Beautiful and Annoying Yangshuo

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Monday July 17th

The first thing I remember when I woke up was that I was totally freaking out because I couldn't find my daypack (my camera was in there). I quickly realized that I probably forgot it at Susannah's where I had a bit too many beers. I quickly ran there and found my daypack which had been kept by the staff with nothing stolen. I was so relieved yet felt so stupid. I thanked everyone and left to go back to my dorm. I'll definately go back there just to encourage their honesty. I really need to be way more careful about this because losing my camera would be a huge pain.

The day was just as rainy as the others which really annoyed me. I went to Everest Cafe where Pepe, the french and the quebecers had agreed to meet there (Pepe and the french stay there). Everyone was there and I ordered banana pancake while the french were having a Canadian Breakfast, which as we all know consist of a hamburger and fries. I'm serious they called that a canadian breakfast. In any case the place was really nice and the waitress really funny. We were planning to do bike today but the rain made us cancel our plan.

I was getting a bit tired of the "sit around relax and do nothing" kind of days but there isn't much you can do. I went to the hostel to get my train ticket out of Yangshuo but there was nothing available before the 22 and the hostel wanted to take a 50RMB commission. I walked to various places selling ticket but the story was the same everywhere. The Guilin-Yangshuo train is booked solid. One girl at a travel office mentioned that several train leave from Nanning and that if I go there I shouldn't have a problem finding a ticket on the same day, at least for a hard seat.

I spent the next hours planning the rest of my journey in a cafe. There was no way I was gonna wait 5 more days in Yangshuo so I figured I'd either go to Guyang in Guizhou, explore the minority villages or go to Kunming via Nanning. Around 13:00, I ate noodles at Susannah's and went to a Korean restaurant to have a Sundae but the girl dropped it on the floor close to me (some of it fell on me) so they brought me another sundae which was way bigger! I spent most of the afternoon in Internet Cafe and walking around West Street. That might've been perfect for me on my first day in Yangshuo but now I was getting a bit desperate for some action.

Around 17:00 I met the quebecer at the hostel who were talking with Marie-Laure, a frenchie, on the computer. They were decided to go to the Philippines and were buying their tickets from Tiger Airways (I'm hoping they'll be more lucky than me). We talked for a while then decided to go eat the same thing as yesterday (ceramic pot with rice and vegetable/meat of you choosing). We didn't go to the exact same place and it was not as good. The meat was of very low quality and the sauce didn't taste good. Furthermore a bit after we finished the meal I started getting sort of a sick feeling in the stomach. It might not have been that food but I was definately not feeling great. Marie-Laure actually went to Moon Hill today in one of the very short stop in the rain. She got totally drenched as it restarted raining when she was on the way but at least she did something. We said goodbye to her and made our way to Everest while stopping at the guesthouse on the way. I sold my Philippines guidebook to Louis and Maude for a bit less than half the price of what I paid (it was published in midJune 2006 so they're not gonna find it second hand anywhere else).

We met the whole crew at Everest and had a good time while sipping on beer, except me because I didn't want to ingest anything since I wasn't feeling great. I talked with the 2 french girls (Solene and Flora) for the first time as they went softcore yesterday and didn't join us to Susannah's. Solene is Mika's girlfriend and of course they had to verbally fight each other a few times during the evening but we'd suspect them of not being french if they didn't. Pepe was heart broken as he had told Mary, one of the waitress at the restaurant, that she was the most chinese girl he ever saw and that he wanted to bring her back to Spain but she told him that she was quite happy in China and was a very traditional chinese girl. It goes without saying that he was not heartbroken enough to stop flirting with other chinese girls. The whole evening was great fun and lifted my spirit since I was getting pretty bored after the day I had spent. I said goodbye to Louis and Maude since they were leaving for Longsheng's rice terrace and I'd be gone when they would come back and I told the others that we'd meet around 10 and go biking tomorrow. The only bad part is that I had to go to "the John" every 2 hours or so and I was still feeling pretty sick.

