January 9th
After we dodged our first (of several) sketchy characters of the trip (an overly desperate taxi driver who continued to bombard and lie to us to get us to use him instead of the bus... fat chance), we made the two hour journey from Guilin to Yangshuo.
Now prior to this trip, I don't think I had seen too many mountains. I had hiked Mt. Blue up in Maine and I had flown over the Rocky Mountains on my way to Washington State... but I've never even seen the Adirondack Mountains (I know, I'm a bad New Yorker). I've seen very few mountains but the mountains of Yangshuo are unlike anything I have ever seen before! One moment, you are driving along a pretty flat, basic highway that could be anywhere in America and then you look up and you spot your first narrow, towering mountain. And then another coming up behind it. And then another. And another! Until you are surrounded by these ridiculous looking mountains!
They come in every shape and size--rolling hill, sharp and vertical, slightly phallic (sorry). It's like if Dr. Seuss was in charge of designing the landscape. I said jokingly to Hannah at one point (just to show off my heathen status in our group), "It's like these were God's first attempt at making mountains that didn't quite turn out the way they were supposed to." And you know what? I'm glad they didn't turn out the way mountains are supposed to. [My iPhone was stolen on the trip and I lost all of the photos from Yangshuo and Hong Kong so I don't have too many photos of the mountains but seriously, just Google search "Guilin" and you will see exactly what I am talking about!]
Western New York is relatively flat so maybe that is why these mountains astounded me so much. There is no rhyme or reason to the mountains of southern China. In my God-awful geology class in college, I learned that mountains are formed from plates in the Earth coming together to form ranges like the Alps and the Himalayas and you can usually see some kind of consistency. But not here.
As we continued driving through these mountains, I felt like I was passing through something that was so much bigger than me--something ancient and something wild that was welcoming me into it's arms in this distant, hidden part of China. This is the China that people imagine. Mountains shrouded in mist (pollution).
As I looked out the window, I couldn't stop myself from seeing these amazing rock formations as sleeping giants--immense beings with a life, a story, and an energy all their own. People who don't look for magic in this world will never find it (Roald Dahl!!). I'm always looking for it, and I definitely found a touch of it in Yangshuo.
We finally arrived in Yangshuo and were greeted by mountains, a cute kitschy little tourist town, and dozens of vendors trying to sell us bamboo boat rides (I will forever hate the word "bamboo" now because of them). For awhile, we just wandered, drinking in the immense beauty of the world around us.
After a lovely dinner of pumpkin soup and journaling (Hannah and I are both hardcore journal writers), we wandered around the city and found a fish spa! For those of you who haven't heard of this, you put your feet into a tub of warm water just filled with these little fish and they eat the dead skin off your feet. Kind of gross but completely hilarious! It was something on My Life List (#201) so we were willing to spend the 15元 for 30 minutes (that's less than $3).
The only way I can describe it once you get past the initial shock of wanting to scream (or in my case, actually screaming) as the fish begin to nibble, it is a mixture of pain and pleasure. After a while, the nips are kind of like a white noise and the feeling is similar to when your foot falls asleep. There were videos and photos taken but, alas, they were lost along with the iPhone so you will just have to find a "Fish Kiss Spa" and check it out for yourself! It's a hoot!!
January 10th
Our first full day in Yangshuo offered us cold weather and cloudy skies but that did not stop Hannah and I from renting a motorbike and riding through the countryside! I had a really bad experience driving a small motorbike when I was younger and so I haven't felt the desire to drive another one since, so I was more than happy to sit back and let Hannah do the navigating, allowing me a chance to just drink in more of those mountains! It's one thing to ride through that landscape on a bus and another to be out in the fresh air actually in it... it makes you really feel a part of it.
We were the only two people on the road with helmets on (my parents have definitely instilled that in me!!) except for the one guy wearing a bright red construction hat... does that even count?
