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Published: October 16th 2012
If getting our exit stamp from Hong Kong was as seamless as a bespoke Vera Wang dress, then entering the border town of Shenzen after being stamped into China could have been likened to a fourth generation hand-me-down sweatshirt which had been patched together several times. It was chaos in which is essentially a town with a train station, multi-bus station and duty free area all under one roof with hardly anyone speaking a word of English except for the very annoying Chinese touts who were trying to pull us from one direction to the next - 'Where you go Mr?', 'I have cheap ride', 'My friend can take you for good price' 'Miss all bus left for today, stay at my guest house' etc. These were some of the favourite one liners we heard in the space of 5 minutes . . . Welcome to the World of China and back to real travelling!
After turning down all offers, we kept walking to what we hoped was an official ticket desk - the only problem was the guy at the counter didn't speak a word of English and the prices he was quoting for the 12 hour overnight bus
from Shenzen to Yangshuo was somewhat cheaper than what we had read it should be and almost 2/3rd's cheaper than what the touts were asking. I left Vic's with the man who was desperately trying to translate using a google translate app, to try and find another 'official ticket seller', but the problem was that everytime I went up to a counter, a tout would over-hear what I was asking for and try to drag me away to his friends travel service. In the end we decided to bite the bullet and go with the guy who Vic's was waiting with. After paying the very reasonable sum of 200RMB (£20) per person for the trip we were taken by one of the guys friends to supposedly our bus - however, we carried on walking outside of the bus station and were put in a people carrier meant for 6, which already had 12 people inside. Surely not, we thought - we can't seriously be driving for 13 hours with Vic's sitting on my lap, whilst my back was staying straight thanks to the knees of the Chinese lady behind me?! Our concerns were uneccessary though as within 5 minutes we
were out of the minivan and onto our 'luxury' overnight bus.
The bus somehow consisted of 3 rows of bunk beds, with the bottom bunk at the back of the bus being 5 beds on the floor. We were allocated 2 of the top bunks at the back of the bus along with a French guy who we had met in the minivan on the way. The beds were both spacious and comfotable . . . if you were were a midget, however if you were an averaged sized human being you were in for a squeeze both length wise and width. All joking aside, we were really happy with the bus for the price we had paid considering most other people on the bus had paid at least 300RMB. There were a couple of hairy moments in the night when we almost fell out of our bunk as our driver was determined and thought it would be a good idea to beat the land speed record, and another when the passenger infront of me decided to snore like an absolute tank - nothing a quick shove in the side couldn't solve.
We were woken at 6:00am when
we had arrived at our destination - Yangshuo. Somehow in the night, I had managed to lose one boot and 2 socks and after a quick look I was resigned to the fact that they were a gonner. However, Vics, much to the drivers annoyance, was determined to find them and after waking several passengers who were heading to the next town and looking under their blankets and pillows, she managed to find all missing items and nothing was left behind.
When the bus pulled away, we were greeted with the usual taxi mafia and guest house touts which are so common at bus/train stations all across Asia. As it was still dark and we had absolutely no idea where the town was from the bus station, we had little choice other than to haggle hard and find a driver/tout to take us into town. After literally 2 mins in the back of the touts pick-up truck (he had told us the town was over 2 miles away and we had driven less than 500m) we arrived at the first hostel which he said was nice and in the centre of town, but it was nothing short of horrific,
the second place he showed us, albeit slightly nicer, was still nothing great and we weren't even sure if we were in the main town yet. Vic's was insistant that we put on our backpacks and go for a walk/find a cafe until it got light so we had a better idea of where we were - the tout and the driver were not best pleased about this but there was no way we were taking their accomodation at that moment - and we were so glad we didn't.
We walked towards what we thought was the centre of Yangshuo for about 10 minutes, and this was confirmed when the tout (who had been following us on his bike the whole way trying to get us to go back to the hostel with him and telling us we were going the wrong way) finally turned around and left us alone - we knew then we were finally in the right place! As we were walking the night sky started to lift and as it got light and we could see we were surrounded by huge mountains and limestone karsts which already looked amazing in the morning haze. We soon
found a dumpling cafe which had just opened so tucked into some fresh homemade dumplings for a little over £1, which were awesome, and then took it in turns to try and find some accomodation. Scott found us a great little hotel on a backstreet with a private double room and a great rain shower for just £8 a night (finally back to real Asia prices!) so we put our bags down in our nice new room, had a quick rest and worked out a plan for the day.