Tuesday July 18th

I was excited like a kid at Christmas when I woke up that day. There was no sound of rain. Nothing! I ran to the window and it was confirmed, it was not raining. I was feeling sick but it didn't matter. I put Immodium pills and toilet paper in my bag "just in case" and went to Everest to meet everyone at around 10AM (I woke up late). We were all pretty excited to have no rain and were all eager to get started. However in a group that has 2 girls, 3 frenchs and a spaniards things don't move that fast. Pepe was a bit late so we went to a shop where Mika was in the process of bargaining an item. The original price was 700RMB and he wanted to get it down to 200RMB. He had worked the girl down to 440 and was going back to lower it again. We told Pepe to join us there. Mika bargained for his teapot hard and managed to get the price down a bit but not enough to his liking so he planned to go after the bike ride to "finish her up". Solene played the role of the annoying french girlfriend by telling Mika that his teapot was totally ugly while saying that a dragon she liked was way better.

Pepe was still not around so we went looking for him and found him at Bamboo Inn talking with the owner about a trip to Longsheng. We rented five bikes from the Inn and then proceeded to the supermarket to buy Oreo's and water. Then Pepe told the french that the Everest Hotel boss said they were supposed to move their stuff out of their room by 2PM since they weren't staying one more night (they were taking a sleeper to Guangzhou). So we all went back to the Everest to move the french's stuff into Pepe's room and then went back on West Street. By that time it was almost noon. Getting out of Yangshuo is fairly easy and after 10 minutes of bike you're on the road to the Moon Hill, a montain with a hole at the top that we were planning to hike. The road is filled with tourist attractions, touts and people trying to sell you stuff in stalls. After 20 minutes of biking you get on a bridge with decent views of the area and while we were stopping to take pictures old women came to sell us postcards and water, but thankfully they were walking so we could distance them quite easily.

We continued to the Moon Hill but about 15 minutes later about 5 women on bicycle started following us when we were stopping to take pictures. "Water, Coca-Cola, postcard? Very beautiful. No? Okay. Later" were words that we heard there for the first time and would follow us for a long time. They just wouldn't stop after we told them we weren't interested. After we got on our bike and went to the Moon Hill they followed us, when we got off the bike and started hiking up (after paying the entrance fee of 15RMB) two of them followed us all the way to the top. The hike is not too hard but is not extremely easy either, there are 1251 steps (I didn't count, that's what the guidebook says) to the top. We stopped to take a break twice and even though I didn't find the climb very arduous I was still out of breath at the top. The old women trying to sell us water didn't seem to break a sweat. We were not the only ones being followed by old women and we could see that the other tourists were just as fed up as we were. To be honest they were friendly but I just don't like being harassed by people trying to sell me stuff.

The view from the top was really nice and we took pictures of the surrounding countryside but it was very hard because there was a chinese family that was taking picture up there. I think they had been there for hours and looked like they were planning to stay for a few more. I swear the father took pictures of everyone, at every angle and with every possible person combination imaginable. I mean after 40 pictures at the same spot you'd think it would get a bit repetitive. We got one of the old woman to take a picture of us but she wasn't too good so we asked a korean (I think) girl to help her and after that we got pretty decent pictures.

We walked back down with the same old chinese woman following us. "Water, Coca-Cola, postcard? Very beautiful. No? Okay. Later" was heard again and again. I had some fun saying "Water, Coca-cola, postcard" to travellers going up as most of the time they said "no" before looking up to realize I was not an old chinese lady (and it would be quite bizarre to mistake me for one). At the end of the trek the women did a last sales pitch and the bretons (the french are from bretagne in france) and Pepe bought cokes but I didn't. I felt bad for the women, they obviously need money if they're ready to do all this just for a few yuans. But at the same time I don't want to encourage harrassement which is what they were doing.

We escaped the tourist trap of Moon Hill and went back on the main road to the bridge where we had taken the first pictures. Right after the bridge there is a small unpaved road away from the crowds with interesting views. We stopped by the river to watch people doing bamboo rafting go down in the rapids. After doing whiteriver rafting in Canada in spring I was less than impressed by the "rafting" there. People basically sit on chairs on a bamboo raft and take picture. That last fact alone should tell you that you shouldn't expect much excitement during that rafting trip. It's nice if you just want a relaxing ride on the river but it's not how it's advertised.

