Monday 10/27/14 - Longsheng Hot Springs

We woke up at 6:45 a.m. and had a liesurely morning of e-mails, etc. We went down to the buffet breakfast shortly after 8 o'clock. We had scrambled eggs, ramen type noodles, fried dough balls, coffee, and the most watery orange juice that we have ever tasted. Yesterday when we were climbing to the rice terraces, we had passed a stall that was selling fresh squeezed orange juice. Maybe we would buy some. We had two hours free before we had to check out of the hotel. Since the weather was once again clear, we decided to take advantage of it and head up to the summit again. We could wander up at our own pace, buying some souvenirs at the little stalls which lined the pathways. We stopped to buy two glasses of orange juice. The man squeezed it right in front of us and it was pure orange juice and nothing more. It was so thick and delicious! We stopped at some shops and bought a few gifts for the kids in Ecuador and Guatemala. The young woman running the shop was very friendly. She had an adorable white cat with a gray tail. It was laying on a red cushion under a shelter made of hay. There was a tip jar on the cat bed with a sign written in Chinese characters. We chatted with her and gave 1 yuan as a donation for her cat. She called the cat over, and it was very friendly and let us pet it. I told the woman that we have two cats of our won, and she immediately ran several yards away to one of her other shops to show us an embroidery of a cat she had for sale. After buying a couple more items from her and a male coworker, we continued up to the summit. Once again, had beautiful views of the Dragon's Backbone rice terraces. We had been so lucky in terms of weather for this entire trip! We bought a couple of items from the gift shop at the summit, and then walked down again. We came upon a man playing a flute. I asked if I could photograph him, and he said no. But then the girl with the cat came over, said something to him in Chinese, and then told me it was ok. We think he may have been her father, and when he realized that we were paying customers of hers, he was fine with it. The young woman noticed Craig limping as he walked down the steps toward the hotel (going downhill bothers his knees) and she ran to get some titianium walking poles that she had for sale, and offered them to him. It was very sweet of her, and also very entrepreneurial. We said no thank you. Then a man offered to carry Craig down in a sedan. Luckily, he was feeling well enough that as long as we took it slowly, he was calable of descending under his own power. We checked out of the hotel at 11 o'clock, and began the descent to the parking lot. There was certainly no need for a porter this time. Before we knew it, we were back at the shops near the parking lot. Craig had seen some of the "odd shaped stones" of the area for sale yesterday as we had been hiking up. They were spherical and blood red. We didn't want to carry rocks up the mountain, so we had decided that we would buy one today instead. But of course the shop selling them was shuttered closed today. We looked around for alternatives and finally decided on a smooth, egg-shaped piece of "chicken blood jade". We passed a shop which at first glance looked like a butchery. Slabs of bacon seemingly hung from hooks and were displayed on the counter. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't bacon at all, but red and white striated stones which had been cut with facets to maximize the illusion. It was very clever, but I couldn't imagine wanting to buy one. I would be craving bacon every time I looked at it! When we arrived at the parking lot, we used the restroom before getting back into the van. We looked up and could actually see the three flags of the summit. If we had seen this when we first arrived, we would have realized that the actual height of the climb was not too bad. Although we are out of shape and Craig has nmobility issues due to his MS, we are used to hiking on much rougher trails, so this actually turned out to be surprisingly manageable - so much so that we had returned to the summit this morning. We were very happy with the way that this excursion had turned out, and we were very grateful for the favorable weather! We got back in the van and drove to a resturant in the nearby city, arriving at 1 p.m. Wang Jun knew about this off-the-beaten-path restaurant because he had explored town with his clients in the past when they had been unable to see anything at the rice terraces due to the weather. They had explored the alleyways of town and came across this restaurant. It was a large building, and we were brought upstairs into an air-conditioned private dining room. We ate at a separate table from Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou. We had these excellent little donuts made out of a certain kind of root, and dipped in sugar...they were like tiny chocolate honeydipped Munchkins. We also had a spicy cabbage dish, local river fish, eggplant, soup. Craig had a Liquan Ice Beer and I had JDB. After lunch, we drove to the Hot Spring Hotel at Longsheng Hot Springs, arriving around 3 o'clock. The hotel was nestled into a river valley with abundant hot springs. We got settled into our room, #1409 on the 4th floor. Craig's super-senitive nose noticed a certain mustiness in the room. We thought that it might be inevitable, due to the humidity that comes from the hot springs. But the room was very clean and comfortable. We then realized that the carpet was a bit wet, so that was the source of the dampness. We could easily step over the wet area, so it wasn't a big deal. We got settled in the room. Tomorrow we would be flying to Beijing, and the day after that, to Boston. Our bags were not flight-ready in their current condition, so we spent some time organizing and re-packing. After getting everything ready, we put on our bathing suits, hotel robes, and hotel flip flops to go down to the hot springs at around 