Back from Lijiang and Need to Update

I got back from Lijiang late Tuesday night and then Kurt arrived on Thursday afternoon. I have a lot to update about Lijiang but am not sure when I will have time. Lijiang was amazing! I have my photos online, so you can at least see those until I have a chance to write all about it.

Have a good one!

Off to Lijiang!

I woke up this morning at 5:45 and freaked out that my clock was wrong. The sun was out and the sky was blue! I guess that's what happens when you don't have daylight savings.

Anyway, I am off to Lijiang with Carrie and her father. The Fulbright office planned a trip to Lijiang for Fulbrighters, however not enough people joined the trip and I was able to go! It does not seem to be as planned out as I thought, so wish me luck. It will be an adventure for sure. Lijiang is at the foothills of the Himalayas as far as I know, so it should be really pretty.

I will not have my laptop and I doubt that I will have internet, although who knows.

Ciao!

What is this line? What am I doing here?

Today was very much like something out of Kafka's "The Trial" (funny, I think I have said that about several days). Tomorrow I am leaving first thing in the morning for Lijiang (will explain more later) and then when I get back I only have a day before Kurt arrives in Beijing, so I had a lot to do today. I avoided going outside yesterday because it looked like it was the apocalypse. Everything was covered in a layer of dirt and the pollution was so foul. I don't want that crap in my lungs. I had nothing I had to do, so I stayed inside. Today I had to leave the apartment, even though it looked pretty much the same.

I went to the Tourist Office that is several blocks away to buy train tickets. I knew this might be a bit tricky since I needed tickets from Shanghai to Beijing and it is harder to buy when you are not in the originating city. Anyway, I asked this one guy and he didn't really speak English, but he tried and told me the train was sold out. I know it's May Break (all of China has off for this week . . . hell), but I thought there would still be soft sleepers. Then another woman came in and he told her to talk to me. Her English was much better so she took me to the ticket window. I kept saying FROM Shanghai TO Beijing. Stupidly I did not say it in Chinese, which might have saved me from wasting my entire day. I kept telling her because I wanted to be absolutely clear that I wanted tickets from Shanghai, NOT from Beijing. So everything seems cool, I pay the 1008 kuai ($126) and she hands me two tickets. Lucky for me two of the handful of characters I can read area the characters for Beijing and Shanghai, since I have taken this train before. I looked at the tickets and they were from Beijing to Shanghai. I told her it was incorrect and she apologized and told me that she thought I said FROM Beijing TO Shanghai. Now I realize I am in their country and I should learn their language, so in a way I can't be all that upset, but I am. She obviously understood what "from" and "to" meant, so I don't understand how she confused what I was telling her so clearly and then switched the places!

So then I am like, whatever, they can just rip it up and issue me a new one. Well she tells me "Sorry, we can only issue tickets here, we cannot exchange or refund them." I got really pissed and tried to argue and fight for my money back for around fifteen minutes with no progress. She told me that I had to go to the train station and refund my ticket and buy a new one because they do not do exchanges. I thought that maybe this was some sort of procedure that they tell you but you can work around. So I told her that I was leaving tonight and did not have time to go to the train station, which is almost true, I am leaving tomorrow morning. That didn't do anything. Then she told me that it wasn't far, and I could take a bus to the train station. I have not taken the buses here and was not about to get lost on one today. So she wrote the name of the train station in characters for me and I caught a taxi. I was beyond pissed off at this point that I had to go to the train station for this woman's mistake. I wasn't as stressed though because I had been to the train station before and I remembered seeing a "Ticket Office for Foreigners" sign.