Although the town itself is very pretty, to view Yangshuo in all it's glory it is best to get out of the main centre and explore the surrounding countryside, rice paddies and its gorgeous scenery, so we hired a couple of mountain bikes and headed out for the day. Now for anyone that knows our sweet Victoira, they are fully aware that she is not the greatest sports-woman, so after 5 minutes of cycling it shouldn't have been a surprise that her legs were hurting and she was going at about the speed of a tortoise (She was literally being overtaken by old ladies walking along the side of the
road), while I was bombing it up ahead, but this cycling malarky was harder than it looked, plus it was about 26 degrees so not exactly cool, and she was struggling bad already - 2km in to what we had planned to be a 20km loop. However she perservered as the scenery was really stunning, with green rice fields, blue sky and lime stone karst cliffs surrounding us - this was rural China and mother nature at its best. But then (and this was 'supposedly' not Vic's fault), somehow her chain on her bike got jammed as she was trying to change gears and we had to stop so I could try to do some emergency repairs... At first I just presumed the chain had slipped and fallen off, but oh no, somehow she had managed to get the chain tangled and stuck inbetween the cogs and the pedal. I had the bike upside down, kicking it, hands and arms covered in black oil but the damn chain would not come loose, after about 20 minutes of trying I looked up to see a little Chinese man on the opposite side of the road - he gave me the little
'nod' which was clearly meant as 'bring it here you stupid tourist and I will fix it for you', so for the grand price of 70 pence and a 5 minute wait we were back on the road!
We continued on admiring the scenery, passing locals going about their daily lives, water buffalos amongst rice paddies and children playing, when the road turned to a gravel path which made for some interesting 'off road' biking, which Vic was not to happy about. She kept asking 'how long?', as we were headed towards Dragon Bridge, so I replied 'not far now', knowing full well that we had at least another 3-4km ahead of us before we had done half of the loop. We actually ended up getting lost somehow, and when I saw a sign to the next town saying 45km (when it said 65km from our starting point), I knew we had already riden a lot more than we intended to and were on for a big detour, but luckily a local girl was also cycling to the bridge and she spoke English, so we followed her and almost two hours later we finally arrived at the Dragon bridge.
The bridge and river were nice enough, but nothing spectacular and after all the biking to get there we only stayed about 5 minutes. Vics wanted to head back but I persueded her to carry on, so along with the local girl we had met, we cycled for another 10km or so, through peoples gardens and down narrow paths to get to another bridge further down on the Yulong river, which again was nothing special. By this point Vic was adamant she was done with biking for the day (and for the rest of her life) and was heading back, so we made our way back to Yangshuo which was about 5km away, but not before several rest stops and a slight 'accident'. As she looked down to change gears, Vic ended up looking up too late and crashed into a little local lady selling flowers! Vic went flying off the bike while the lady somehow stayed on and started shouting at her in Chinese, even though she was on the wrong side of the road. Poor Vic was really over biking by this point and close to tears, but she got back on the bike with just a scratch
and we cycled the rest of the way back without any further incidents - she was so happy to give the bike back afterwards!
That evening we were both completely exhausted, what with just getting off a bumpy overnight bus and then cycling 35km+ so after getting ready we decided to head out for an Indian feast at a highly reccomended restaurant in the centre of town. The food was great and the ecentric owner ended up sitting with us for most of the meal and offered to lend us his scooter for the next day so we didn't have to cycle anymore - however, with the road conditions in China as bad as they are, we politely refused.
The next morning I was awake early and decided to go for a run - for the life of me, I am not quite sure why as I could barely walk but I persevered and had a great run along the Li River. Within in minutes of finishing I had cramped up completely and with Vic's still aching all over and hardly able to sit down we decided to have a rest day. We just wandered around the pretty
town, had some lunch and generally just chilled out for probably the first time since we had started our trip. The evening was spent at a dutch bar having some awesome home made burgers and fries washed down with a couple of Tsing Tao beers whilst playing connect 4. We were surprised to see how busy the town got at night, mainly with Chinese tourists, as in the day it was so peaceful, so after we just grabbed a sweet treat from a little bakery we had found, bypassing all the bars and had an early night.
On our third day in Yangshuo we were still in a bit of pain and tempted to just have another day off from seeing any sites, however after a breakfast of fresh steamed dumplings and bannana pancakes, we decided to check out the Moon Water Caves, which were located about 10km outside of town and then attempt to hike to the peak of Moonhill if we were still up for it. We decided to make our way to the caves ourselves rather than going on an organised tour so after getting as much information as possible from our hotel we set out
in search of the bus station with a hand written note in Chinese which we had to show the bus driver to let us know where to get off. We got off the local bus 7km later at a small ticket office to get our tickets and got talking to a local guy there called Manuel (like the actor in Fawlty Towers he told us in a bad English accent) who was really nice and ended up offering us jobs teaching English in his school! We took his number so you never know... We then went to the entrance of the caves, which on first site didn't look all that impressive or professional, especially when the 'guide' was the lady who seemed to own the field next to the cave. Anyway she gave us hard hats (safety first) and we climbed in a small wooden boat with her into the entrance of the caves, which of course were really dark and small, but soon opened up and had lights placed in them so you could see. We got out of the boat an started walking behind the lady through the caves which actually turned out to be pretty awesome -
apparantly they were discovered by locals years ago and after they fitted some lights inside they opened them up to tourists. We walked through the caves and up and down steps for a while, before decending 20m and coming to a big mud bath which the lady gestured for us to get in - Vic wasn't so keen but Scott was straight in, and before long we were both caked in mud in the middle of a cave in China - weird but cool! We then got out and walked with the lady to some hot springs in the caves to wash all the mud off, before heading back to the little boat to take us out, where Scott jumped in the outdoor pool/river pond before we got ready to leave. We were in the caves for about an hour in total and it was well worth the £7 ticket price for the experience we had.
