looking conical bail-maker in trained synchrony. The road lay through the fields of eggplant and other edible veggetation. The road weaved amidst the surreal limestone peaks that I have begun to get used to [oh the habituation capacity of our brains!] and crossed the river many times revealing the many landing spots for "bamboo boats" [little rafts that are designed to peacefully cost down the river]. Just as I was getting hungry, I saw a small restaurant sign before me that pointed me to a neat veggetarian cafe/inn called "The Giggling Tree" run by a friendly Danish couple. And there I have partaken of the most mouth-watering sauteed eggplant - they know their way around the purple veggies here!

My body is getting used to the hyped up level of activity that is a grade up from my former relatively sedentary U.S. lifestyle. Perchance, it's been 5 years or more since I moved THAT much. With all the biking and backpack-clad running around, my butt is disintegrating before my eyes [may not be such a bad thing!].