Along the journey, we stopped to watch three women wash their clothes in a small (and surprisingly clean) stream. At one point I saw a scarecrow in a field (to me, scarecrows are so "Middle of America"... I did not expect to see them out here) which was basically two sticks tied together with a dirty shirt and an old dried out baseball cap. I also spotted a couple of tiny doors built into the side of the hills maybe 18 inches tall... it made me think of "Alice in Wonderland."
The cold definitely got to us so we decided to stop at one of the more famous (and less touristy) tourist attractions, Moon Hill. They had a cafe at the bottom of the hill so we quickly bought some coffee for the sole purpose of warming our hands before we faced the hill.
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| Luckily, I bought a postcard so I still have a photo of Moon Hill |
I think Hannah S definitely adds a flair of fun to our little group. I'm usually lost in my thoughts somewhere or trapped inside my overactive imagination and Hannah R is perfectly content to sit in silence, read, write, or draw. But as soon as Hannah S arrived we were laughing and singing songs, holding our arms out to our sides as the bike zoomed down the road as though we were as free as the birds. Hannah R likes to talk of peak moments in life... I think that was one for me.
A perfect day would be incomplete without a trip to KTV (something I have not done enough of since I've been living in China)... and that's just what we did!
January 11th
To continue to prove how unprepared I was for the Himalayas, we continued on in our physical activities with a seven hour bike ride! Our original plan was to take a bike ride to Shangri-La (how's that for a book title?!?) but we found out that (like so many things in China), it was not legit and they were charging admission to go in... We ended up forgetting about the official Shangri-La on the map--just looking around us, we knew that we had already found it!
Instead, we hopped on our inadequate bikes and followed the highway instead of the bike path (oops!) to the Dragon Bridge.
It was a difficult ride. Dodging trucks and buses while always at a slight incline... Bu hao! After following the highway for about an hour, we turned off the main road and followed little yellow signs leading the way to the Dragon Bridge. Before we arrived, we rode down a narrow dirt road surrounded by fields of crops with these (still) amazing mountains. The word I keep thinking is stupendous. We stopped to stare in wonder at the world and (of course) pictures were taken.
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| Favorite photo from the whole trip... Received a choir of "Aww"s from the ladies |
After our photo shoot, we hopped back onto our bikes and continued the rest of the way, dodging the bamboo salesmen. After a solid two hours of bike riding, we had made it to the Yulong River and the Dragon Bridge. In my mind, the name of the bridge needs to be changed because it does not look anything like a dragon so unless a dragon built it, there is some hardcore false advertising going on!
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| No it did not look this nice--another postcard I grabbed luckily |
We walked around the countryside for a bit. It is so nice to be out of the city. Every so often, you could smell a fire or some fertilizer (don't give me that look... You know it's a slightly enjoyable odor). We were surrounded by these mountains as they towered above us. The rain kept us cool.
After a lunch of egg and tomato (so good), eggplant, and potato, we decided that it was time to head back to Yangshuo... and so began the most epic (and difficult) bike ride in the history of us.
Cue ominous music.
We were on our bikes for probably five out of the seven hours were had been out. We got lost and went the wrong way for well over an hour (one way). In those five hours, there were bound to be some memorable moments:
- Riding through wet cement--we have left a (semi) permanent mark in Yangshuo.
- Sitting on the side of the road, looking out on the river and mountains, hearing the bamboo creaking in the breeze.
- Stopping on a bridge to see a man (with a cloak and classic Chinese hat) and his lone cow meandering through the field.
- Talking to an old man about the weather as he fed his cows.
- Getting (kind of) lost alone. I had stopped because I had found a playing card for Adam. The girls were so much further along so I set back out, hoping that I was headed the right way. At one point the bike path became a BIKE PATH. It was so narrow that nothing else but a bike could travel along it.
That time Hannah R fell into the tributary of the Yulong River.
