Since I came back from Yangshuo over the National Holiday, a bunch of people how my week was. Unfortunately, there is no one good word that I can use to sum up the entire vacation. Actually, maybe turbulent works.
First 48 hours
Wake up, Chinese writing lesson, procrastinate, pack, do nothing in particular, then take an hour on the subway to get to the train station, wait for half an hour, board.
A 24-hour train ride is enough to make anyone go crazy, especially when there are no beds, only hard chairs (that are not tall enough for me to even rest my head). I met a variety of people. The ladies across from me taught me how to skin a bamboo using a knife and my teeth (thanks for the dental work mom and dad!) and chew on it – it was surprisingly sweet! Two little boys were astonished by the length of my nose, I tell the one who sits next to me if he eats his shi zi (kind of like a small orange but not a tangerine, I can’t find a translation) he’ll have a nose as large as mine one day, he responded by trying to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Three college kids who just arrived in Shanghai two weeks ago decided to take the train out to Lijiang, Yun’nan, a 41-hour trek, good luck with that! I was completely sapped after 24 hours and they almost had a whole day left to go.
I naturally tried to use my Mandarin as much as possible on the trip, the little boy taught me the word for tank, because he thought that every American owned one (and a helicopter too). I got completely lost in a conversation with the man next to me, since he was talking about the country. I realized I’ve never really needed to talk about that before, about farmers or crops or anything. There were so many new words there, I felt like he was speaking a different language, I haven’t felt that way in a long time.
I naturally tried to use my Mandarin as much as possible on the trip, the little boy taught me the word for tank, because he thought that every American owned one (and a helicopter too). I got completely lost in a conversation with the man next to me, since he was talking about the country. I realized I’ve never really needed to talk about that before, about farmers or crops or anything. There were so many new words there, I felt like he was speaking a different language, I haven’t felt that way in a long time.
Finally we reach Guilin, with about five hours of crappy sleep and a sore back. I had met a Belgian guy on the train who didn’t speak a lick of Chinese, so I offered to help him find the bus station and get a ticket to Yangshuo (where I’d be on Monday). There were no taxis at the train station, so we got on two separate motorcycle taxis with all of our stuff. I white knuckled the entire 25-minute journey, but we got there safely. His ticket was easy to buy, but it turned out I was at the wrong station.
An eight yuan taxi later and I’m there. A two-hour bus takes me to Long Sheng. The seats are tall enough for me to sleep the entire way, score! We arrive at 7:30, which is too late to catch a bus to Ping An - the village where I’d stay my first two nights - so I have to take a 150¥ 90-minute taxi, negative score¡
Twenty minutes in, something breaks under the car. The driver gets out and fixes it in the pitch dark, in the middle of nowhere, with cars wizzing past. When I try to get out and at least help cars not hit him, he tells me to get back in the car… If he gets killed, I’m screwed. Nothing bad happens we ascend a little mountain, and then I get out and walk 15 minutes more up the hill to my hostel. I finally eat a real meal and play a little pool with a visitor from Guangzhou and pass out.
An eight yuan taxi later and I’m there. A two-hour bus takes me to Long Sheng. The seats are tall enough for me to sleep the entire way, score! We arrive at 7:30, which is too late to catch a bus to Ping An - the village where I’d stay my first two nights - so I have to take a 150¥ 90-minute taxi, negative score¡
Twenty minutes in, something breaks under the car. The driver gets out and fixes it in the pitch dark, in the middle of nowhere, with cars wizzing past. When I try to get out and at least help cars not hit him, he tells me to get back in the car… If he gets killed, I’m screwed. Nothing bad happens we ascend a little mountain, and then I get out and walk 15 minutes more up the hill to my hostel. I finally eat a real meal and play a little pool with a visitor from Guangzhou and pass out.
Kokiri... I Mean Ping An Village
I woke up this morning to the sound of a rooster crowing, which was just the first of many similarities with Link's Kokiri Forest Village from Zelda: Ocarina of Time on N64 (consider this your warning).
