But this morning, faced with grilled sweet potato, Bao, dumplings, Congee, Noodles, some kind of jelly-egg-thing, and a myriad of unappetising-at-8am I finally realised I was in China. I wondered how I’d managed to avoid the full-on China experience in the morning. I’d had my fair share in the evening (Guilin chicken being a prime example). Then I realised, I hadn’t been in a truly Chinese Hotel before now – where no one speaks a word of anything other than Chinese, the beds are just long enough that your head touches the wall and your toes teeter on the edge, the shower (though not suspended over the toilet) is just slightly uncomfortably too low.... and instead of a soap and a toothbrush in the bathroom – you get hygienic “lotion” for him and her...they’re excellent contraceptives and “cure the ill”. Apparently. Interesting. Despite it being an excellent opportunity for another FIRST, my thoughts are that perhaps I won’t be testing these...
Interestingly, we found that our “minibar” basket in the room included not only green tea and crackers but also Men’s underwear, more hygienic wipes, and miscellaneous other products I imagine would be found in rooms rented by the hour.... The picture to the right is of my roommate Sandra showing off her "The Price Is Right" product-display talents holding all the many goodies in our room!Moving swiftly on, it was back on the bus for a leisurely ride through the countryside towards our next destination – River Rafting!
We arrived to find a big gravelled 
parking lot, wooden hut, lots of inflatable dinghies, a mini-lake, and a dam.... from which came what appeared to be a trickle of water that was supposed to be our “river”. I’ve seen more voluminous flows coming from hostel-showers and was understandably sceptical about its ability to transport an empty dinghy, let alone one with several passengers. But then two locals started tearing down the dam - literally. And the water started gushing down over the rocky riverbed, turning into a small churning river. Wehey, there was hope after all!
All the girls ran to get in one last potty-break before the raft... until they saw the toilet. 50% turned back, hardened-China-Traveller-that-I-am, I was in the other half and persevered. The word toilet is doing toilets everywhere a major disservice. A bamboo shack (picture stalks of bent bamboo, not too tightly bound together, creating a charming "now you see my butt, now you don’t" effect, with an even more "uncensored" view inside through the dividing wall between the Gents (hole in the ground) and the Ladies (smelly hole in the ground with non-working flush and a giant turd rotting in the sun... loverly). It was at this precise moment in time that I truly appreciated the wonder that is my pair of platform flip-flops... 5cm between me and the putrid mucky ground is better than nothing.
So we all got suited up (a life-vest), prepared our equipment (put my camera in a sandwich baggie in my pocket), slapped on some more sunscreen and a hat, and prepared to board our rafts. Small river = small boat. But when we were told to pair up - one guy and one girl in each boat - I finally realised it was a 2-person raft. The "raft" looked like a kiddie-dinghy as used in a pool by 5 year olds... but we gamely boarded our vessels for a practice paddle around the slowly diminishing mini-lake. I lucked out and got Hector as my rafting buddy. Strong-ish, funny, man with ZERO rafting experience, we were definitely in for a laugh.
Because the dinghies were so small, we had to sit facing each other, which meant that one of us was always blind to what was coming, not to mention had to try to paddle backward down a rapid! So we had a bit of a discussion over who would be facing backwards when we went over the dam and hit the first rapid going down the river... given my superior rafting experience (and willingness not to see what was coming) I agreed to be the blind one.
Apart from our group, all the people there were Chinese tourists. About 40 boats or so paddling around the lake. Some even had umbrellas - to protect from the sun, but also came in handy protecting from the water as it turned out... I'm not quite sure who started splashing first, but it wasn't me. I. did. not. start. the. water. fight. really, truly, I am innocent. :)
As far as I could tell, the Chinese tourists were attacking each other, one of them missed, got Hector and me instead, and messed up Big Time. Everyone went silent - as if they were expecting us to cause a big fuss and get upset over a little water. Well, they soon found out that I don't get upset. No sirrreeee, I get EVEN. *evil grin* While Hector was trying to mediate and calm the situation, I went into a splashing frenzy with my paddle. Having had plenty of water-baby experience in New Zealand and Australia (sledging, river kayaking, ocean kayaking, rafting...) I had great aim and great volume.
From then it was war and for the next 3 hours we all raced each other down the river while making sure no one came out dry. Luckily my camera managed to survive against all odds because I hid it away after the first volley was launched. Even Hector got into the swing of things and gamely entered the fray. We all got absolutely SOAKED, but it was awesome fun to laugh and go to war without being able to communicate at all in each other's language. I guess splashing is universal :)
Following a quick but rather public change, we all boarded the bus to head for lunch... on a pontoon. Sandra took some pictures of the kitchen, luckily none of us saw these before tucking in. Thank G*d for small favours and iron stomachs :)
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