We have started this tradition of a Thanksgiving Adventure Trip to Yangshuo. This is our 4th Thanksgiving in Yangshuo. Five families are sharing the adventure. It is the usual gang of past Thanksgivings to include the Jenkins (Jennifer, Scott, Sean & Sophie), the Bishops (Faith, Dan, Avery & Riley) and the Brennans (Judy, Dan, Danielle & Erin). This year a new family joined us – the Pascoes (Lori, Craig, Alyssa & Logan). We have 20 people in total with 10 kids and 10 adults.

Thursday, Day One Adventure – We left Shanghai at 7:40am to arrive in Guilin at 10:20am – on time! We gathered our luggage and piled into the bus. It takes about an hour to drive to Yangshuo. Yangshuo County is home to several ethnic minority groups of Zhuang, Yao, Dong and Miao.

Upon arriving at the Mountain Retreat, all the Moms were yelling, “put on your water shoes” as the kids were running for the river. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the high 70’s. The kids couldn’t wait to play in the river. They all found bamboo sticks and ran down to the bank that crosses the Yangshuo Dragon River.

Sean was the first to jump into the river for a swim. This is the first time the weather has been warm enough for a swim.

The Parents take a seat at the tables by the river to watch the “entertainment” while enjoying a cold drink or ginger tea.

After our long lunch, it was time to begin the bamboo raft adventure at 2:30pm. We piled into the vans to drive up river to the starting point. I knew we would have a pair-off issue with the kids once we reached the river. Therefore, I asked at the hotel if we could put three kids on one raft. The answer was yes. Of course, once we got to the river, the guides did not want the three little ones of Sophie, Riley and Eleri to go alone. We said they were fine. The rafts have a seat for two people. The three little ones fit better on the raft than the older gang of three which included Danielle, Alyssa and Erin. Sean went with Logan this year – a boy for the first time! Emersyn went on a raft with Avery. She was excited to share the adventure with Avery as they have not been together in past years. This year, we needed 8 rafts for this crew. The rafts cost 150rmb ($24) per raft.

Starting out and still DRY!

We bought all the kids water guns. The temperature is warm and they can get wet without being cold. They were ready to attack!

Emersyn & Avery

Sophie, Eleri & Riley

Sean & Logan

Erin, Danielle & Alyssa

Game ON!

The kids have so much fun going down the river. For them, it is about the water fight and the adventure. For the adults, it is the relaxing view down the river. I went with Scott, who is a big kid. Therefore, we found ourselves in the middle of a few water fights, also. I used Scott as a shield so he ended up wet. Beers and sodas are sold on floating rafts for a premium. Scott and I did notice the cords to plug in the coolers on the rafts were just ran through the water – regular cords!. The view was beautiful along the river.

Half way down the river and WET!

Up and over the various dams to get down river.

We have the rafts pull over early to get off at the Mountain Retreat. It was 4pm when we pulled to shore. Since the weather is so beautiful, the kids were not cold from being wet. They were the most wet this year (except for Eleri since she fell in last year). They ran down to the river instead of to the showers!

The parents took up the usual spot at the tables by the river – an after raft drink.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at 7pm. The staff set up the private dinning area for our gang to enjoy our feast. Judy brought brie cheese and Wheat Thins crackers to share as an appetizers. You know you are good friends when the US food stash is shared. We enjoyed a delicious meal of turkey, beans, potatoes, stuffing and pumpkin cheesecake. The stuffing tasted more like croutons, but no complaints for a turkey dinner prepared in China. We all brought wine to compliment our dinner for a lovely evening shared with friends.

Sophie & Emersyn

After dinner, the gang of kids were busy playing hiding and seek in the dark. They all have one rule after dark, no one is allowed down by the river. No one needed gloves or hats this year for after dark play.

Friday, Day Two Adventure – The morning started off with breakfast and relaxing by the river. We had a slow morning as our adventure for the day began at 10:30am.

The Dads and kids were going on a bike ride while the Moms went shopping. The Moms were off to explore a new village, Fuli and then to the village of last year, Xing Ping. We took a mortorized bamboo raft to Fuli down the Li River. The raft cost us 150rmb ($24) for our trip to Fuli. It was nice and relaxing…no water fights and dams to go over.

It appears the local use the Li River as transportation. The scenic route…and relaxing!

The karst formations of the area were formed from gradual retreat of inland seas. There are over 700 karst in this area.

We floated by the Liu Sanjie Show stadium. It was different than I expected from the river view in the day.

We walked the small village to the fan factory. Fans were outside drying in the morning sun.

We didn’t buy much. I picked up some slippers for 40rmb ($6). The slippers are knitted on recycle tire as the soles. The ladies are knitted them as you walk down the lanes. I need some slippers in California. Our fixer-upper plywood floors are bit on the dirty side. All the ladies bought the small oranges. They are delicious and cheap. For 10rmb ($1.50), a bag full of oranges. The lady weights them with an old scale…it is somewhat accurate.

After Fuli, we took a van to Xing Ping. It was quiet and quaint as we remembered from last year. No one bought much, but we enjoyed the slow village. We took the van back to the Mt. Retreat.

