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Published: January 13th 2015
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River Crossing
Bike waiting for the ferry Well this will be the final entry for this trip. I woke up early this morning in hopes of catching the sunrise. I hiked to the top of a peak in hopes of getting a glimpse of the sun. No such luck. It was the same hike I did yesterday, and it is a nice one. I still had some nice views and could enjoy the morning music blasting from the elementary school down below. China, I've got to say, is a noisy place. I was pretty high up, but all the noise reached me unimpeded by buildings, trees, or other obstructions. The car horns, boat motors, music, and voices all reached my observation point. A lot to take in.
After the hike I had breakfast at the hostel and then took off. I rode about 10km down the river bank until the road came to an end and I had to take a ferry across. Haven't been on a ferry with my bicycle before today, so that was nice. The ferry ride lasted all of about 5 minutes and I was already riding on the other side of the river. The scenery remained stunning, and I forgot to mention
earlier, it WASN'T raining! Still cloudy; I haven't seen the sun one time since coming here. I need to get back to Kunming. Hopefully its winter storm is finished. Anyway, today was an 80km ride. It could have been 50 or 60, but I decided to take the back roads, winding through the Karst landscape. Wise choice for the most part. After a couple of hours I reached a point of interest: "Ancient stone town". OK, let's have a look! I hired a guide for 20rmb and she took me up into the hills to an old stone wall with a gate. The town! What a disappointment! Haha, just some crumbled walls with cows and fruit trees being the only inhabitants. The landscape was pretty of course, but it was the same I've been looking at for the past three days. To get my moneys worth, I decided to chat up my guide. She was 64 years old and had 5 children. I asked about a husband, and she just said she didn't have one. I asked, "do your parents live in this town, too?" "I don't have parents." Me, "I mean, did they live here?" Her, "I said I
Harvest Season
Chinese cabbage. I got a lot of "hellos" from this crowd don't have parents." Me (I really wanted an answer), "I mean, are your parents and your parents' parents. Are they from here?" "I don't have parents." Yeah, so I dropped the issue. Her Mandarin was a bit worse than mine actually. She doesn't like cooking and spends an hour each day washing clothes. That's all I got from her. So on I rode.
I stopped for lunch at a small crossroads and had a large bowl of noodles. I asked the price and I thought the lady said 10, so I dropped a 10 and walked off. "Hey wait! Your change!" Turns out the large is only 4rmb. In Chinese, 4 and 10 sound really similar, and with these accents I misunderstand sometimes. But, 4rmb! For a solid lunch! That officially makes it the cheapest meal I've ever had in China. That is around $0.60 by the way. That is pretty cheap, man. Noodles, meat, peanuts, vegetables, and your choice of toppings. And so on I rode. The roads were quite good in this part of the countryside and I couldn't figure out why. I kept seeing some signs along the roads, and I stopped to read one. Turns
Tour Guide
Me, my tour guide, and the money man with the teeth! out I was on land belonging to a giant Chinese produce company. It was nice. Good roads, orange, cumquat, dragon fruit, and (though not fruit) huge rose bushes. The road was very flat, too, which was also convenient.
I arrived at the hostel in Guilin around 5:30 this afternoon. I took a shower and sought out some dinner. I ate two dinners at the same restaurant. I think the waitress was impressed, but I was hungry, man! A lot of riding, and 4rmb of noodles for lunch only goes so far... After dinner I used the time to prepare for my 22 hour train ride tomorrow. I bought my lunch and dinner(s) and some other provisions, and I'm ready to go. A nice trip. It deserves another visit I think, the weather really restricted a lot of things. Regardless I enjoyed myself and learned a bit more about our beloved China.
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