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Published: October 26th 2006
Longsheng Women
They don't cut there hair until they're married.Sorry we have let things slip a bit everyone! been very busy!
Guilin/Yangshou Our ride to Chengdu airport was a little bit on the rushed side. we were assured it would only take us half an hour in a taxi but we didn't realise that our driver needed to stop and do some business in a nearby hotel! Luckily our flight was delayed by half an hour and when we checked in we were pleased to hear that we had been upgraded to first class! Very nice. There was the usual fun and games in the form of a riot to get on the plane so it was even nicer to settle into our huge chairs for an hour!
We got the airport bus to Guilin and walked to Guilin Flowers hostel with a nice French couple. The hostel was great, very boutique but also very quiet. As usual we took it easy on out first day easy! We went up to the Reed Flute Caves in the north on the city which was really impressive but really overrun by Chinese tourists who all seemed to be obsessed with 1 yuan whistles! We then moved onto the Prince's Palace
which seemed to be university halls with a large hill in the middle! A little bit like Oxford Colleges but slightly less peaceful! We hiked our way to the top of the 'single beauty spot' on what seemed to be the hottest day we've had so far! Views were impressive from the top so it was worth the climb! we got back to the hostel ready for food so we wandered up Zhongshan Road to a great restaurant at the top of a shopping centre. Luckily we had read up on how things worked before we left. You find a table and are given a card. You can then walk around the kitchens, there are four - and look at all the different dishes - there are hundreds! - choose something or several things you like, get the chef to stamp the card and whatever you ordered gets to the table before you do! It was fantastic food and of course we ordered far too much as per usual! I think we also provided some entertainment for the chinese family on the next table too. The noodles seemed particularly tricky!
Next day we took the tour to the Dragons Back
Rice terraces at LongSheng. Before we could get there we had an entertaining bus journey. A chinese group of about 6 got on at one of the last pickups and immediately the arguing began. We thought there weren't enough seats so we were asked to get off and get into the smaller bus which was following us. We then found out that the group were kicking off because they all wanted to sit together so they could talk! Flashbacks of school trips!!!!
Before we got to the terraces themselves, we were taken to LongSheng minority village itself where the women don't cut there hair until they are married. We felt more like we were in South America than China. As soon as Sam and I stepped off the bus we were grabbed by both hands by women sporting amazing hair do's and brighty coloured clothes, leading us towards their village hall. We were then treated to a show of their dancing and singing roughly demonstrating the village marriage ceremony. Two unsuspecting guys got roped into the dancing too posing as the new grooms. They took a bit of pursuading until they could be sure that the certain that it wasn't
real wedding! They also gave us a quick lesson on exactly what do hairdo wise with two metres of hair!!
We then went up to the terraces themselves. The views are spectacular and the photos really don't do them any justice. I was slighty hazy which added to the mystery of the whole area. We were told that we were lucky to come at that time as the farmers were harvesting the last of their crop. They were working away quietly while we hiked our way to the top. There was the odd tourist being carried up which got to us a bit. We were astounded at how fit these chinese guys must have been to practically run up the paths carrying, on most occasions, larger than your average tourist above their shoulders!
We had lunch at the top with a spanish guy we met in a small but very expensive restaurant up in the terraces. Food was fantastic though. All baked inside bamboo canes which were brought to us steaming and cracked open at the table.
After a long day we got back to the hostel only to bump into the two girls, Auvean and Martina, who were leaving
our dorm the day we arrived in Xi'an. So obviously we got chatting and sat up half the night playing pool.
Next day we took a cruise down the Li River to Yangshou on a chinese tour boat. We were both really tired so struggled to keep our eyes open for the first hour but then we tucked into some locally caught food. Soft Shell crab, shrimp etc. Very nice all served with rice and the compulsory boiled egg. Thought that was just breakfast! Once the food was finished and everyone has made there way back to the deck we made ourselves comfortable by the window and watched the world drift by. We had a few deep and meaningful conversations about geology and rock formation which we've promised that we will look into further when we have a second!
Getting off the boat at Yangshou was a riot of market stalls and local boys and girls asking if you needed a guide. The usual stuff. We found a nice american chinese guy who tried to help us find our hostel. Unfotunately the word for Culture House can be easily confused with something similar so we got directed back and
forwards for a while until we found an internet cafe and decided it was definitely time for a beer! We got the phone number of the place and within five minutes, Wei, the owner was at our table organising our taxi which also paid for. The hostel is set about 15 minutes walk outside Yangshou town in a small residential side street. We would never have found it so it's lucky we called. It's a fantastic set up. Wei and his family actually live in the four story house and cook all our meals for us. There only seems to be around twelve beds and if the other rooms are anything like ours, everyone staying here has fallen on their feet! Huge beds and high ceilings and cracking aircon. We arrived on Monday night just in time for dinner and what a treat. All the guests are called down to dinner by Wei or his wife or his mother-in-law and we all sit round a big dining table together and the food arrives. So much of it and so healthy and delicious AND included in the price of the stay. This is without a doubt the best food we have
eaten yet. Home-cooked and you can even go into the kitchen for a hands on cookery lesson! the family are so lovely. Breakfast is a much watermelon and other fruit as you can eat and toast and honey and apparently noodles for lunch if you are around.
Tuesday was unofficially designated as shopping and relaxing day! As we wandered down to town after breakfast (noon!), I (vic) commented that I needed my haircut and all of a sudden I was having my hair cut in the next hairdressers we saw! Jo, you would have had a fit!! No wash and no hit of a water spray. This was a
dry cut! Which took aproximately 5 minutes and cost 50yuan (about 4 quid!). Even Tony's couldn't beat that! And it seems fine. We will have to wait until I can borrow anna's straighteners in Australia!
After that we decided to get a massage which cost less than the haircut! Head neck shoulder and back for 40 yuan but was there were no treatment rooms here. Just hairdressers chairs! Not massively relaxing but they definitely worked out a few knots here and there! Shopping followed this and then a quiet lunch and
then...oops...a foot massage which also included another neck and back massage. We should really have done our days the other way around because we have spent four hours cycling in the countryside today and are aching to say the least!!! It was absolutely beautiful! Proper off-roading through miles of countryside around the river path, through a village called Dragon Village and finally we ended up on a building site where it looks like they may be carving a hideous new road through the hills. Again, we are at least grateful that we have seen the place as it is. It's actually very surprising we managed to do anything today because we hit one of the local nightcubs quite hard last night. There was a lot of dancing! 😞
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Charlie
non-member comment
Wow!!
Those pics are absolutely amazing! I was starting to worry, as you hadn't sent a blog recently, that maybe the Chinese were taking their revenge and adopting western girls.....