We continued on the road and while I was waiting for the rest of the group a Westerner tour group minibus pulled over close to me. I asked one of the woman who got off if there was anything interesting down the path she said with a look of disdain in her face that there were only small villages. "Very dirty and very poor" she said. You could tell from her attitude that she couldn't stand being in contact with people who don't wear Gucci. She probably couldn't wait to go souvenir shopping and come back to Beverley Hills to tell her friends how dirty China was so that they could tell her how brave she was to be travelling in that god-forbidden country. The more insightful reader might have guessed that her comment and attitude pissed me off and I must admit that those readers are right.

We continued on the path on these "poor and dirty" villages which didn't look that bad too me. Sure they're not rich by our standards but not particularly dirty. The scenery was really beautiful although the pictures weren't great because of the sun (it would be better to go there in the morning for pictures). At around 3:45 I started feeling not too great and said that I would go back. Solene and Flora wanted to go on but they eventually changed their mind and we all went back together. It took a bit less than an hour to get back to my hotel and by the time I got there I only had enough time to run up, thank god for the fact that there was no one in the toilet and do what I had to do.

After I took care of that, I slept for about 2 hours and then went to Everest to meet Pepe and the french before they left. I ordered a Canadian breakfast for dinner as I had eaten nothing for the whole day and figured that there's nothing better than something really greasy to heal the stomach. We ate and had lots of fun playing a cool dice game which I don't know the name. It's a bit hard to explain the rules but the goal is to kill the others by attacking them (with the dice!). Solene heartlessly killed her boyfriend and her best friend but her evil streak was stopped by me. It was only me and Pepe left but the french were leaving so they took the dices so we shall never know who would have won except that it wouldn't have been the frenchie! We exchanged emails and I wished them goodluck on their trip to Guangzhou. I had a great time with these 4 and they're definately in the "I'll keep in touch" category.

Me and Pepe hung around Everest for a few hours. I talked more with Jade and Mary, the 2 waitress of the place which are really nice. They're working in Yangshuo only for the summer months as Jade is from Guangzhou and Mary from Guilin, mostly to practice their english with customers. Even though they were using as men-object (I'm not only a machine that speaks english you know, I got feeling!) they were great fun.

At some point we were joined by an Austrian guy called Marcus who had been teaching english in Yangshuo for about a month but had just left the job because he was tired of the whole circus. As he says it Yangshuo is a freak show and we're the freaks. Chinese come here to take picture of us or practice their english with us and he is fed up with it. He will keep on travelling until he finds the "real" China. Learning chinese is pretty much impossible in Yangshuo as everyone wants to practice their english on you. I don't totally agree with everything he said but I must admit that I don't disagree. A few times when I was in Yangshuo people took pictures of me, or even video of me eating. And it is obvious that several chinese people speaks to me only to practice their english but I sort of like that last part. I like meeting new people so it does not bother me too much although I can understand that if you're trying to learn chinese it can be annoying.

I was planning to leave early tomorrow but I was feeling worse after the hamburger and fries (surprise surprise) so I figured that if I wasn't feeling better I'd stay another day. I said goodbye to Pepe and Marcus and went to bed at around 1AM.

Wednesday July 19th

I woke up feeling even worse than the day before. I had to go to the toilet pretty often and the thought of eating made me feel even worse. I therefore decided to stay one more day but this day I'd work on my blog as I had been pretty lazy lately. I had lots of things written up but uploading the pictures can take so much time (10-15 minutes per pictures is the norm in China from what I've seen) that I give up uploading the pictures. I went to an internet cafe in the morning and stayed there 4 hours uploading pictures, writting and keeping track of the news. I managed to get 2 blog entries published so I was pretty satisfied.