I got to the train station and went directly to the sign and followed the arrow. The arrow led me to a wall. I looked left and right and there were only waiting rooms. I turned around and went to the "help" desk. The woman(#1) did not speak English, so I just showed her my ticket and then whatever the woman at the Tourist Office wrote down for me to show them. We were not getting anywhere, so I pointed to the "Ticket Office for Foreigners" sign to see if she would show me where it was. Someone would surely speak English at the "Ticket Office for Foreigners." She called someone on her walkie talkie and another woman(#2) came to get me and walked me back toward the sign. I figured I was getting somewhere and she would show me this office. Nope. She walked over to another woman(#3) at the entrance of a waiting room, said something and then woman#3 told me in English, "Outside and to the left." So I walked back outside, in the complete opposite direction of this "Ticket Office for Foreigners" sign. I went to the left where I saw a bunch of "ticket" windows. I went to the only one that had anything in English thinking, they would be the ones that spoke English.

An important thing to know about China (or at least Beijing) is that there are massive lines, but standing in the back of the line will get you nowhere. People just cut to the front and push, so if you want to get anything you have to do the same, and don't even think of trying to keep your own personal space around you because some little Chinese man will think it's an invitation to stand right in front of you and bring his five friends.

Anyway, I go to the window and after having two people cut in front of me, I pushed my way to the front. I gave the woman(#4) at the window my tickets and the sheet of paper explaining I wanted tickets from Shanghai to Beijing. She did not speak much English but she said something about 20%. This did not sound cool at all. Then she pointed for me to follow her to another window (she went through the back, being that she was behind the window, and I had to try to keep an eye on where she was going while trying to navigate between a ton of people in other lines). Three windows over I get to a woman(#5) who speaks English. Success! Or so I thought. She told me that if I refunded the ticket, they keep 20%. I was soooo pissed off. I tried to explain to her that I had just bought it and that the woman who sold it to me made a mistake. She wasn't really listening. Then she told me "1" and pointed. I walked away and looked for a number 1. I was at ticket window 36 or something and the numbers were only going higher in the direction she was pointing. I was utterly confused. I went back to her then she said "Ticket Hall! Ticket Hall!" So where the hell was I?!?!?!

I kept walking as the numbers increased and saw a sign that said "Ticket Hall." I walked in and it was under construction a bunch of Chinese construction workers started to yell at me. So I left and kept walking until I saw another sign for "Ticket Hall" that was in another building next to the train station. I walked in and it was much less crowded. I found window 1 and did the same thing I did at the other ticket windows. The woman(#6) said 20% again and I tried again to explain to her why I didn't think I should have to pay it. At this point though, I just wanted money back, whether it was 80% or not, I just wanted to get the hell out of there. Then she wrote down "25" on my piece of paper and pointed. Notice a trend?

I walked over to ticket window 25, but it was closed, however 26 was open and there were a bunch of people crowding around it. No semblance of a line whatsoever. So I tried to start squishing in and about six or seven Chinese guys were staring at my tickets in my hand trying to see what they said. I was in no mood to deal with anyone giving me funny looks, so I hid my tickets. Maybe they have x-ray vision, I don't know, but they kept trying to look. The best is that when I tried to listen to them and didn't understand I would say, "Ting bu dong" which means "I don't understand." The best part is they all laugh. They thing it's the funniest thing in the world when you said you don't understand. I know Americans get a lot of crap talked about them, but I have never laughed at someone to their face because they didn't understand or because they didn't speak English. It is really frustrating.

While standing in this mob, I watched what everyone was doing and tried to figure it out. I figured this was the refund window because people were giving tickets to the guy(#7) behind the window and he was giving them money back. I also noticed that the person who went next in line was the person whose hand made it to the little window to give their tickets. I probably have longer arms than others, so I joined in and pushed my way until I got my hand to the window. I put in my tickets and the paper and the guy showed me his screen. It had the numbers in this order on it: 499, 100, 399. I figured, each ticket was 499, and 20% of that is 100, so 399 . . . ok. I get it, I guess. But he just kept yelling this number and pointing to 399. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if he was telling me I would get that amount back or what. I tried to motion "Sure, ok" but he was not taking money out to give to me. Out of nowhere the mob behind me multiplied ten fold and all these people were yelling "Si bai ar! Si bai ar! Si bai ar!" Which is 402 . . . I think. But what the hell did that have to do with anything?!?!?! The guy put the tickets back into the window and I moved out of the way. At this point I was at my end. All of these Chinese guys (the same ones who laughed at me before) were coming up to me and showing me money and wanted to see my tickets. I guess they were scalpers? Since I don't know China's laws, I did not want to get busted and have some cop see me sell my tickets and then throw me in prison.

