Mountaintop rice terraces, elderly sherpas and new friends

After a speedy breakfast we left the Dragon River Retreat in haste and headed to Guilin to visit the Reed Flute Caves and then the National Pearl Museum. Livvy got a live demo of an oyster being opened to find a beautiful pearl inside and gratefully accepted the pearl when offered as a gift by our hostess, although she did ask me to rinse it with hand sanitizer and then hold it for her as it was “a little fishy smelling”. Then we drove north to Long Qi where the mountain rice terrace villages have been cultivated over the last 1,000 years.

We saw the famous Yao women at the last rest stop before the hike on foot up the village mountain path. The Yao people believe a woman’s hair is sacred and a Yao woman only cuts her hair once at the age of 18, and then never again. Consequently, the Yao have 7-10 feet long hair which they wear bundled like massive spools of black yarn a top their heads. At the rest stop Livvy expressed great pride at her having mastered the fine art of public toilet squatting, “You know mom, it’s actually easier once you get the hang of it”.

The van let us off at the village base camp, and Leo hired 3 elderly Yao women as our sherpas. These frail women loaded our luggage into enormous baskets which they then mounted on their backs and lugged 1 mile uphill to our hotel, see video. I felt embarrassed watching them schlep our heavy rolling duffle bags on their backs and did my best to make my leather hobo handbag appear as heavy as possible, making sure to tilt my shoulders slightly askew whenever possible. About midway up the mountain I saw two local women carrying a large Chinese man on a thrown-like chair attached to two long poles up the mountain, and this made both Livvy and I feel quite macho in spite of our senior citizen Sherpa helpers.

30 minutes later we arrived at the mountain top and Leo rang the bell at the gates guarding our hotel. The day manager “Sally” and hotel manager “Eleonore” greeted us warmly and after checking us in and taking our shoes in exchange for slippers to be worn in the hotel, informed us that the power was out but assured us that it goes out every night and is generally restored around 6pm when it grows dark. Sure it does. After our Dragon River Retreat experience Livvy was understandably nervous and checked the number of nights we’d be staying here, which was just a single night. “Sally” showed us to our room which was called Caligraphy and displayed beautiful artifacts of Chinese calligraphy. The room was lovely and offered an impressive view of the surrounding mountains covered with rice terraces.

We descended the stairs to explore the wraparound terrace of the hotel which offers 180 degree views of the landscape. Livvy settled into a comfy spot in the sun and began doing her homework on the terrace a top the rice terraces and the local women maids at the hotel approached, admiring her learning mathematics which is not taught to girls in this part of the country. We were joined by a lovely older English couple John and Sara, and with Livvy’s endless charm became fast friends. “Sally” invited us indoors to the 1st floor lounge to enjoy cocktails around 6pm as it was growing dark as the lounge was powered by a generator so we could have some light. Sally insisted that the power would be restored shortly when asked by Livvy , but I was rather skeptical, especially given how well hooked up the generator appeared to be. Livvy taught John and Sara to play her favorite card game called Spit and in turn John taught us how to play Cheat while we enjoyed our drinks. The power came back on at 8pm and Livvy beamed with joy while Sally eyed me somewhat indignantly, yes I had doubted her and she knew it.

We ate a delicious dinner cooked by Sally’s grandmother (vegetarian for me as I had decided this was safest while traveling in rural China) and invited John and Sara to join us at our table, which they gratefully did. Dinner was followed by a much lauded slide show of the rice terraces which Sally apparently shot herself and enthusiastically insisted we enjoy, but as it was entirely narrated in a local dialect of Chinese and the sound quality was reminiscent of early “talkies”, Livvy nudged me and after 20 minutes we made a big deal of yawning and stretching for Sally’s benefit, called it a night and went to bed.