Yangshuo at last!

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Yangshuo at last! All through my first year in China I had planned to go but never seemed to have the time. Yangshuo is near the city of Guilin in the Guangxi province. I had a one day holiday for the New Year so I moved my days off around to create a five day weekend. Kim also asked for some time off and our Chinese friend Michelle made plans to come with us.

So, on Friday (New Year’s Eve) we all met at the train station at Luo Hu to wait for our train. Kim and I met first but Michelle was running late. She had caught the wrong bus and was trying to figure out the quickest way to get to the station. In her panic she called her mother for advice and, unbeknownst to us, her mother immediately set out for the station as well to make sure her daughter (and her daughter’s foreign friends) made it onto their train.

Michelle was forty five minutes late but made it in plenty of time for our train. We still had nearly an hour before the departure time. While we were sitting in the station a very nice young man stopped in front of our bench and asked sheepishly if he could talk to us to practice his English. His English wasn’t very good but he was determined to improve it and Michelle gave him some helpful hints that she herself used. As we were chatting away Michelle’s mother arrived. Her mom doesn’t speak any English at all but is extremely friendly and ‘mom-like’. She struck up a conversation with the young man and, to Michelle’s horror, started trying to play match maker for her daughter. I could understand enough of what her mom was saying to figure out what she was doing and Kim and I could barely contain our giggles.

It was time to board our train at last and we settled in for our twelve hour overnight journey. Just as with my trip to Beijing, there was one Chinese man in our room of four beds. He wasn’t nearly as disgruntled as the one last summer, and we had Michelle with us to be friendly with him so he was much more pleasant than the grump we shared a bunk with last June. We brought plenty of snacks for an onboard New Year’s party. We jokingly called them ‘Snakes on a Train’ because our Michelle for a long time referred to snacks as snakes. I slept fitfully, waking several times due to the noise, light, and jerking motion of the train. When I got up in the morning I put my hair into a pony tail and picked up five bobby pins to fasten back my flyaways. I stood in front on the mirror as I carefully smoothed back the frizzies and fastened four pins into my hair. Then I realized I couldn’t find the fifth. I searched through the blankets and on the floor before giving it up for lost.

We arrived in Guilin around 7:30. Light was just starting to peak from behind the tall buildings. It was cold! Not the 50 degree dank chill that sinks into my bones in Shenzhen. It was genuinely cold. It must have been 40 degrees at least and our breath hung in the air in small clouds. I only saw my breath once last winter on one chilly evening so the phenomena seemed almost unfamiliar to me. We shivered our way across the parking lot until we found the bus to Yangshuo. It was only an hour and a half ride to the village of Yangshuo. I sat down next to an older Chinese gentleman and Kim and Michelle sat down behind me. I called home to tell my family about what to expect in 2010 (since I live in the future) then the man next to me introduced himself.

His name is Jonny (English name, of course) and he works in Guangzhou. He found himself with a three day holiday and decided last minute to take a trip to Yangshuo. He didn’t even have a place booked to stay. He asked me where we were staying and I told him we had chosen the Outside Inn in the village of Chao Long 4 km outside of Yangshuo. I gave him the number and he booked a room over the phone. He was a cheerful fellow and seemed really excited to meet two Americans. On our way to Yangshuo it started to rain. By the time we reached our destination everything was damp and messy and our backpacks (which had been stowed under the bus) were dripping slightly. Jonny helped us find a minibus to our hostel and we were soon bobbing up and down on a rough road to Chao Long.

The karst mountains were everywhere and the low clouds and rain gave the whole landscape an otherworldly atmosphere. On one particularly uneven portion of dirt road I felt something slip down the back of my jeans in into my underwear! Shocked, I yelped and jumped up in the minibus. I turned around but could see nothing. As I sat back down I could definitely feel something in my drawers and wanted to cry. Visions of some horrible unknown insect squirming in my undies began swirling in my sleep deprived brain and I whispered to Kim my suspicions. With much trepidation I reached into the back of my pants terrified of what I might discover back there. It wasn’t moving. I couldn’t figure out what it was. Then Kim, looking at me askance, said “Is it a bobby pin?” Relief flooded through me as I realized that was exactly what it was. Kim and I roared with laughter. Having a bobby pin crammed into my crack was so much better than a bug.

Chao Long was a very small village and we found our hostel easily. We walked into the dining room first to check in and were greeted by the friendly managers (a married couple, British husband and Swiss wife) and a rambunctious 4 month old Dachshund puppy named Alex. There was also a 3 year old Dachshund named Lulu, but she was busy sleeping by the stove where a nice fire was burning. The Outside Inn was fantastic. It was in a refurbished group of rustic farmhouses and the exposed beams of our room looked hand-hewn. After dropping our bags off, we went back to the dining room for breakfast. They had marvelous locally made yoghurt with fruit that I ordered everyday I was there. Jonny met up with us and asked if he could tag along since he had no idea what to do and no one to do it with. We all agreed and decided that after lunch we’d take a raft trip down the river. After we had filled up on breakfast we went back to our room for showers and a rest. Then it was back to the dining hall for lunch. We got directions to walk to the rafting site and were told it would only take ten minutes to walk there. It was a European ten minutes though, as it was nearly a half an hour before we reached it.

It was a nice walk despite all the muck and mud. We paired up on the rafts, Jonny and I on one and Kim and Michelle on the other, and set off down the river. The mountains were stunning. It was a shame that it was so cloudy. None of my pictures captures how they looked that day. The rafts were nothing more than bamboo strapped together with glorified lawn chairs tied to them. In general, floating down the river was quiet and relaxing. The only excitement came in the form of going down nine different dams perched on the raft. The first time we went over I didn’t hold my legs up high enough and was soaked up to my knees. Another trip over a dam left my butt cheeks a little damp. I was freezing but thoroughly enjoying the scenery. There were various floating restaurants selling beer and grilled fish and, although we were there during the off season, there were several other tourists rafting along side us. One tourist on another raft cracked Michelle up by saying he didn’t speak the ‘hello’ language. Our raft trip ended at the fairyland bridge and we were ushered to a park where we paid 18元 to look at a thousand year old tree. It was one of those weird China ‘huh?’ moments that we all shrugged off then caught a bus to Yangshuo for some dinner and shopping. Yangshuo used to be 60% westerners but most have moved away. Now the town is only about 20% westerners but their influence is still felt. There is even a street called West Street filled with western style restaurants, shops, and bars. It was crowded and bargaining with Michelle in tow was fantastic. We still couldn’t talk them down to a Chinese price, but Michelle was able to brow beat them down to what Kim and I thought was reasonable. We returned to the Outside Inn cold, wet, and laden with purchases. I spent some quality cuddle time with the Dachshunds, especially Alex who reminded me of my own little Bilbo who (according to my mother) is grumpily awaiting my return at home. Then we all retired to our rooms and slept soundly. I woke only once during the night due to a rooster who mistakenly thought it was dawn.

Being in a small town with clean air, sitting in a cozy room snuggling a warm fuzzy dog, and enjoying the peace and quiet of the countryside all reminded me so much of home that I dreamt all night of my family and friends who are all so far away. I awoke the next morning with a touch of melancholy wishing they were all here with me.

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Photos

Eeeeek!
A second later I was soaked

Comments

[jiling]

I noticed a mispelling with one of your pics, and you wrote "snakes on a train"

[Tiffany Journeys East]

A good rule of thumb
Read the blog entry before making comments. Please refer to paragraph four of this blog entry. 'Snakes on a Train' was a combination joke on my friend Michelle and on the awful movie 'Snakes on a Plane.' Unlike all my other typos, this one was intentional.