The Dads were on kid duty – 5 Dads and 10 kids! They gathered their bikes and took off for their adventure about the same time the Moms left for their shopping adventure. The bike adventure was a ride to the Dragon bridge.

To get to the other side of the river, the bikes are walked across the rice dams.

After riding all morning, it was time to find a place to feed the kids. From what I have been told from the stories, it was a local place along side the road. The menu had chicken heads and from there it became a competition of who would eat a head!

The chicken head eaters were…

Emersyn

Sean

Danielle

Riley

They enjoyed the views of the local people and countryside on their ride.

The shoppers arrived back to the Mt. Retreat around 3pm hungry. The ladies have a favorite dish of spicy eggplant. We ordered up eggplant, beers and diet cokes for a quiet lunch by the river…there were no children. The Dads and kids were still out biking. The biker gang returned around 4pm with their adventure to tell. The kids still had more energy to run and play by the river.

There is a little old lady with no teeth selling these flowers outside the hotel. I had to help her by paying 7 rmb for one for Eleri. The asking price is 5rmb, but I gave her all my change.

Our dinner tonight was at Luna at the Village Guest House. The Guest House is a sister hotel to the Mt. Retreat. We had a delicious meal of more food than one person could possible eat. They seated the kids on one side and the adults on the other of the roof top restaurant. We preordered our food with this many people. We asked for the kids to be feed first so they could go back to the courtyard to play in the trees. With age, they are more independent. Eleri is the youngest at 7 with Danielle and Alyssa the oldest at 13.

The adults enjoyed the food, wine and friendship. After eating and drinking too much, our bill for the night was 580rmb ($91) per family. It was another fun evening at Luna’s.

Saturday, Day Three Adventure – Today was rock climbing with a group called China Climb. The cost is 225rmb ($34) per person for about 4 hours at the Rock. For the first time, we are doing a morning climb with a 9am pick-up.

We drove to the climbing rock which is called the “Wine Bottle” due to the rock formation nearby.

The path to the climbing rock.

“The Rock”

We had five ropes this year. Emersyn was one of the first climbers. We climbed this rock two years ago. Emersyn started with the easy rope. The “easy” rope has a “hump” that is difficult to get around.

Jim started with the hardest climb of the five ropes. He said it was tough as it was a challenge to find hand grips.

Eleri started wih the easy climb. She did not climb two years ago, therefore, this is her first time on this rock.

She didn’t give it much of an effort. This is how far off the ground she climb!!

I climbed one of the medium ropes. I only did one climb for the day as i enjoy watching the kids have fun. For the first time, I did fall off the rock – a bit scary hanging in the air. Once I got back to the rock, I was in a bad place to find foot holds. It took awhile to work myself over to a better spot to get back on the wall.

Emersyn began her second climb next to my rope – another medium climb.

I am almost to the top, but Emersyn’s rope is higher. She keeps working her way to the top.

Jim began his second climb as Emersyn was coming down.

Jim climbing to the top.

Eleri did not want to climb again today. I had a “talk” with her about it. I would be fine if she didn’t want to climb if she had a good reason, but her lack of effort was not acceptable. In addition, she is our little monkey.

Sure enough, she climbed half way up the rock in no time. She got to the second cave area and was ready to come down. This time she gave it some effort!

Sean was working on earning a boy scout badge. Our head guide, Edward, was a Boy Scout as a kid, also. He tied Sean into the base rock and then had him support Jim on his third climb.

We finished at the rock around 1:00pm. We were glad we did a morning climb because it was getting hot on the Rock in the afternoon sun. We went back for lunch on the river – our favorite place to hang! The kids ate fast as they were ready for river fun. They had ALL afternoon to play. They “borrowed” the hotel’s tire tubes that were sitting on the raft. The tubes had a rope to keep them from floating away.

The “Gang of Trouble” having fun.

Next, they “borrowed” the Hotel’s raft. A funny story from the parents’ view. Danielle and the boys were on the raft. All of sudden the boys jumped off as Danielle was heading for the drop. We all laughed. Then, we were all yelling at Danielle that she couldn’t take the raft down the shoot. The teenage mind was not thinking the next step – no way to get the raft back up. We did find out later why the boys bailed at the same time. Danielle had said she was going down and if they didn’t want to go with her to jump – so they did.

Danielle and Eleri on the borrowed raft.

All the girls on the “borrowed raft”.

The kids played outside until the sun began to disappear behind the karst. We had talked about an afternoon bike ride, but we were too busy enjoying the “entertainment” on the river. We joked we were holding the chairs down. The joke in “holding the chairs down” are these wood chairs weight a ton.

After 5pm, the kids went upstairs for showers. After showers, they enjoyed some downtime of watching a movie before dinner. We enjoyed a glass of wine on our deck before dinner.

Dinner was Chinese food for the group of 20. We ordered all kinds of different dishes to try. After dinner, it was smore time. I had brought all the smore needs. The kids had fun making and eating them.

Sunday, Day Three Adventure – Our last morning to enjoy the fun and beauty of Yangshuo. We had breakfast at the fireplace as we did every morning.

Our flight left Guilin on time – amazing to be on time both directions!! Another fun adventure shared with friends. We always say, “maybe this will be the last year”. But, then we get here to enjoy the activities and the beauty of Yangshuo. The children had more river fun due to the beautiful weather.