The China Experience, The Final Chapter! - Yangshuo and Hong Kong

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Hello all! This is my last blog about China, finally!! Then I can move on to some of the other places I've been to more recently.

After arriving in Guilin at the ungodly hour of 5am, it was an hour or so on a bus before we arrived at Yangshuo. Once the rooms were sorted as best as possible at such an early hour, I had a super quick cold shower before meeting back downstairs to go for some breakfast.

Yangshuo is very different from just about all the rest of China, in that it had a huge selection of both Chinese and Western food. So I indulged in a banana pancake for breakfast. Heaven!!

Then I went back to my room for a nap, before going on an orientation walk of Yangshuo town and having some lunch. There was no set activity that afternoon, but just about all of us opted to go on a bamboo raft ride down the river, as we were told it was the best way to see the local scenery. Yangshuo is gorgeous. Mountains that look more like giant mole hills, they jut so frequently from the ground, that are covered in trees, are everywhere, They were in all shapes and sizes.

Floating down the river would have been a very relaxing way to see the beauty of the area, had our pole man stopped talking for more than a minute at a time, and had he refrained from constantly asking us to buy him a beer, or have our picture taken by a photographer and then pay for the picture. I think Karina (my roommate) and I were unfortunate and got the very worst pole man, as not only did he never stop talking, but he set out second, and yet arrived at the end, last by a very long way, meaning the rest of my group had to wait ages for us (we were last as he kept stopping and doing things like smoking or picking leaves!!!!). So perhaps needless to say, I was disappointed by the whole thing, and wished I had saved my money and done something else instead!

That evening, after dinner, we went for a pub quiz. Though lots of fun, I think it was at this point that certain people started to irritate each other...... It was starting to show that we had been together for over two weeks....

The next morning, we all went bike riding around Yangshuo, through the rice paddy fields. I really enjoyed this, even though it was hot and very, very humid, therefore very sweaty work. We got to see up close all the things we had glimpsed from the bamboo ride the day before. We cycled to a mountain that looked like a bridge or as though it had a moon shape carved out of it. Then we could either cycle back or go into moon cave to look around and use it's mud bath and hot spring.

It was hilarious getting into and walking through the cave, as at points, the ceiling got very lowm and you almost had to crawl! I felt especially sorry for some of the taller guys in my group. The cave was like most caves, wet and a little muddy, ao we got dirty going through it, but that was ok as we were only going to get muddier when we went in the mud bath.

The mud bath was so, so, so, so much fun!!!! After we got over how cold the mud was (such a contrast from how hot we'd been outside), a mud fight broke out and pretty soon we were all covered. Some amazing group pictures were taken of us, and we looked like mud people, blending into the background.

We then went to an underground stream to wash most of the mud off. Then we were led to a hot spring where we were allowed to just soak! I'd never been in a natural hot spring before so thought the whole thing was fab and could have stayed in there a lot longer.
Alas it was back outside to get hot and sweaty once more on the bike ride back.

That evening I went with one other person from my group to see cormorant fishing. This is where a fisherman uses a cormorant with some string around it's neck to fish. The string prevents the cormorant from swallowing the fish, and the bird is trained to bring the fish back to the boat. It takes about 2 years to train the birds!! It wasn't at all what I was expecting, as it was all done at night, instead of during the day like in the HSBC advert (lol). Still, I really enjoyed it , and apparently the 83 year old fisherman was the same man from the advert. Will have to check that on youtube before I am convinced!

The birds were so quick, constantly diving down, then up again briefly, swimming in front of the fisherman's raft, and then down again. Though great to watch, this constant movement made it rather hard to take a picture of them.
They only managed to catch two fish while I was watching, but we were told that the river isn't as clean as it used to be, making fishing more and more difficult.

We has a chance to take pictures of the fisherman and cormorants on land, and HSBC man or not, the fisherman had one of the kindest looking faces I have ever seen. We got to ask questions about the birds, and could hold them (i didn't as I was wearing a white top!).
All in all a very nice evening!!

My last day in Yangshuo (near Guilin) was a 'free day', so I had planned an action packed day! First of all it was a Tai Chi lesson at 10am. Our Tai Chi teacher was called Lilly, and she walked us to a nearby park to have our lesson. In the hour or so that she had, she managed to teach us the first 5 movements. There are 24 in total! Each part involves several moves; from shifting weight, to positioning feet and hands. The second and fourth parts involved lots of moves, and were definitely the hardest to remember. It was great fun, though a little hard to concentrate sometimes as the park was full of screaming youngsters, and every trime we did anything, we had the usual crowd of Chinese people gather round to watch.
My balance wasn't great but by the end of the lesson I was starting to get the hang of it. It was like learning to fight but flowing, slow and graceful.

