Yangshuo

---

The next morning we snagged a bus to Yangshuo. Originally we were going to take a boat, but they were charging about 400 kuai. Yeah right. The bus cost 28. Sean’s friend Dave met us at the bus station, and then walked us to the school. Dave had been staying in Yangshuo volunteering at an English school in exchange for free room and board. He arranged the same deal for us. In exchange for a couple two hour English corners in the evening, Sean and I got a free bed and two meals a day. Not that the hostels were very expensive, they were in fact remarkably cheap, but it was a good way to meet people and save a bit. (Although it turns out that someone had broken into the building a few nights earlier and stolen a bunch of stuff from various different rooms. rut rroh.) Dave took us to a nearby Chinese restaurant for lunch, where I discovered a new delicious dish; Eggplant (and I usually HATE eggplant, oh excuse me boys, AUBERGINE) and minced meat. Yum yum yum. The meal was fairly uneventful except for watching a waiter trying to kill a fish. It was about a foot and a half long, pretty big. He repeatedly pounded on the fish’s head with his fist, to no avail. Then he tried slamming the fish against the wall over and over again. I’m not sure he ever managed to kill the fish. Before English Corner Dave took us the old school, now an old abandoned building falling apart, soon to be demolished. We climbed up onto the roof, to where the old English corner was held. The school was on the edge of town, wedged between three peaks. It was very cool. Not altogether sturdy, though. At 6:30 we went to English Corner. It was a bit more structured than the Dongying English Corner. There was a topic, some “useful phrases” to teach (some of them were completely incoherent) and some questions to ask. It was more conversation based than Dongying. The main difference, however, was there were only about six students, while Dongying English corner has about 100. The first night we talked about problem situations. (vague.) The second night we talked about adoption. (not so vague.)
Afterwards we to dinner in the night market. Rows and rows of stands selling all kinds of dishes. The dining area was filled with short tables and little chairs under tents. We ordered Pijiu Yu, Beer Fish, the local specialty. There were young girls walking around with electric guitars, mics and mini-amps, selling songs. Dave paid one girl to for a song. It was quite amusing. Later on, bars. The next day way pretty rainy, we didn’t do much.

---

Photos

Point of Entry
Apparently this is how the thief got into the building where Sean, Dave and I stayed to steal some loot! Don't worry, he was gone before we even arrived.

Skin the rabbit fold the duck
or is it a goose?

pecker
a chicken trying to attack an equally helpless bowl of fish.

Pijiu Yu and singer
Sean eats the local delicacy, Pijiu Yu (beer fish) while a young girl with brances serenades us with a slightly out of tune electric guitar and singing voice.

Game Addiction
Look closely at the guy's cigarette. See how far it's burned?
(this picture was actually taken in Guilin, while we waited for our bus at a nearby internet cafe.)

Comments

[Alexis]

a) who taught that guy how to kill a fish?? banging it against the wall??? I'm surprised he didn't just try and step on it! b) your picture of the caged chicken pecking at the fish is sad. I hope you didn't eat him later. In fact, I hope you freed him and then gave him a ride back to wherever chinese chickens come from.

[luke]

that is so funny, i had a dream last night that the same exact sequence of events occurred to me, well that is not exactly true, somewhere between the fish banging and dinner in the night market, i managed to nail a ukrainian supermodel. huh, maybe that was during english corner. why she came to china to learn english, i haven't a clue. oh, and i milked a yak. weird.