I walked away and called Alex because I was at a total loss. I had just spoken to seven different people and no one was helping me out. I was even willing to take only 80% back and I couldn't even do that. I totally broke down on the phone and was crying. This little Chinese boy was watching me the entire time too. Alex told me to call MCK because his Chinese is really good. So I called MCK luckily I caught him while he was on a bus not too far away. He said he would be there in 20 minutes to help me out. In the meantime I figured I would try going to another window to see if anyone spoke English. I did not want to make MCK go out of his way to help me with this insanity. I went to this woman(#8) and as usual, she told me to go to window 25. I looked over there and the line had grown so much. It was actually a line now, but there was still a mob at the front. I was tempted to go right to the front but what was that going to do? I went to the back and figured I would wait there until MCK came. The the group of Chinese scalpers came back and they even multiplied! There were so many of them. At this point I figured I was somewhat "hidden" and I think I managed to decipher that they were telling me I would only get back 402 per ticket from the refund man. So then this random guy showed me 820, I took it, gave him my tickets and walked out. I was so sick of it.

I tried texting MCK to tell him he didn't have to come, but he was less than ten minutes away. It is a good thing too because I am not sure that I would have been able to buy the correct tickets. He came, we went to a ticket booth and did all of the talking and I now have two tickets from Shanghai to Beijing. It was pure insanity and I have a massive headache now. The combination of horrible pollution, bureaucracy and too many jelly beans has sent me for a spin. I just want to sleep.

Easter in Beijing

This Easter was definitely a unique one. First off, I had to find eggs to dye. I was unable to find any white eggs, so instead I bought a bunch of brown eggs, slightly lighter brown eggs and then light green eggs (I think these might be 100 year old eggs, but I could be wrong). On Saturday I set up the egg dyes (imported from the states) and wax to make margucius (Lithuanian Easter eggs). I spent probably around six hours doing eggs. Jen, our other roommate for a couple weeks, and I did most of them and Carrie and Alex did a couple but were busy with other things. It was interesting to see how the dyes worked on the brown eggs, in a way I like them better because they have a more rustic look.

On Sunday, Alex, Jen and I went to the China International Gallery Exposition 2006. From what I hear, there isn't much in the way of modern art in Beijing, so it was good to see. There were some really interesting pieces, however nothing blew me away. What really weirds me out in China is how much people take photos of themselves in front of things. In this case, in front of art. I understand taking a photo in front of a sculpture when it is in an outdoor park or something, but at this exhibit there were all of these people posing with paintings and sculptures all over the place. It is like an amusement park. So we hung around this exhibit for a bit until we got a call from Carrie. She went to pick up her father from the airport, and planned to be back well before 4 (when our party was set to start), however she was stuck in horrible traffic. She had just received a call from some people saying they were at our apartment and she wanted to see where we were. We rushed to leave the museum and arrived just as Carrie was arriving, 45 minutes late to our own party. Oops!

When we arrived, Carrie, Mr. Clyne and Julie got out of the car. Carrie and Julie had gone to some event before picking up Carrie's dad. Julie was carrying a box that looked like a Dunkin Donuts doughnut hole box and I got excited, until I heard a chirp. She opened the box and there was a little duckling in it (which strangely enough has been named "Chick," it will surely have identity problems now). Apparently on the way out of the event, there were boxes with live bunnies and boxes with live ducks for everyone to take. I can only assume that these were meant to be brought home and eaten.

We got to our apartment and several people were already there, so we rushed out the food (Carrie's dad brought baked goods!) and had a nice time. I put out the eggs and we had two egg wars, I won one, lost the other. The "Chick" was chirping non-stop, so Julie brought it up to the bathroom and put it in the bathtub. We put some water in the tub and created a "natural environment." Then Ben, decided to feed the duck crackers. The duck would not eat regular crackers, so Ben chewed it up and then fed it, just like momma duck would have done. Ben is now officially the duck's father.