Ping An is the home of 龙脊 (long2 ji3) meaning the Dragon's Spine (make sure to pronounce ji in the third tone, if you say it in the first tone you are talking about the place on a male dragon where the sun doesn't shine). The Dragon's Spine is a set of hills with rows and rows of rice patties growing on them. From afar and using my (not the most expensive) camera, it looks almost as pixelated as the game we all grew up loving (by "all" I mean my age +/- 3 years).
Ping An is the home of 龙脊 (long2 ji3) meaning the Dragon's Spine (make sure to pronounce ji in the third tone, if you say it in the first tone you are talking about the place on a male dragon where the sun doesn't shine). The Dragon's Spine is a set of hills with rows and rows of rice patties growing on them. From afar and using my (not the most expensive) camera, it looks almost as pixelated as the game we all grew up loving (by "all" I mean my age +/- 3 years).
Although I guess it's more beautiful. The town had the full compliment of houses on stilts and brick walls:
And, of course, shrubs ripe for the slashing...
Fortunately, this genuine Kokiri Village lacked Navi and that freaking owl who gives those long-winded obvious tips. All joking aside, this was a great little town to stay in for a day. And the fields were much more beautiful than I could capture with a camera. Here're some photos I didn't take:
And now back to joking. Apparently the writers of this sign didn't think any English-speaking foreigner would suffer through the first five lines of Chinglish and actually read the sixth line:
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| Stone walls with plants so thick you could climb them (not advised) |
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| Think of all the Deku Nuts in there |
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| Someone got a lot of Rupees here |
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| From: LYC Travel |
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| Access China Tours |
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| Wild China |
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| China Agricultural Landscape |
Meet Up with Susu, Intro to Yangshuo
Before I left Longsheng, I found three other Shanghai dwellers in the shape of Stephen (yeah, I know, it's like we grow on freaking trees), Charlotte, and Lily. We spent one night playing card games and exchanging stories in Longsheng together, and as it turned out going on the same bus (really just a van) back to Guilin the next day and going to Yangshuo that night. Small world.
So we arrived in Guilin together, before I broke off to buy return tickets and wait for Susu at the station. We got to our hotel in Yangshuo in the pouring rain around 8:30.
Now, I've had pretty good luck booking the cheapest hotel/hostel in town and it turning out to be a great place. On this day though, my luck ran dry. For ¥100 ($15) per person per night, we were to stay in a room at a Tai Chi Dojo. Sounded okay, maybe even get a Tai Chi lesson or two for free out of it. Unfortunately, the place looked like this:
What you might notice is that the bed has no pillows [crap accidently deleted that photo] and that in the bathroom, the shower was literally just a metal hose - no shower head. What you can't see here is that the bathroom had no power and when we lowered the blind dust fell out. Just terrible. Of course, after taking a look the owner asked us if we were going to pay for all five days up front... no thanks.
We tried to meet up with Stephen, Charlotte, and Lily for drinks, but got sidetracked finding a new hostel. We ended up having to stay one night at Hotel Horror then moving into a much better place the next day.
So we arrived in Guilin together, before I broke off to buy return tickets and wait for Susu at the station. We got to our hotel in Yangshuo in the pouring rain around 8:30.
Now, I've had pretty good luck booking the cheapest hotel/hostel in town and it turning out to be a great place. On this day though, my luck ran dry. For ¥100 ($15) per person per night, we were to stay in a room at a Tai Chi Dojo. Sounded okay, maybe even get a Tai Chi lesson or two for free out of it. Unfortunately, the place looked like this:
We tried to meet up with Stephen, Charlotte, and Lily for drinks, but got sidetracked finding a new hostel. We ended up having to stay one night at Hotel Horror then moving into a much better place the next day.
A Day of Good Food, Bad Rain, and Hitting the Low Point
We moved our stuff and Susu lightened our load by sending some stuff to Shanghai by mail. But it was just pouring. I tried to keep a positive attitude and suggested we check out the caves, which wouldn't be affected by the rain anyways.
