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Published: August 2nd 2008
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The Karst hotel was strangely empty. I asked for a dorm room. The whole time I was in Yangshou in the Karst hotel I had this dorm room to myself. When I arrived the lady (Lilly) who rang the guesthouse asked if I came by myself. I said of course I did. She looked at me strangely. She said that Yangshou had just experienced mass flooding and didn’t I know? Just the day before the city had been evacuated and there were hardly any tourists around the shop. Well I had not heard of course - traveling for 2 days who knew? If only I knew how to read Mandarin newspapers. A guy stopped by the guesthouse to enquire about rock climbing. I was keen so I said if you can wait for me to have a shower I’ll come with. His name turned out to be Milo and he was from Switzerland but studying in New York. We did half a days climbing for 200RMB so that got about 3 climbs - the highest which I couldn’t finish. I think the height was maybe 15 or 20 metres (difficulty level was 5, 7 and 7.5). But the scenery was beautiful.
Yangshou 15.06.08
Rockclimbing in Yangshou It was great to just climb up and then admire the beautiful country you were in. Had some street corn for dinner (oh how good) and then dinner with Milo, Wayne from Utah, US and Zoe (England) at the Minnie Maos café.
The next day I spent at Xing Ping. I deliberated between bus or biking it there - bus turned out to be the smarter idea - it was well far and knowing me I would have gone without a map and gotten well lost. Breakfast was Guilin rice noodles for 4RMB good stuff. At Xing Ping I managed to get the bamboo rafting down from 90RMB for 55RMB. Xing Ping is truly amazing (it’s the picture on the 20RMB note) even in heavy rain. After the ride I met Wu Juanzi (she told me to call her Juan Juan) - who I had waved to from my raft. We got to talking and she was so surprised I was traveling by myself. She offered I join them on this buggy into town and then for lunch. She refused to let me pay. She was 29, a gynecologist and recently married. She lived in Hubei, and was traveling
Yangshou 15.06.08
Rockclimbing in Yangshou with her niece Shuan Shuan who was 3 and her mum and dad. I decided to join them the next day for a bike around Yangshou. After returning to Yangshou I was stopped by a lady (Helen) on a motorbike who asked me if I wanted to help out at her school. I said ok I had 3 hours to kill in which I was intending to use the internet and have some dinner so I hoped on the back of her bike.
The students at her school were 18 - 21 years old and had done a 2 year business English course. They were pretty good and we spoke about my travels. They told me their names and birthdays and I said in Australia generally the big birthdays are 16, 18 and 21. They said the most important are 20 and 60 more so (Juan Juan told me 80 even more so). They said usually the girls have a party with soft drinks and snack for their 20th whilst the boys have a few beers. After speaking with them Helen invited me to have some dinner at the school then she said I could use her internet for
Yangshou 15.06.08
The breathtaking views around us 2 hours since I had helped her out. She dropped me off to the guest house when I was finished and gave me some sticky rice and told me I should come again. She said if I knew anyone who was interested should call or email her (she gave me her card) and if they worked for an hour or so a day she would give them free accommodation and free food. At the hostel I met this guy from Essex, Brad and these 2 Canadians, John and Jamie who said I have to come out with them for a drink. It was pretty nuts. But good times we were drinking beer, Brad was drinking Chinese Vodka (the fakest of the fake apparently) in the rain running around in ankle deep water while they were bargaining trying to get cheap beer prices in the clubs.
Waking up at 7am wasn’t easy the next morning but I managed to make it to Juan Juan’s guest house on time. We had some really nice Guilin rice noodles at this place (the most famous in Yangshou Juan Juan said) for 3.5RMB. We rented our bikes for well cheap prices (5RMB for the
Yangshou 15.06.08
The lady that watched us climb day) but they weren’t as good as the bikes in Dali. Mine also had a bust which I had to fix for 7 RMB. We road to Yulong river it was very nice and scenic even though it was raining. We couldn’t even get a bamboo raft up the Yulong because it was flooded and the current was too strong. After Yulong we visited a national park with a tree that was over 1,400 years old. The tree was crazy cool, as part of its branches had formed roots which had planted themselves in the ground. What was sad was that they had peacocks and monkeys chained up to take photos with. After this we rode to the moon rock which was quite cool I had never seen anything like it before. We had lunch around 3 or 4 at this place which was really tasty and I met my first Aussie on this trip a lady in her 40’s from Cairns teaching at a school in Yangshou. Juan Juan invited me to join them to go to Longsheng with them for the next few days so I thought ok why not and hoped on a bus to Guilin that
Yangshou 15.06.08
The breathtaking views around us evening. I was short changed a fake 50RMB on the bus though I didn’t know it. We all stayed at this youth hostel close to the station. I got my train ticket for Beijing to leave on the 19th at 7:20pm hard sleeper for 401RMB. I tried to later by something with the 50RMB I had been given by the bus driver only to find out it was fake and nobody would take it!
FYI Karstclimber Guiding Service is found at:
66# Guihua Rd, Yangshuo China
Tel: 86 - 773 - 8814370
email: info@karstclimber.com
www.karstclimber.com
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