Bike Trip

The scenery on this bike ride was breathtaking... you're lucky I was on my bike and unable to take as many pictues as I would have liked! I was continually overwhelmed by what God has created in this corner of the world. The ride was a neat combination of gorgeous views of the karsts and river along with a peek into life in agricultural Chinese villages. We rode through clusters of small brick homes, obviously quite old, where chickens ran through the dirt roads and neat gardens grew behind fences fashioned of twigs. Then the road would open out into vast, lush rice fields where a lone farmer in a straw hat would be working with his water buffalo beside him.

Madelyn and Gwen, both on the back seats of tandem bicycles that Scott and I rode, pointed out every chicken, chick, duck, dog and water buffalo they spotted! This was a good diversion for Gwen, who complained often about the bumpiness of the ride on the mostly rocky and dirt roads we were on.

We took a break when we got to this bridge, digging for recognizable flavors of popsicles to buy from a vendor with a small cart of frozen treats. Madelyn got an ice cream bar that was popcorn flavored. One of the others we bought had a melon taste. We avoided the bean and pea flavored popsicles.
We snapped this picture a minute too late. As we approached this scene, the buffalo had been standing at the top of this bridge for several minutes, right in the middle, refusing to move no matter how much his mistress tugged on the rope threaded through his nostrils and around his neck. As we stopped our bikes and fumbled to get the camera out, he finally ambled down the side of the bridge. A farmer at work.
Rice plants, nearly ready to harvest. Each plants yields two handfuls of rice. How is it that we feed the world with this? Amazing.Anyone want to come on this bike ride with us? We'd love to do it again.