But I was mistaken, sort of. Due to the rain, lines for the bus were ridiculous. They were quick to sell us a ticket and tell us to get on the next bus, however every bus was overbooked by about double. After standing in puddles for about half an hour, we went back got a refund and decided to hang low for the rest of the day.
I had thought that, due to the southern latitude of our location, the place would be warmer than Shanghai, which was still in t-shirt/shorts weather. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Cold+Rain-Long Pants+Non Water Resistant Shoes=Sick Scuba. That morning I developed a head cold/cough that sucked but wasn't unbearable.
At least the food was good! In Yangshuo, they like to stuff food with other food. For instance, they would hollow out an eggplant, pepper, or tofu and stuff it with pork and veggies. We tried several varieties of this including...
Snails! It's no escargot, but still delicious. And we also tried the town special, which is called 啤酒鱼 (pi2 jiu3 yu3) or Beer Fish! We asked for it spicy and they gave us mild, not bad though.
So we scheduled a rock climbing expedition the next day, in a place that would work rain or shine, and called it an early night due to my head cold.
At the hotel, we watched a fascinating show about 张艺谋 (zhang1 yi4 mou2) the director of movies such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers as well as the Opening Ceremonies for the Beijing Olympic Games. He started off as a photographer who was good at capturing vivid colors within the lives of the common person, which he later transitioned into movies (before becoming big, he would use small town people in large roles in his films) and now he has created five live performances which he calls Impressions. They take place in different parts of China: Lijiang, out west (which I saw with my parents), Hangzhou, outside of Shanghai; Hainan, the southernmost island of China; Fujian, in southeast China; and Yangshuo, where we were! We decided to book tickets later in the week.
Just as I was relieved that, despite the bad weather and my cold, at least the food was good, my stomach reversed its decision to accept the delicious food I had earlier in the day. Well, at least we had a solid hour-long documentary on monkeys to keep me happy. Until our cable suddenly went out. And it was only 8:30. Trying to sleep with an upset stomach, headache, and runny nose was so uncomfortable that it hurts just thinking about it in retrospect. Definitely my lowest point in my vacationing career in a long while.
But I was mistaken, sort of. Due to the rain, lines for the bus were ridiculous. They were quick to sell us a ticket and tell us to get on the next bus, however every bus was overbooked by about double. After standing in puddles for about half an hour, we went back got a refund and decided to hang low for the rest of the day.
I had thought that, due to the southern latitude of our location, the place would be warmer than Shanghai, which was still in t-shirt/shorts weather. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Cold+Rain-Long Pants+Non Water Resistant Shoes=Sick Scuba. That morning I developed a head cold/cough that sucked but wasn't unbearable.
At least the food was good! In Yangshuo, they like to stuff food with other food. For instance, they would hollow out an eggplant, pepper, or tofu and stuff it with pork and veggies. We tried several varieties of this including...
So we scheduled a rock climbing expedition the next day, in a place that would work rain or shine, and called it an early night due to my head cold.
At the hotel, we watched a fascinating show about 张艺谋 (zhang1 yi4 mou2) the director of movies such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers as well as the Opening Ceremonies for the Beijing Olympic Games. He started off as a photographer who was good at capturing vivid colors within the lives of the common person, which he later transitioned into movies (before becoming big, he would use small town people in large roles in his films) and now he has created five live performances which he calls Impressions. They take place in different parts of China: Lijiang, out west (which I saw with my parents), Hangzhou, outside of Shanghai; Hainan, the southernmost island of China; Fujian, in southeast China; and Yangshuo, where we were! We decided to book tickets later in the week.
Just as I was relieved that, despite the bad weather and my cold, at least the food was good, my stomach reversed its decision to accept the delicious food I had earlier in the day. Well, at least we had a solid hour-long documentary on monkeys to keep me happy. Until our cable suddenly went out. And it was only 8:30. Trying to sleep with an upset stomach, headache, and runny nose was so uncomfortable that it hurts just thinking about it in retrospect. Definitely my lowest point in my vacationing career in a long while.