Next up we went to Moon Hill, a famous hill with a natural arch in it (to look like a moon), and climbed the 800 steps to the top which was really hard as they were so steep and it was really hot
and humid by this time so we took a while, but once we got up to the 'top' the views down were great. However we found out that this was not really the 'top' and only the opening of the crescent, so followed a French guy we had met on the climb through a side path which had a big sign saying 'Forbidden' next to it...well we thought, when in China make like the Chinese and ignore everything! So we clambered through overgrown bushes and scrambled up rocky paths for about 15 minutes, getting hotter and hotter, before being greeted at the real 'top/peak' by some really amazing views over the whole town below - we were so high up and there was no edge to the bit we were standing on so we got a bit of an adrenaline rush! We then clambered back down to the bottom which took a while and both our legs would not stop shaking like jelly for a good 10 minutes, we then bumped into an English couple we recognised from the night before so we arranged to meet them for a drink later, before jumping on a bus back to Yangshuo after
another chilled out day...not!
That night we came across a small little local restaurant which specialised in claypots, basically rice baked in a claypot and then topped with meat, veg and chilli's, and it was packed with locals so we thought it would be good, and it was so delicious, maybe the best food we have eaten in China so far, and so cheap - at about 12RMB/£1.20 each! After dinner we went back to the connect 4 bar and enjoyed a few drinks with the French guy from the climb and the English couple until around midnight before diverting quickly past the bakery for a coconut cake and calling it a night.
On out last and final day in Yangshuo, we were up early as we had decided to go on a cooking course. We met at the restaurant along with the other would be chefs (including a cool couple from Scotland) and our teacher, before deciding on the three dishes we wanted to cook that day - Pork & leek dumplins, Chicken Gung Bao and Chilli and garlic eggplant and heading off to the local market. The first section of which was really cool as it
was the vegetable and spice section and it was just nice to see people going about their usual day to day business aswell as the vibrant colours of the fresh vegetables. However, the second section was the meat area, which Vics point blankly refused to enter as she had heard what sort of 'meat' they sell. I entered and must admit the smell was horrific, with live animals and what we class as pets walking about everywhere just waiting to be slaughtered and made into a meal, although I understand different cultures exist I had to walk out to save my stomach when the blow torch come out to remove the fur from a certain species - enough said on the subject me thinks. It was then back to the restaurant where we began preparing the food and learning about the various seasoning, oils and spices used in Chinese cuisine before finally cooking up a right feast and then sitting down and eating our creations with the group which were really tasty.
We then hot footed it back to our hotel to pick up our bags before walking back to the bus station to head off to Guilin about
an hour away which is the jumping off point for the famous rice terraces . . .
S&V's Travel Info & Tips: General Info: Approx 10 RMB/Yuan to £1. Ignore all touts when you get off a night bus from Shenzen, head towards West St which is a 10 minute walk and you will be in the centre of town. Transportation: We got the night bus from Shenzen to Yangshuo, prices being quoted ranged from 200RMB -420RMB (We got lucky and managed to find an honest local). Travelling around Yangshuo town itself can easily be done on foot, to get out into the countryside you can hire a bicycle for 15RMB per day or get a local bus for 3RMB. Food: You wont go hungry in Yangshuo! There is almost too many restaurants in such a small town. Our favourites were the Indian - Kali Mirch, Dumpling Dynasty 15 RMB for 10-12 dumplings, Honey Cafe for all things sweet and any of the local Claypot baked rice places - 12-16RMB per dish. Accomodation: Again so much choice you certainly have the bargaining power as the punter. We again got very fortunate and found an amozing hotel called Bamboo Inn and paid 80RMB per night for a private room with ensuite, rainshower and DVD player.
Other observations: x) It is not OK at 7 years old to pull your trousers down and urinate in the middle of a busy street. xx) Clearing your throat is fine, however doing it on a nightbus (loudly) and spitting the contents into an empty water bottle and leaving it behind when you get off is not. xxx) The locals who we have met so far are amongst the friendliest we have ever encountered, long may it continue . . .
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Claire
non-member comment
Lol Vick I feel your pain with the whole bike thing!! Xxx