After I had caught up with the girls from picking up Adam's card, we found that the bridge that we had been depending on was no longer there (my money is on the evil bamboo boat people... just try and convince me otherwise). We decided that instead of paying 5 元 to cross the river, we would sneak across.
Like the over dramatic ladies that we are, we carried our bikes along the path through the crop fields and tall grass, trying to be as quiet as possible. We were hunched over, our eyes scanning the river, praying we wouldn't be seen. Hiding in the bushes, Hannah S found that there was a cement path about three feet wide that went across the river. The plan was as intense and complex as storming the beaches of Normany.
The Mission should we choose to accept:
Get across as quickly and stealthily as possible without getting caught.
MISSION technically ACCOMPLISHED.
Hannah R led the way as gallant as Aragorn. Hannah S bravely brought up the rear as Gandalf did in Moria . And there I was in the middle as useless as Samwise Gamgee. We zoomed across the river like smugglers, the puddles we drove through splashing up dramatically behind us. My eyes were focused intently on Hannah's carefully plotted path... until the ground ate her up and she disappeared before my eyes.
At first, I had thought that it was just a really steep hill and I prepared myself for a wild ride. But then I saw her fall to the side a bit so I thought she had fallen down the hill. As I got closer, I realized that she had flown into a small canal!
She had a little bit of blood on her lips and she was soaking wet but her teeth were in perfect condition and she was already laughing. Following our character profiles, Hannah S hatched a plan to save Hannah R's iPod (sadly to no avail, I must inform you... the first of two Apple products to sacrifice themselves for our adventure) and I was off to the side, snapping pictures (with permission, of course).
Pulling the bike from the sludgy tributary of the Yulong River and assessing the damage done to Hannah R's beautiful face, we congratulated ourselves on accomplishing our mission.
January 12th
Continuing on in our desire to push our bodies to the limit before we even reached Nepal, we decided to go hiking through an area along the Li River called Xingping. Of course, nature in China (actual untouched nature) is very hard to come by so 80% of the hike was just on the city road, but hey--beggars can't be choosers.
At one point we passed a sign that said, "20元 Backdrop." In my mind, I imagined that you had to pay 20RMB in order to take a picture of the scenery (which A. just makes me mad and B. it's something I would expect China to do). However, it turns out that it was the spot that is drawn on the back of the 20元 bill. Nice! Add it to my collection I've begun with the 1 and 100RMB notes.
On the other side, we came into contact with our second sketchy character of the trip. As soon as we landed, people were calling out to us, trying to sell us different things (my favorite was a bamboo boat ride which we had JUST gotten off of). It wasn't long before we realized that one of them was following us. It was a little old lady shuffling along (actually running after us... Impressive). We were able to stay ahead of her though she continued to shuffle after us for a solid 30 minutes. At one point she called out to us and our fears were realized--she was chasing us to try and sell us something! Tenacity! It turns out, she was following us because she knew that we might get lost and need her as a guide. Hannah S told her over and over again that we did not need a guide (the Chinese tend to be incapable of traveling or exploring by themselves without a tour group) and that we would not pay her but she continued to follow us and, following in our Lord of the Rings theme, she became our very own Gollum. Eventually, we had to board another boat and the water was what stopped her (that and the 10元 price tag, I'm sure).
Yangshuo is one of those places that you just want to get so close to nature (it's actually famous for rock climbing). Day one, we took a bus. Day two, we were on a motorbike. Day three, we rode bicycles. Day four, we walked along the mountains. Each day, we got closer and closer.
Days of physical activities (some of them just showed me how out of shape I was!) made us take two lazy days where we did nothing but sit in our favorite cafe, Lucy's, where we could just read, write in our journals, and (in my case) chat with my man while I still could (AKA: before he flew out to Europe for a month).
The mountains were definitely medicine for a lady who had spent far too much time in an overly polluted city... I was sad to go but excited to see what the next leg of our adventure would hold!
Onto Hong Kong!
Until Next Time,
Amanda
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