Rock Climbing
Fortunately, we had rock climbing the next morning to get us back on the right track. Despite all my ailments, I never even considered canceling, and it turned out to be a real momentum-changer.
It was the first time Susu had ever gone rock climbing outside and we had a blast.
Of course, I just noticed now that she sent me only photos of me climbing and none of her from her camera (she's a little too modest on occasion). We climbed four of the six courses, starting with the easiest. She went first and finally stopped halfway up the fourth course. Determined not to lose to a girl, I completed the fourth course through burning forearms and fingertips. Susu has climbing skills (back in our rock climbing gym in Shanghai, she can certainly climb better than a bunch of the boys there).
We climbed one of the thousands of little hills that just pop out of the ground in Yangshuo. I couldn't stop looking at them throughout the course of the trip. There'll be a ton of photos of them coming up soon.
Didn't do much for the rest of the day. I was on the prisoner's diet of bread and water, or the Chinese equivalent: zhou. The direct translation into English is "gruel" and it looks and tastes like soggy rice in water. Mmmm delicious.
It was the first time Susu had ever gone rock climbing outside and we had a blast.
We climbed one of the thousands of little hills that just pop out of the ground in Yangshuo. I couldn't stop looking at them throughout the course of the trip. There'll be a ton of photos of them coming up soon.
Didn't do much for the rest of the day. I was on the prisoner's diet of bread and water, or the Chinese equivalent: zhou. The direct translation into English is "gruel" and it looks and tastes like soggy rice in water. Mmmm delicious.
Recovery, Spelunking
The rain returned (it didn't interrupt our climbing day) and we headed down to the caves. These caves were clearly for tourist consumption as they had paved walkways and neon lights illuminating the various stalagmites and stalactites.
These were beautiful, and some were over 100,000 years old. Although, it doesn't quite feel like spelunking when a 70 year old couple passes you while you're posing for a photo.
That night we went to the bar next door. The prior night or two, with me laying sick in my bed, we heard the sounds of karaoke coming from the street in both Chinese and English. Susu loves to sing - and I am easily coerced - so we went to check it out.
There was a guy playing some tunes while playing an electric keyboard or guitar, not a bad singer, maybe a little nasally. The waitress says he plays every night and that anyone can go up and request to sing a song with him at any time. It was only 8ish, so nobody was there yet, which was perfect conditions for Susu's first venture.
I don't know what she sang, but I'm pretty sure she killed it. She got some applause from me and the waitresses afterwards and she hurried back blushing thinking that she went too fast and this and that. Honestly, she's got pipes, just too modest is all.
That night we went to the bar next door. The prior night or two, with me laying sick in my bed, we heard the sounds of karaoke coming from the street in both Chinese and English. Susu loves to sing - and I am easily coerced - so we went to check it out.
There was a guy playing some tunes while playing an electric keyboard or guitar, not a bad singer, maybe a little nasally. The waitress says he plays every night and that anyone can go up and request to sing a song with him at any time. It was only 8ish, so nobody was there yet, which was perfect conditions for Susu's first venture.
First Full Day of Stuff (About Time)
Another day of rain, surprise, surprise. But this time we were prepared for it. I was fully healthy and ready for anything. That includes the most extreme sport of all...
Tandem Bicycling. Formerly an Olympic event, Tandem Bicycling was eventually removed from the Games due to too much back seat steering. Either that or too many homicides from when the exact moment the person in the front realizes that the person in the back hasn't pedaled in the last half hour.
Biking around gave us a unique perspective on Yangshuo. Instead of speeding past endless hills, we biked between them and were given their names by our tour guide, an ancient looking lady who biked alongside us.
The first destination we biked to was a Big Banyan Tree that was over 1,400 years old.