After everyone left, Julie was wondering why she took the duck and did not know what to do with it. Possible ideas were: let it loose in a hutong, give it to someone in a hutong, leave the box in a cab/restaurant/street corner . . . Eventually she took it home and it looks like she might have found someone who wants it. Whether they will eat it or not, I do not know.

Acupressure

Carrie took Alex and me to an acupressurist that she has been to several times. Alex said she wanted him to look at her back and I wanted him to look at my knees because I think I have weak knees. So we both get on the table, Alex had some four or five people working on her and I had one. It was so bizarre and I definitely need to go back. First of all Alex kept yelling in pain, then I made the mistake of wearing a skirt and tights, so when the guy was doing all of this stuff to my knees my skirt was going all over and everyone could see everything. Luckily my tights were very opaque black, so it was basically like wearing spandex or something. But still, it was not cool. So Alex, Carrie and I were cracking up while this guy was twisting my legs around. When I was lying on my back he told me my legs were uneven! He did all of this crazy twisting and pulling and then they were straight! This is no lie either. When I was first on my back I noticed how my feet fell, but I didn't even know yet what he was doing. After he did his voodoo, my feet rested differently, a little straighter. He also was kneeding my bum and basically smacking it. I am not sure what this does but I asked if it would make my butt smaller. Carrie and I started cracking up and then Carrie said he didn't know why we were laughing. The funny thing is, I am sure we were supposed to be quiet and relaxed, but we kept laughing and whining in pain and saying stuff that we probably would not have said aloud if they understood English. They probably do and we looked like total asses.

I thought everything was ok until he start digging around in my stomach and rearranging my organs! I felt some incredible pain and out of nowhere he said something about me eating too many sweets and too much chocolate!!! Oh holy hell, if that isn't some psychic power I don't know what is. He told me to eat more spicy foods? I think. Mind you all of this was being translated through Carrie who wasn't entirely sure, so he could be telling me "Eat more chocolate!" and I wouldn't know. It was really weird too because not long after that I started crying. Carrie and Alex thought I got offended and was crying because he said I eat too much chocolate, but that was not it. I have no clue why it happened as I was not sad or offended, I actually thought the comment about chocolate was pretty funny and probably very true.

He also told me I have problems with my lungs and spleen? Not sure what's wrong with my spleen but I know I run out of breath easily. I just thought that was because I was out of shape, but who knows. So overall it was an amazing experience and I need to go back with someone who is fluent in Chinese so that I make sure I know what's going on. This really fascinates me and I am tempted to learn more about it at some point in life.

Yangshuo Day 5 - Leaving

On Wednesday morning we hung out at the Buffalo Bar and got ready to go to the train station in Guilin. We could have taken a taxi for 200 kuai but wanted to try the bus which was only 13 kuai. We had been told there was a local bus and an express bus. The local cost 10 and the express was 13 (less than $0.50 difference). We were running a bit late and got to this one bus that said Guilin. We kept asking if it was express and how much it cost but three different people gave us three different answers. We got on the bus since it was about to leave and we did not see anything else. Alex asked if I could go check out the other buses just in case. I looked around and found another bus that was definitely the express bus, it had a sign, it was nicer and was leaving in five minutes. I ran back to Alex and saw the bus she was on was about to leave. I ran on the bus and yelled to Alex, "GET OFF THE BUS!!!!!" So we grabbed our massive packs and as the bus was driving we were yelling "TING JAR!!!!" ("stop here"). No one listened until we got to the front of the bus and the guy finally stopped. Then we tried to ask for our money back and the woman who sold us the tickets laughed at us (not the cute laugh either) and was being a total slimeball. We got onto the express bus minutes before it left and were all set. The best part about the express bus was the hour and a half we spent watching Chinese music videos. There are no words to describe these videos, but I will try: insanely cheesy, horribly animated (probably by someone's kid who just started highschool) and lame. It was great fun ripping them apart from the back of the bus.