I went to Everest to see if Pepe and the girls were around. Pepe was in there talking with 2 chinese girls. I had a little something to eat as I was totally starving while they decided that they wanted to have a walk to the river. I can't remember the name of the girls but at some point along the way we were joined by a chinese girl named Queenzie who was friend with one of the girl and Jack, a guy she had met a few minutes ago. Queenzie is from Guangzhou and is in Yangshuo for about 2 months in vacation while trying to learn english (it's her major) while Jack just arrived from Guilin and is looking for a job as an assistant english teacher. We went to the river where there is a little park and hung around there talking. Jack and Queenzie were pretty funny so I was talking with them while Pepe was mostly talking to the 2 girls with the unknown names.

Pepe and one of the girl were hungry so we went to the market and they ate some noodles. We walked back to Everest and I told them I needed to go to an internet cafe but that I'd come back at 8 so we could hang out in the evening. I really wanted to publish one last blog for the day since I was being so efficient and I was feeling tired. I went to the dorm and slept an hour and then went to the internet cafe where I published one last blog. I managed to upload 26 pictures that day, at an average of almost 15 minutes per pictures.

At 8 I arrived at Everest where Jack, Queenzie, Jade and Mary were waiting. Apparently Jade had invited me to a dinner at her apartment in the afternoon but I didn't understand when she said it to me. I was really happy to go there as I really like Jade, she's a really cool girl. We were waiting for Pepe who was out taking pictures of the sunset. He arrived about 20 minutes after me disapointed that he hadn't taken anything good. He took a quick shower and we all went to Jade's apartment, except Mary which had to work until 10, where her roomate Cherry had cooked us a traditional cantonese meal.

We walked to her apartment through some very dark roads. Her apartment is clean but very bare by our standard, a low table, few low chairs and a bed (but no mattress) was all I could see. We met Cherry which didn't speak much english but had a nice welcoming smile and was very nice. When Jack saw the food he mentioned that she was ready to get married. Me and Pepe agreed as we started eating. There was a soup with corn, pumpkins and meet that was very good, sweet and sour fish with apple (my favorite, especially the apple), bamboo shoots, wierd purple mushrooms, a few other plate of meat and vegetable which I don't remember the name and of course rice. Everyone was trying hard to speak english with us and the whole atmosphere was laidback and fun. It was nice to be eating real food, as in not restaurant food. We finished the meal by eating a fruit which I cannot name

Jade told me and Pepe that the last few days had been her favorite of all the holiday because of Pepe the french and me. She's really a sweet girl. After dinner we went to the park close to the river where there was music playing and chinese couple dancing. We were not brave enough to try to dance along with them at the great despair of Queenzie. We walked back to Everest where we caught Mary before she left work. We talked for about an hour and exchanged emails before we said goodbye. Queenzie tried to convince me to stay in Yangshuo longer but I had to move. Yangshuo was fun and I met really cool people but after a few days of staying in the same place I get the urge to move on. I was feeling much better now so tomorrow morning I'd go to Guilin where I'd decide if i'd go to Kunming by Nanning or I'd go to Guiyang first.

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Photos

The crew from the top
From left to right: Pepe, Flora, yours truly, Solene and Mikael. Please take note of the evil look of Mikael.

Around Yangshuo
From the top of Moon Hill

Around Yangshuo 2
From the top of Moon Hill with view of Li River.

Me on top
From the top, looking through the hole.

From the farmer's path
It was really hard to get a decent picture with the afternoon light (go in the morning if you want to take pictures on that road) but the rice fields on a backgroung of karst mountain is really beautiful.

Around Yangshuo 3
From the bridge on the way to Moon Hill

Canadian breakfast
Us canadian clearly recognize our national breakfast (for the readers which might be a bit slow, I am being sarcastic).

Meal at Jade and Cherry's place
In clockwise orientation: me, Pepe, girl I don't remember the name, Cherry, Queenzie and Jade.

Comments

[Brandon]

Sounds great man
Hey Victor! The people you meet along the way is what really makes the trip. Seems like you are meeting some great people. And its nice to know you are comfortable enough to share with us your bowel movement problems ;-P Be safe, Brandon ps.... you are correct in that in the mideast you should NOT talk politics