However that was clearly not the main attraction of the park. Since the park had MONKEYS!
There will never be enough photos of me with monkeys in my lifetime. Again, Susu didn't give me any photos with her in them, so you have been deprived of the "Monkey Copping Feel" photo. Humanity again suffers at the hands of Susu's modesty. We continued until we got to a quaint little bridge overlooking the Li Jiang (meaning beautiful river) and the hills next to it. Where we took this photo and the one at the top of this piece.
We headed back into town and got into an unmarked van, which took us to another unmarked van, which took us to a cave where we could do something more closely representing spelunking.
Side Note: No sarcasm here, there was actually nothing shady about the whole operation. There were little girls - maybe 7 years old - riding these unmarked vans alone with us while making calls on their cell phones. Susu says that kids become independent around that age in China (actually it's the same in Shanghai, you see little kids on the buses or coming home from school alone at a ridiculously young age). I'm pretty sure I was under adult supervision my entire life until the age of 12 (probable exaggeration here).
In these caves, Susu had to duck to avoid hitting her head. I might have a foot (or 30cm for my non-American readers) on Susu. Needless to say, without my helmet I would have sustained a few headwounds.
In that last photo is a bunch of other folk. When I had to go up there, I was on all fours. At the back of this cave was a mud pool, as in a big pool of mud. Not hot or anything, just a few feet deep of mud. I was a little tentative at first, but after getting in, we got some of our best photos yet.
I can't believe she got me to do that last one, I thought for sure I was going to drop her and have hell to pay when she couldn't get the mud out of her hair for weeks. Turned out good though!
Afterwards, we went to a natural hotspring, where water was heated up to 43ºC (109ºF for my American readers) due to air from what I can presume is the very core of our planet. That'll knock the mud right off you.
We came home, showered off and ate before heading out to the Zhang Yimou show (the guy I talked about earlier who directed the Beijing Olympics). I love his stuff. Some people don't, so if not, oh well. But I just find it fascinating. Coordinating such enormous casts of local actors to do such brilliant things with radiant colors. Unless you are fluent in sung Classical Chinese (I'm not even basic, I can't pick up any words in the old songs) or know the old tales by heart, you are not going to know the plot for his Yangshuo show. The one in Lijiang had monitors with English subtitles to follow along, no such luck here. And it didn't help that I was hungry, so I thought that the Moon Princess was a girl standing on a banana.
This was really the only clear photo that Susu got of the performance, which is probably a good thing since they tell you not to photograph or record these events.
Side Note: The entire population of the crowd (mostly Chinese in descent) were recording this show on their camera or cell phone. I know there's no copyright or anything here, but that always kinda ticks me off. That and that some people leave before the finale to beat the traffic? Who tries to beat the traffic when you're on vacation? There isn't that much to do at 8:30 in Yangshuo. You're either asleep by 10 or just hitting the town. Whatever.
So it was another beautiful masterful performance, which preceded another one. When we got back, we decided to have a bite and a drink at a German brewery. It was our last night and I was ready to eat a real filling meal after having gruel for two days. We split two beers, a blonde and a black, after which Susu remarked "I think we should drink more German beer" which I heard before exploding into smitherines with happiness.
We headed down to the bar next door to our hostel, where Susu was immediately called up on stage by the singer from the night before - joined by two other band members on this occasion - with the introduction (in English!) "Everybody please welcome Susu, she has a beautiful voice!"
And she slayed everyone in attendance again (albeit with far more people this time) and got a round of applause as she left the stage. Freaking awesome. I'm dating a superstar.
While part of me is disappointed that our first full day of activity didn't happen until the last full day in Yangshuo, it turned out to be better financially speaking. To do just about anything in or around Yangshuo costs about 200¥, so most of our days were 200¥ for activities plus food and living. But this last day was closer to 500¥, which would have been unsustainable for the entire trip. Plus, I guess it's better to end strong than start strong and run out of money halfway through. But maybe I'm just an optimist about this whole experience.