We got to the train station quite easily from the bus station in Guilin and had a nice 23 hour trip. The last train we took was from Beijing to Shanghai and we had free meals. This train however did not provide free meals, they were 15 kuai each and were not nearly as good. There were TV screens in the rooms though and I watched Armageddon dubbed in Chinese. It's not like that movie has amazing dialog anyway, so it didn't really phase me. It was weird though how we were driving in one direction for about three hours and then at this one stop we started going the other way and continued in that direction the remainder of the trip. I am not quite sure what was going on there.

We got to Beijing around 2 PM the next day and so was the end of our adventures in Yangshuo. It was an amazing time and if you are ever in China, I highly recommend you check it out. There is so much to explore and so much to do. The only thing I regret is not staying a bit longer to take a day trip to Longsheng. Longsheng is filled with ride terraces and from what I have seen in Carrie’s photos they are amazing. Maybe next time . . .

Yangshuo Day 4 - Rock Climbing

Tuesday morning we woke up early and went rock climbing. We had a choice of companies to go with and chose China Climb, because it is run by foreigners and I personally don't want to have communication problems when I am on a rock face for the first time. We had three guides, a British guy, a Chinese guy and a Canadian woman (sounds like the beginning of a joke . . .). I know nothing about rock climbing and did not realize how painful the shoes are. I never thought I wanted shoes to be too small but that's what you want with climbing shoes. If you have never been, you wear these shoes in which your toes are supposed to curl, so it's hard to tell when they are too tight because they are supposed to be too tight. Apparently it's good when on the rock. I think we all felt like we had our toes bound like they used to back in the day here in China, how appropriate.

We drove out to this location called Baby Frog and watched the British guy set up the rope in no time. The first climb was a 5.8 (I guess 5.2 is beginner? 5.8 is a little more advanced beginner). Mike went first since he has gone rock climbing before. He did a great job and made it look easier than it was. I went next and it was definitely harder than I thought. It took me a while, but I made it to the top of the first climb. After coming down you have to take your shoes off so you don't get them muddy. My toes looked like tandoori chicken! I stupidly thought it was because my feet hurt so bad that they turned this color. Later when I asked Alex why her's didn't look like that she said it was because she doesn't sweat as much, so the dye didn't come off on her feet. Foolish Ramune. Alex went next and Mike started the second climb. Alex made it almost to the top however she had not had much sleep the night before since she was also doing work while in Yangshuo. The second climb went higher up and was a level 5.9. It was easier in parts but the last 10 feet killed me. I made it within 5 feet of the top and had to come down. I had taken a while at this one part and didn't realize how late it was. I came down and then Alex start going up. She was doing well until she went too far to the left. She slipped and, like a pendulum, swung over maybe 15 feet and hit a rock that was jutting out. At this point it was time to come down. Had she not been wearing a helmet she probably would have bashed her head, but the worst she got was a couple bruises.

I think the guides were a bit disappointed in us, but whatever, I was proud that I made it as far as I did since it was my first time. I am still kicking myself for not making it to the top of the second climb but I also didn't even think I would make it that far. It's funny how half way up the first climb I was thinking, "This is not fun anymore, I want to come down, I hate this, I am not doing the next one" and then I did the next one and now I want to keep doing it and get better. Apparently there is a wall in Beijing not far from us, so I might check it out if I have time.

We went back into town and had our last meal with Mike, which included another apple crumble. We had to leave the Buffalo Bar because we had not booked the rooms for that night and they were sold out. We went to another hotel called the Magnolia which was nicer but did not have wireless.

That evening, we spent over two hours looking for a way back to Beijing. We went to two travel agents and eventually got soft sleeper tickets on a train back to Beijing the following day.

