A Boat Ride on the Yulong River

The Friday before Memorial Day Weekend, we packed up and headed south for the long weekend as our first family vacation while living in China.  Our destination was Guilin, China and more specifically Fulong Village near Yangshuo.  We were hoping to take in the breathtaking karst landscape and just unwind for a bit after two full months of living in Chengdu.

We hopped on a plane at 7:30 in the morning and we were there by 9 with a full day ahead of us to explore.  Just in case you are wondering, the girls did really well on the flight! We had a driver pick us up at the airport to take us directly to the hotel.  When we arrived at the hotel, the sweetest host was there to greet us as well as this stunning view (this picture was taken from our balcony on the 3rd floor).

We changed clothes, packed our backpacks and headed out because the forecast said rain, rain, rain and we were greeted by blue skies and wanted to soak them up and get in some outdoor activities before any rain came.  We couldn't go anywhere though before saying hi to the hotel fish!

The girls were pretty elated when Lily (our host) let them feed the fish!

We chatted with Lily about our options and we decided that we would do the boat ride along the Yulong river first. This is the thing I was most looking forward to on our trip.  We love a good boat ride and it just sounded awesome to take a boat down the river while taking in the stunning scenery.

We got a taxi, made it there, paid for our two boats (they only allow 2 people in a boat at a time) and went to give the lady our tickets when she started yelling at us in Chinese.  Before we knew it, they had taken Everly and put her up against a measuring stick and were pointing that Everly was too short to go.

Queue the waterworks, from me and her.  You know when you picture something perfect and you are excited about it and you know it is going to be the best part of your whole trip and you never even think about your toddler not being tall enough to go?? Ok, just me??

Well our tears must have won over the hearts of the Chinese, because somehow after a few minutes of loud talking, our driver came over to us to tell us that we got to go!!! Everly included. YAY!!!

There were several boats lined up and before we knew it, two people were whisking us away and we were on our boats!

I am telling you, that was one happy girl right there.  We had decided that if Ev's wasn't going to go, Wes and Emma would go and I would hang out with Everly, but she was pretty pleased when they told her yes!

And who could blame her, it is fun to be included!!

And with that, we were off.  The water was quite brown because of the amount of rain the area had experienced- we were told that when it is not rainy season, the water is so clear you can often times see to the bottom.

The boat ride was just as picturesque as we imagined with one beautiful site after another.

We were blown away with just how many limestone hills ('karsts') there were. I was expecting there to be a lot, but just not that much.

Every so often there were little rapids that we would go down.

I had so much fun looking across the river and seeing these two enjoy themselves!

My little partner really liked to hold my hand through the 'rapids'.  She would tell me that she is brave and she didn't need to hold my hand and then at the last minute with the rapid approaching, she would reach out and hold on tight.

I took pictures with my phone while Wes took pictures with the camera so it was fun to have both different perspectives.

Me and my girl :).

Most of the time, we just cruised down the river taking in the sights.

It really was just one post card picture after another- we had never seen anything like this before.

The skies went from bright blue to grey during our hour long boat ride.

Which kind of added to the magical feeling :).

Along the river, Wes and I would pass each other so sometimes our boat was in front, sometimes theirs and I loved turning around and watching Ev's come down the little rapids.

Love those two!

Splash!

It really was spectacular.

Is this really our life?? Sometimes, we had to pinch ourselves, we just feel so blessed that we get to have these experiences.

Just in case you were wondering, my feet were soaking wet after those rapids! They are deceiving!!

After the boat ride ended, we took a 15 - 20 minute walk back to our hotel (it rained a little bit on us on the way back!) and I grabbed this sweet picture of Everly, we ate a few snacks and we all headed to nap!

After what could have been a disaster with Ev's not getting to ride on the boat, we ended our morning on a high note with a family boat ride.