Another day of rain, surprise, surprise. But this time we were prepared for it. I was fully healthy and ready for anything. That includes the most extreme sport of all...
Biking around gave us a unique perspective on Yangshuo. Instead of speeding past endless hills, we biked between them and were given their names by our tour guide, an ancient looking lady who biked alongside us.
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| Behold, the majestical beauty of the backside of my head |
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| That's an old tree |
Side Note: No sarcasm here, there was actually nothing shady about the whole operation. There were little girls - maybe 7 years old - riding these unmarked vans alone with us while making calls on their cell phones. Susu says that kids become independent around that age in China (actually it's the same in Shanghai, you see little kids on the buses or coming home from school alone at a ridiculously young age). I'm pretty sure I was under adult supervision my entire life until the age of 12 (probable exaggeration here).
In these caves, Susu had to duck to avoid hitting her head. I might have a foot (or 30cm for my non-American readers) on Susu. Needless to say, without my helmet I would have sustained a few headwounds.
Afterwards, we went to a natural hotspring, where water was heated up to 43ºC (109ºF for my American readers) due to air from what I can presume is the very core of our planet. That'll knock the mud right off you.
We came home, showered off and ate before heading out to the Zhang Yimou show (the guy I talked about earlier who directed the Beijing Olympics). I love his stuff. Some people don't, so if not, oh well. But I just find it fascinating. Coordinating such enormous casts of local actors to do such brilliant things with radiant colors. Unless you are fluent in sung Classical Chinese (I'm not even basic, I can't pick up any words in the old songs) or know the old tales by heart, you are not going to know the plot for his Yangshuo show. The one in Lijiang had monitors with English subtitles to follow along, no such luck here. And it didn't help that I was hungry, so I thought that the Moon Princess was a girl standing on a banana.
Side Note: The entire population of the crowd (mostly Chinese in descent) were recording this show on their camera or cell phone. I know there's no copyright or anything here, but that always kinda ticks me off. That and that some people leave before the finale to beat the traffic? Who tries to beat the traffic when you're on vacation? There isn't that much to do at 8:30 in Yangshuo. You're either asleep by 10 or just hitting the town. Whatever.
So it was another beautiful masterful performance, which preceded another one. When we got back, we decided to have a bite and a drink at a German brewery. It was our last night and I was ready to eat a real filling meal after having gruel for two days. We split two beers, a blonde and a black, after which Susu remarked "I think we should drink more German beer" which I heard before exploding into smitherines with happiness.
We headed down to the bar next door to our hostel, where Susu was immediately called up on stage by the singer from the night before - joined by two other band members on this occasion - with the introduction (in English!) "Everybody please welcome Susu, she has a beautiful voice!"
While part of me is disappointed that our first full day of activity didn't happen until the last full day in Yangshuo, it turned out to be better financially speaking. To do just about anything in or around Yangshuo costs about 200¥, so most of our days were 200¥ for activities plus food and living. But this last day was closer to 500¥, which would have been unsustainable for the entire trip. Plus, I guess it's better to end strong than start strong and run out of money halfway through. But maybe I'm just an optimist about this whole experience.
The Final Day
We had enough for one more activity, so we did the one thing everyone is obligated to do when they come to Yangshuo, take a trip down Li Jiang. Here are the photos:
We had enough for one more activity, so we did the one thing everyone is obligated to do when they come to Yangshuo, take a trip down Li Jiang. Here are the photos:
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| This is the exact spot that is shown on the back of the 20¥ bill |
And of course the obligatory jump shot:
After this we took a 20-hour train ride back to Shanghai, which flew relatively quick compared to the first one, due to our mutual presence and playing cards.
You can check out all of my other pictures on Google+ by adding me there. It's just easier to use their service as they are linked with Blogspot. I don't have to wait to upload my pictures both to Facebook and my blog, I can do it to Google+ and the blog at the same time.
Hope you enjoyed my journey and stories. Until next time,
Stephen "Scuba" Lauer
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