Guilin & Moon Hill Village, China

After an awesome day at the rice terraces in Ping'an we headed south to Guilin. We were pretty tired so we just took a short walk to the riverside to take in the view before a much needed evening of relaxation (sleep). Guilin is famous for its landscape, specifically the sheer sided karst mountains.

We saw all kinds of things in this river: cows, kids, people washing their motorcycles...

The next morning we were up bright & early to check out the inside of one of the mountains. Because they are limestone, they are full of caves. The geologist in me was giddy:) It was raining buckets outside, so a cave was naturally a great place to be.

There were a lot of multicolored lights inside to "highlight the natural beauty" of the cave formations. Thanks to the lights I was able to get a few pictures. The reflection in this pool was pretty incredible.

We had heard from some Australian tourists that there's an area of the cave where westerners aren't allowed. Supposedly there are some 800+ year old turtles you can visit. Of course I imagined several ancient turtles splashing around in a mystical cave pool. I found a tour guide and told her I wanted to see the turtles. For a price (surprise, surprise) she led us to the turtles. Let's just say it was not quite what I had imagined!

People would put money and charms on the turtles' shells. I'm guessing this is supposed to bless the giver with longevity or something like that. Poor turtles!

On our way out we did see some little turtles in one of the pools. Apparently Chinese people like to throw money at turtles. And not just coins!

After the caves we had planned to float down the Li River to Yangshuo. Unfortunately the heavy rain (buckets, as mentioned before) had flooded the river and no boats were leaving. Instead we hopped a cab to our next destination, Moon Hill Village. We had great luck with our hotels on this trip (In case you ever need recommendations). This was our charming hotel in the village. Loved it!

After the recent trauma at monkey mountain I was a little surprised we not only volunteered, but paid to have our photos taken with monkeys. Really though, who can resist monkeys in costume with a giant feather caps? Not me!

You can see Moon Hill, for which the village is named, in the distance. Beautiful.

Not long after arriving in Moon Hill Village it started to downpour again. That was our cue to nab another cab to Yangshuo, about 20 minutes away, in pursuit of more adventures.