4:20. There was a sign in Chinese, English, and Korean with an arrow, saying "Bath tunnel, elevator, card check, entrance, outdoor, hotspring." We didn't quite know what to expect, but we followed the arrow and instructions. We took the elevator to the 3rd floor. Then we walked outside into a wooden corridor with stairs, and then down another elevator. We then came to a check in desk with locker rooms on either side. We each had to trade our room key card for a plastic bracelet with our room number on it. We exited the building, and had a view down at the river below the hotel. We saw a large pool which had been drained for maintenance. We hoped that this was not some offseason time when the experience would be diminished, but it wasn't. We followed meandering stone pathways and found various small pools nestled into the grottoes of the valleys. The hot spring water was channeled into the pools, and signs at each pool gave a temperature range for the water. Depending on the distance between teh source spring and the pool, they varies greatly in temperature. All signs were in Chinese, English, and Korean (this is a very popular vacation destination for Koreans). We chose a small pool with water temperature between 36 and 42 degrees Celsius. Heat can trigger Craig's MS symptoms, so we deliberately chose a pool on the lower end of the temperature scale. The pool was lined with smooth rounded river rocks, and there were nice stones to sit on. The place was not overly crowded, and we had the pool to ourselves at times. They were hopping from pool to pool, and everyone was quite friendly. We took advantage of the complimentary water cooler and cups to rehydrate as we soaked in the warm water. It was so peaceful. The whole area had a very organic feeling, with the pools and the hotel nestled into the natural landscape. There was lush vegetation surrounding the pools, and it was quite tranquil. We spent around 30-40 minutes in the water. If we started to feel to hot, we would simply sit on the edge of the pool, dangling only our feet into the water. We decided that we should quit while we were ahead (before Craig got too warm), so we got out of that pool. We walked down to a larger and cooler shallow pool, and we sat in the water for a while to cool down. It felt great! At around 5:45. We walked back into the building, presented our wristbands, received an exit card, inserted the exit card to get through the turnstyle, and then traded our wristbands for our room keys. It was an unexpectedly complex process, but since the hot springs are open to the public as well as hotel guests, this must be the way to control crowds and make sure that everyone has paid appropriately. We retraced our steps up elevators and through wooden corridors up to our room. We took showers and got dressed up for our farewell dinner. We met Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou on the 2nd floor at the restaurant. Tonight we would all eat together at the same table, something that we had been waiting for the whole trip. Poor Mr. Zhou looked quite tired. Although we fly from Guilin to Beijing early tomorrow, Mr. Zhou and Wang Jun have to drive back to Guiyang, which will take them two days! We really appreciated the fact that Mr. Zhou was joining us for dinner, even though he would be up driving very early in the morning. Wang Jun had brought a bottle of GRETA WALL [sic] cabernet. Craig anbd I were giggling about the name. Wang Jun didn't get the joke. "It's Great Wall," he said, pointing to the drawing of the wall on the the label. "Look more closely!" we said. He noticed the typo and got a good laugh out of it. There was a large lazy susan in the center of the table, and soon it was filled with food: enough for a banquet. Wang Jun was feeling relieved that he had succeeded in his self-imposed challenge to never repeat a dish in our time with him, and had gone all out with ordering for our last supper. We had breaded chicken, bacon with peanuts, corn on the cob, root vegetables, roasted peanuts in their shells, two types of rice and pork steamed in leaves, chicken soup bubbling away in a hot pot (to which we added greens and tofu), lettuce, French fries with ketchup, and sticky rice blended with ferns into sticky, jell-o like triangles which you dip in sugar. It was a fabulous farewell dinner, and we enjoyed Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou's company very much. We were not looking forward to saying goodbye to them tomomrrow...we had become very close over the course of the trip. At 8:10, the guys headed to their guest house to get some rest. We headed back to our room. We hadn't been sure if we would take another dip in the hot springs. We had already showered, and it would be an early morning. But Wang Jun had highly recommended returning. We digested our food and relaxed in the room for a while before putting our still-wet bathing suits back on. At 9 o'clock, we headed back down to the pools. Everything was prettily lit with rope lights and red paper lanterns. We went back to our favorite pool. As we enjoyed the serenity, we saw a giant moth alight on a red paper lantern. We also saw a very large praying mantis. There were no biting insects, however. We were so glad that Wang Jun had convinced us to return. It was a very relaxing way to end the trip before the next two travel days. After enjoying the water, we cooled down a bit and then headed back to our room at 10:25. We took a quick rinse off in the shower. I wrote in my notebook and we wrote thank you notes to Wang Jun and Mr. Zhou. I used a translator to see the characters for "Thank you" and made a rather comical attempt to write them on Mr. Zhou's note. We went to bed at 11:15. Longsheng Hot Spring Hotel

Walking back up to view the rice terraces Longji Rice Terraces Freshly squeezed orange juice Longsheng Hot Springs Longsheng Hot Springs Longsheng Hot Springs Farewell dinner Wang Jun and the Greta [sic] Wall cabernet Longsheng Hot Springs