I had booked some spa treatments for the afternoon, so I had an hour or so to burn before I had to be there. So I decided to go check out the local market.....
I'd been warned that they sold dog in the market, but there is a huge difference between knowing and actually seeing it. I was surprised by how horrified I was. It was like something out of a horror movie. Animals everywhere, blood everywhere and god knows what on the floor. The smell was something else, not exactly bad but like nothing I've ever smelt before.

Dead dogs were hanging from hooks, their faces frozen in a permanent sneer! Paws sticking out ridgedly from their bodies.
There were cats and dogs and ducks, all alive, crammed into cages, where they could watch the fate of their cage mates. Those poor things knew exactly what was going to happen to them, it was written all over their faces.

It all made me feel very ill. I couldn't stay there long, as the smell in particular was pushing me over the edge. I was probably in and out in 3 minutes.

I recovered from the market ordeal at the spa, where I had a chinese massage, a facial, a foot massage and hot cupping.

I much prefer the chinese massage to thai massages. It is still quite rough, but as opposed to just pushing you into the bed, the chinese lady pushed her thumb into my back, legs, arms etc and then rubbed firmly over my skin. I found the whole thing surprisingly relaxing and almost fell asleep twice.

The foot massage and facial were pretty standard, but it was my first time experiencing hot cupping. It is literally where hot cups are put on your back and shoulders to draw out the toxins.
It pinches when they are putting the cups on your back, and it is very hot too! I had loads of cups put over my back, shoulders and the tops of my arms.
My back felt extremely heavy when thy were all on, like I was a tortoise and had a huge shell. The hot cupping felt like extreme sunburn, as your skin feels all tight and you can feel the heat on, and radiating off, your skin.

The cups made little popping noises when they can off, and some were more reluctant than others to come off. My back ended up looking like some one had played connect four on my back, or like I had been attacked by a giant octopus. Thankfully none of the circular bruises hurt, they just looked vicious!

After my nice time at the spa, I went to a local cafe where I knew some of my group were relaxing. I sat and had a yummy cadbury's hot chocolate and just enjoyed the rest of my time in Yangshuo before I had to get on my final sleeper train in China, to Hong Kong.

I was excited and sad to be going to Hong Kong. Excited as I'd heard amazing things about it, but sad as it meant my tour was almost over, and I would have to part ways with my awesome group. Still, I was keen to get my last sleeper train over and done with!

I awoke on my sleeper train on FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH!! We had arrived in Shenzhen, and it was time to get our bags and walk across the border, through passport control, and into Hong Kong. It was really muggy in Hong Kong, but before long we were in our hotel, showering and making ourselves feel human again.

It was very sad, as after we'd showered, we all went for a final lunch together, as the tour was just about over.

Once we'd finished with lunch, I went with some others, for a walk down Nathan Road, the main street in Kowloon. It is full of shops, restaurants, hotels and Indian men asking you if you want a suit or watch! We followed Nathan Road all the way to the harbour, where we could look across onto Hong Kong Island. It was quite hazy, so we couldn't get a great view of the island, but it was nice to see the skyscrapers with the mountains poking up behind.

We walked along the Avenue of Stars, where famous Chinese actors and actresses have their name, a star and their hand prints/ After that, we had to head back, to meet up with everyone else to go for some goodbye drinks.

It was nice to have a lie-in the next day, as check-out wasn't until 12 noon. Karina and I slept in until 10.30. Then it was time for me to get my stuff together and move on to my next hotel. By the time I'd got there, and dumped my stuff it was 1 o'clock. Karina and I went for lunch in an Irish pub, where I had my first roast in 3 1/2 months!!! It was heaven. Beef with Yorkshire pudding and gravy. Just what I needed after 3 weeks of almost solid Chinese food.

The pub lunch put us a little behind schedule, as we wanted to go to Lantau Island to see the Giant Buddha there. It took us ages to get there, but we eventually arrived there on a local bus. The Buddha was lovely, perched up in the mountains, with Po Lin Monastery around it. The clouds were low and seemed to envelope the mountains.

