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Published: November 27th 2013
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This past year, that is the fourth year, of my time here in Asia has been the most exciting one yet. Particularly because I was able to cram a whole lot of travel in a short amount of time. And more importantly because of the awesome people I met along the way.
[After last year's tumultuous roller coaster that was my life, I decided to start afresh, clean slate, for me and me only, ticket for 1 please!! I needed to 'rediscover' myself, as most divorcees would say after a horrible long-time coming divorce. But it's true. Amazing how one can completely loose themselves, their values, their motivation for life, while in a poisonous relationship. Anyways... after spending Christmas and New Year's back in California with my loved ones I came back to Hong Kong with a new
carpe diem attitude! I met an awesome girl, Ms. Erin McHugh, who took me under her wing and made me explore a mystical magical place that I've heard so much about but never truly experienced before, China. Yes, it's true that technically Hong Kong is China....but it's not! It's like saying Tijuana, Mexico is California. It ain't I tell you! It ain't!
Just like when we go to Mexico, to go into China you need your passport, luggage, sim card for your phone and rabies shots...see it's the same!]
My new bestie and I, both single and fabulous, decided to go to Yanshuo together for a long weekend trip. We needed an escape from the city lights and as we both had never really been to China, we thought this would be a good starting point. We flew into Guilin and had a car pick us up and take us to our fabulous hostel on the outskirts of town called, Carpe Diem Daytrippers... oh the irony! We were a little hesitant about staying here because it's a bit out of the main town centre, but ultimately so glad we did, as the town center gets seriously packed and super noisy at night. Our hostel lets you use their bikes, so we're just a quick 10 minute bike ride or a gorgeous 20 minute walk into town anyways.. We woke up every morning and had breakfast on the terrace overlooking rice fields and towering limestone mountains. It really didn't feel like a hostel at all actually. Erin and I had our own
king size room with en-suite bathroom. There was also a full service restaurant with really great food...surprisingly. I guess the only hostel-ly thing about it was that they lock the doors after 10PM and so when we came crawling back in around 1AM the old Chinese owner man answers the door in his tighty-whitey's to let you in. Awkward.
On our first day in Yangshuo we decided to use the bikes to go explore the town. I believe this is something most people do when visiting, as there were very clearly marked paths on the roads and loads of
gweilos (white people) biking around town. Despite this, there were occasions when we still managed to get lost (shocker) and had to ask for help. To my surprise, the people of Yangshuo were very pleasant and helpful. Most speak English well, which is quite rare in China, and none of them stare at you like you're an alien, which is something I learned later happens everywhere in China outside of Yangshuo! The scenery was absolutely stunning. Straight out of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. We rode through lily pad fields, past massive limestone mountains, through rural towns, along the winding Li
River all the way to the other side of town. We met a lovely Guangxi woman on the way, who led us to one of the cave attractions. The cool thing about the caves here are that you can have mud baths in these big natural pools of mud. They were freezing cold, but so much fun. Afterwards, we walked down a few steps to these small natural hot springs, which is where you can wash off all the mud and hang out for a bit.
The next day was spent trying out the next big attraction of Yangshuo, climbing! People travel from all over the world to experience the amazing limestone cliffs of Yangshuo. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. I've traveled all over Thailand and have seen the beautiful limestone mountains there, but it doesn't compare to the hundreds of mountains that make up this climbers paradise. I do enjoy the thrill of rock climbing, so this is something that I was really looking forward to trying out. It's just that when I'm actually up there I forget how tiring it is and usually give up after about an hour or so. Erin felt the same,
so we spent the rest of our time at the cliffs lying on our mats watching all the Chinese tourists attempt the climb... People watching at it's finest!
Being the thrill seekers that we are, we also decided to do a 3 hour kayak trip along the Yulong River. So glad we did, as this was the highlight of my trip. The scenery is is just absolutely stunning. A mix of cliffs and fields and caverns and mountains...Words don't give it justice! Weather was perfect as well, so I'm sure that added to the effect 😉 Later that night we went to the grand Impression Show that everyone talks about. Directed by the guy who did the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. It's meant to be a story line, but as there was no English translation I couldn't really follow, but it was a site nonetheless. Just an amazing spectacle of people and lights, all performed on the river. Really fascinating to watch.
The rest of our time in Yangshuo was spent relaxing in coffee shops, strolling along the river, drinking beers at the rooftop hostel bars in town, eating lots of yummy food and contemplating our next travel
adventure...Hmm..
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Christian
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hola!!!
I'm glad you are doing well out there! So mad I missed you when you came back! When are you visiting? I want to make sure my son/daughter sees their tia! Happy holidays. Love you