Up the River - "why did you bother to come?" Walking the plank

30th May

Today is the cruise on the Li River.  Our driver dropped us with Helen and we got on the boat. 
We were directed quite firmly by the staff to sit at a particular table and there was a little jostling as this was not necessarily where we would like to have sat.  However we were told this was just where we would sit for lunch and we cold move around once the boat moved.

We were sat by two Americans and two English people.  Interesting conversations about democracy whereby one of the Americans said that "giving every humanoid in the country a vote was not democracy!!"  Did she mean that some people should not have a vote or that some should have only half a vote?  From her other conversations she meant the latter so we were not in harmony as the cruise started and we went up on the top deck with Helen. We were travelling down the river and the scenery was breath taking.  Which meant of course I was again not speaking!!!

The mountain peaks rear up from the valley floor and there are dozens and dozens of them and they go on for miles.  Lots of little villages along the way, wonderful Phoenix Tail  Bamboo and horizontal rain.  We had brollies and Helen said this weather made for the BEST views. The mist and the fast flowing, and therefore muddy, river, meant we were seeing the river and the scenery at its best.  We could not help thinking that clear skies, clear waters and no rain not to mention some light sunshine and clear skies might have been better still but Helen would have none of it and waxed lyrical about every minute of the day!  Her enthusiasm is infectious and Tone said after a while that I had caught her excitement and was saying how wonderful it all was.

And it was of course.

At lunch, we had been warned off and only had fruit, we sat again by our table companions.  After some further declarations about China, it's people, the USA and the awfulness of life in general Tone in his usual diplomatic way said to the lady  "If you think it is all so awful why did you bother to come"  End of conversation which was no loss! She was also very rude to her guide stating quite clearly and loudly that the "waffle" he was giving her that a mountain looked like pouncing lion was something she could not see and had no intention of trying----hence my comment to her which her husband loved!

Soon after this the Americans' Guide said they had to get off the boat as they were not going as far as the rest of us.  The boat slowed down, ran up the bank and a plank was extended and they got off.  Tone would have preferred them to get off the other side of the boat with him prodding them with a stick as they walked off into the river!

Better now they had gone.