Rafting

So later that day, we go on a rafting trip with some of our friends from work.  The raft is made of bamboo sticks with a couple of lawn chairs secured to it.  It is pushed by Chinese men who come from
families that would have been formerly river fisherman.  These kinds of fishermen, instead of using fishing rods and nets, have specially trained birds.

The birds, which we call mud ducks in the US, are trained by their fishermen masters to dive into the water and bring back fish.  The fishermen tie a loose knot around the birds neck to keep it from swallowing the fish.  In return, the bird knows that if it catches fish and returns it to the master, he will in turn be rewarded of a fish of his own.  This practice has since been over-taken by modern fishing techniques, but it is kept alive for historical reservation and tourists.  So we board the river raft and our fishermen driver pushes off down the river.  It is us and about 50 other boats. 

We had been handed a squirt gun by one of my coworkers, and quickly realized that it was an integral part of the trip.  Every boat we came across, and there was a ton of them, had squirt guns.  We were hitting people left and right. 

These guns, consisted of PVC pipes, and could squirt about 50 feet.  And of course the drivers are in on it, so they would sneak your boat about behind people, and just let you blast the crap out of them with water.  The bad part was, that we were the foreigners, and EVERYONE wanted to get us.  We couldn't pass another raft without getting drenched.  You could even hear them shouting "Lao Wai" and pointing to us.  "Lao Wai" literally means "Old Out" which is loosely translated to outsider or foreigner.
-JASON