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Published: August 27th 2007
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Bamboo Raft
Outskirts of Yangshou August 16, 2007 - August 27, 2007 Our overnight bus arrived in Yangshou at about 5:30 am and dropped us off at a gas station, which we thought must have doubled as a bus station. Michelle was supposed to meet us at the bus station so she could bring us back to her apartment. (Michelle has been here for the last month teaching English) We stumbled off the bus dazed and confused after our 10 hrs of not a whole lot of sleep (sleeping on a bus is not as easy as I’d hoped) and Michelle was nowhere to be seen. We were immediately pounced on by the locals looking to take us to a hostel or give us a ride at a “special” price. We told them no and made our way in a random direction and tried to look like we had a specific destination in mind…which, of course, we didn’t. Once all the new arrivals had been swooped on and the local crowd thinned we came back to the gas station, tails between our legs, and decided it was a good idea to sit down and have a game of Rummy while we waited for Michelle
to show up. Well…she didn’t show up. We didn’t know which direction the town was and we had no idea where Michelle’s apartment was. Andy and I went off looking in opposite directions with no luck. A jogger stopped by and asked if he could help. I assumed he wanted me to pay for his help so I said, “No, thanks, I’ve got it under control…I’m just waiting for someone”…who is obviously not showing up. Crap. So quickly I asked him if this was the bus station. He laughed and said, “No, this is the gas station” and he pointed to the gas pump. I smiled. It turns out John was an Engineer in Hong Kong and was out in Yangshou learning to speak English at the school where Michelle worked. He led us about a half mile down the street to the bus station, where Michelle had almost given up hope. Why had the bus dropped us at the GAS station and not the BUS station?...I do not know.
Yangshou was a nice change from the big city life of Hong Kong. You still take your life into your hands when you try and cross the street, as
there are no stoplights and no crosswalks. I just avoid eye contact with the buses, motorcycles, and golf carts that pass by in hopes that they will try and avoid me instead of the other way around…its worked so far! West Street, the tourist area, is full of little bars/restaurants that you can grab a beer or a bowl of noodles, play some cards, or have a chat with someone new. We’ve been frequenting a little restaurant called Lucy’s Place, which is owned by Lucy and her sister Zha Zhou Fong (spelled phonetically). They are both very warm and friendly people and always have big smiles when we come to hang out. We actually met a new Aussie friend there named Chris Young. He’s a Chinese food cook oddly enough back in Australia in a little town two hours outside of Sydney. We ended up including Chris in our plans to go rock climbing. The next day we met up and stumbled into the “Yangshou Climbing Subject Club” owned by a Chinese local named “Rocky” His bar was awesome consisting of nice comfy booths to sit and drink beer along with a really wide rock wall spanning a large portion
of the bar’s walls. Our original climbing date had been pushed back due to rain and unfortunately we had to climb without Chris as he had other plans on the day that we went.
My favorite thing has been renting bikes and riding to the outskirts of town. The trails lead you out to a much more rural and simple way of life. Farmers tend to their land and like to put a leash on their water buffalos or cows and take them out for a nice stroll. Everything is so lush and green here. The mountain peaks are so amazing and the pictures I’ve seen back home just don’t seem to capture its entirety. The other day we rode out on one of the trails to go swimming in the Yulong River. There was a bridge crossing over the river which I dove off a few times (and later convinced Andy to do the same). It was there that I met three Spaniards (Lucia, Virginia, and Eduardo). After jumping off the bridge a few times with Lucia and a bit of conversation I was invited to attend dinner with them. Later that night I met the three of
them and they decide they wanted to be adventurous and order something like dog or rat. I wasn’t too keen on the dog idea but we ended up settling on snake. Hmm..snake..that could be good. So after the chef made a call, a local carrying a burlap sack showed up and pulled out a three-foot live snake. He brought it over and put it around Eduardo’s neck. I pretended to give it a kiss and Lucia took a picture. I felt a little guilty after for messing around with something that was about to be our dinner. So, they took the snake from Eduardo and then cut its head off right next to our table and proceeded to drain all of its blood into a glass. The chef took the blood, dumped it into a martini shaker, and served up a few shots consisting of snake blood, tomato juice, Tabasco, and Baijiu (the local alcohol)…a true Bloody Mary. I took two shots and felt like I was going to breathe fire. Just a bit spicy. They later brought out snake bone soup and snake stir-fry, which were both pretty good. The snake meat was a little on the chewy side,
but good nonetheless. I told the Spaniards to think of me the next time they had snake shots!
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Beth
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You're hardcore!!
Snake blood shots! You're crazy!