Day 13 - Li River Retreat

Day 13 February 2 Li River Retreat Sunday a walkabout day.

The sun is behind the mountains when we awake this morning and the mist has a glow like the translucence of a candle through thin white ceramic. We widen the curtains and sit up on the bed watching the three mountains materialize out of the most while birds chitter away in the warmth of the emerging sun

We breakfast downstairs where the windows are wide open and the wooden wall to the terrace has been opened. We share a fruit plate and order oatmeal in anticipation of a walk this morning. A large mug of coffee each fulfils our needs.

We collect our walking gear and Alf, who leads us northward along the river road through farmland and down to a secret beach. Here we can see how low the river is at this time of year. There are oxbows where the water has meandered on recent seasons and the high water line is a full 1.5 metres above the, ahem, current level.

This is well-ordered land. Fields are carefully tended with a wide range of seasonal crops including mustard greens, some sorts of bok choy, nuts, garlic, onion, carrot, passion fruit, bamboo shoots. sugar came, peppers mild and hot, cabbage, rice, kumquats, oranges and pomelos amongst other things. The food you get here is almost all local, which is great.

Alf tells us that he has a home in Guilin because he and his wife don't want their children in a local school. He says that the new influx of wealth into the area is all tied to rentierism and formerly peasant farmer landlords see no value in education, an attitude they transmit to their children. So his kids go to a big city school, though from the sounds of things it is demanding and hard on the students and their parents. It must be difficult to have to discipline children to do three hours of homework every night when what you really want is to play with them..

As the three of us continue our walk, Alf tells us that his landlord has ambitions to tear down the present hotel building and put up a new one. This will mean a lot of work, expense and inconvenience for the family but would also mean that they can design the new place from scratch and have a new 20 year lease. Such an outcome will bring them right up to retirement age So win-win as they say in these parts. I for one will mourn the passing of our room, which in my mind just might have the best view view in China. Sigh.

Back to the hotel where I shower and wash some clothes. 
We take a few minutes to experiment with the beautiful koto on the second floor. It seems to be tuned A B C# E F# and A again. A perfect pentatonic scale for leads in A. chording is trickier.

we walk into town to reconnoiter the Friend Hotel across from McDonald's on West street. They know how to book train tickets, which is encouraging.

Town is busy. The ferry terminal is bustling with merchants who are too intent on getting ready for the incoming ships to pay attention to us. Elizabeth observes that this makes for a very peaceful stroll , and I agree.

The river walk is a different matter entirely. The place is crowded with vacationers and those who live on us. River cruises, coolie hats, postcards, intriguing pastries or possibly fried tofu, photographs of myself standing with a man in traditional peasant outfit and
cormorants on each end of a long pole, silk scarves, Mao hats with traditional red star and much, much more are there for the discerning spender. We find the Friend Hotel without problem. We find that the staff can't figure out where we need to go so we stop for lunch at a little place called Lucy's where we share a plate of mustard with garlic, spicy chicken , small rice and beverages. Tasty.

We find the park but I am getting tired so Elizabeth navigates is back to the terminal - - which is starting to look a bit like a buffalo jump - - and back to the hotel. We arrive at about 4 pm and take a bit of a break.

Well actually I take a bit of a break. Elizabeth confirms our hostel reservation in Xi'an and gets on to the computer in the lobby to try to figure out why the camera on her tablet is not working.

When I find her in the lobby she has found a solution to the camera problem - a bug related to resolution on scenery shots - and we are ready for dinner

During her hamburger and my robs in black bean sauce Alf tells us that his wife is playing the koto so we turn off the dining room music and listen in while talking quietly amongst ourselves about the joys and complexity of families.

The impromptu concert is over at around 7, so we retire to our room. Elizabeth plans to read ; I may do a bit of writing.