We decided to get the cable-car back to the MRT station instead of the bus. Although this was more expensive, it was nice to see the beaches, hills etc from the cable-car.
We hopped on the MRT and headed to central, where we then walked to get the tram up to Victoria Peak. The tram has been running since 1888 and at some points it is going upwards at a 45 degree angle! Pretty fun!

We'd wanted to get to Victoria Peak to watch the sun set, but had forgotten it was a Saturday, and therefore likely to be busy. It took us an hour of queuing before we got to the top and by then it was dark. Not only was it dark, but it was so foggy that you could barely see 100 yards in front of you, let alone all the way out over the Hong Kong skyline. So we probably didn't miss much by missing the sunset! The fog made it quite creepy at the top, and the muted colours made me feel like I could be at Victoria Peak in the 1800's or in a movie set at that time.

We left Victoria Peak and parted ways, as Karina wanted to go to the street we'd been drinking at the night before, whereas I wanted to get the Star Ferry across the water back to Kowloon, and try and get some good pictures of Hong Kong at night, despite the fog. I really enjoyed myself on the ferry, as it is an awesome way of seeing Hong Kong. All the buildings were lit up, colours shining brightly, even with the thick fog. I walked to the Avenue of Stars, took some pictures across to Hong Kong Island, then headed back to my hostel, swinging past the Opera House and Peninsula Hotel on the way. I'd had a fab day, even with all the queuing and fog!

The next day I was leaving Hong Kong for Nepal. I had a small lie-in before packing up all my things and heading for the Hong Kong in-town check-in. I loved this! You rock up, any time you like, up to 24 hours before your flight, and you can check your bag in. As the in-town check-in is at the central MRT station, it was really easy and convenient to get there. It was just so civilised! I could dump my bag there first thing in the morning, check-in for my flight, and then go sightseeing, and only had to be at the airport in time to get to my gate half an hour before my flight.
This gave me an extra half a day to go exploring and squeeze in as much as possible.

First stop was the longest, outdoor, covered escalator in the world. I thought it was literally going to be one long escalator going up the mountain, but instead it was lots of escalators, one after another. (which made sense as how else would you get off the escalator at all the different roads up the mountain?).

We got off part way up to go check out Hollywood Road, which was apparently the first road in Hong Kong. It doesn't look any different from the other streets on Hong Kong island, but it has lots of antique shops all the way along it, and the roads either side either slope steeply upwards, or slope rapidly downwards. Karina and I walked along Hollywood Road until we came to Mo Man temple. I really liked this temple as it was filled with incense, and it had coils of incense hanging from the ceiling, slowly burning and releasing the sandlewoody smell.
After having a go at burning some incense, and copying the woman next to us, we went back on the escalator and rode it all the way to the end.

It seems to end on a really odd road, as there isn't anything in particular there.....Still, we'd enjoyed going all the way up the escalator and it probably took around 20 minutes in total, non-stop.

We decided to start walking back towards the train station, as we were both conscious of the time and the fact we were on strict schedules. On the way down we stumbled across the Hong Kong Botanical and Zoological park. This place was awesome as there were all sorts of plants everywhere, and it was a little bit like a zoo with an aviary, a reptile house, and an area with lots of different types of monkeys and lemurs. Best of all, it was FREE!

After we'd wandered around for a bit, we continued back to the station, past all the Phillipino ladies, who work as maids in the houses in Hong Kong, and who had been kicked out of the house for the day as it was Sunday and therefore family day. They make little shelters out of cardboard, and sit playing cards, talking, sleeping or generally entertain themselves. The atmosphere is buzzing and we even walked past a group of 10 or so practicing a choreographed dance.

Soon enough it was time for me to say goodbye to Karina and head off to the airport as my time had run out.

My flight was interesting as there were thunderstorms the whole way.... thankfully we didn't go through any, I could just see the sky being lit up by lightning in the distance, every couple of minutes.
The flight wasn't direct, so I was in Dhara in Bangladesh for an hour, though I wasn't allowed off the plane.

Finally, I arrived in Kathmandu, in this small rather confused airport. I got my visa sorted and hopped into a taxi to my hotel. As it was about 11.30pm, I woke my new roommate up when I arrived...Opps. I was completely shattered as it was 2.30am China time, so I pretty much fell into bed and passed out.


Woooooh!!! My China blogs are finished!!! Next blog is all about Tibet, the Roof of the World :D

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Photos

Cormorant Fishing
Isn't he beautiful!!