Yangshuo Day 3 - Water Caves

Monday was Carrie's last day so we didn't have anything really planned. We slept in a bit and then met downstairs for breakfast. The great thing about Yangshuo, and I guess any backpacking town is meeting random people and seeing what happens. This Chinese woman, who works as a private tour guide and who we thought had taken Carrie around before we arrived (turns out that was someone else, so I trusted someone I didn't know anything about), was sitting with these two guys from London. We were talking about things to do and somehow caves came up. They had been to the Water Caves the day before and said it was worth going. I really wanted to go because I love caves and if I could, I would live in one, but Alex had to do work and Carrie and Mike were not interested. The guide and the Brits were going to a bamboo raft but said they had to drive by the caves and could drop me off. Since I had nothing planned and was feeling adventurous I went.

After eating a delicious grilled cheese sandwich we left for the caves. I talked to the Brits for a bit and they had just spent two months in another town learning Kung Fu! How cool! If I had more time I would consider that. Maybe I could be the next Kung Fu movie master! Alas, maybe in another life.

We arrived at a ticketbooth where they dropped me off. I bought a ticket for the full tour and was told to sit on this stool (they have a lot of these stools and chairs in China that look like they are for 2 year olds yet all the adults sit in them) and wait 10 minutes until someone came to get me. I was a bit sketched out and was sitting alone next to three chickens who were getting closer and closer to me and of course I kept thinking about bird flu.

Another minivan came by and I was told to get in by a random woman who came out of nowhere. There was a Dutch couple, Roel and Lieke, in the van who were also going to see the caves. Dutch has to be one of the hardest languages. I kept trying to say "Roel" but that "r" is impossible! I didn't feel so bad though because when I said my name was "Ramune" he couldn't get the "u" sound right. What followed was the bumpiest ride of my entire existence. Yet again, another moment where a video camera would have been wonderful, although I am not sure how long it would have lasted. We drove for ten minutes or so, which felt like a lifetime, on this dirt road that was full of holes and bumps. There were parts where I thought the van was going to tip over. I can't imagine the damage it does to the shocks on these vans or to the health of these drivers considering they drive back and forth on this road every day. It must do wonders to your spine. Not only was the ride insanely bumpy I was sitting in the front seat but was turning around to talk to the Dutch couple who were asking me many questions, mainly about 9/11. It was so surreal. After I mentioned living in New York, Roel said "I am sure you get this all the time, but were you there? Did you see it happen? When the planes flew into the buildings?" I almost laughed because it's been a while and honestly no one has asked me since maybe several months after it happened and here is this guy asking like it was a couple months ago. Obviously I am not laughing at what happened, it was just so surreal trying to hold on for dear life in a van that is about to tip over, while nearly twisting my neck off trying to tell someone about how I saw the planes crash into the WTC. How weird.

Finally we got to the caves and this little Chinese man gave us each hard hats and then we got into a little rowboat. This was probably the creepiest part and definitely not for anyone who is claustrophobic or afraid of the dark or in my case, afraid of the plague in the water. Roel was a really tall guy, probably over 6'6" so going into the cave was a bit of a challenge. We had to take the boat into the cave through this part where the space between the water and the cave ceiling was no more than 2'6", so we all had to lie back so as not to be beheaded. Once we got out of the boat we began our tour of the caves. The only other public cave I have been to is Luray Caverns in Virginia which is well lit and has good paths to walk on. This place was quite the opposite. There were wires that followed along the walls of the caves with small bulbs here and there to give you just enough light. At one point they all went off for a few seconds. This was not very comforting, but whatever, I love an adventure and love the quirks of third world countries. As we were walking along, our guide's flash light battery was dying. Roel asked him why and he said that he had done three tours already that day and so the battery was dying. Roel was pissed, as I was (although I wasn't going to scold the guy for it), and kept telling him that he should make sure of these things before taking people on a tour. So here we were in a massive cave with lights that we had already seen go off once before with a guy who had a flashlight that did not work. Yes!

We continued on to the mud bath, which would have been cool to try but again, mud means water which means plague. Lots of foreigners go in there, but I did not have my bathing suit with me so I passed. The weird thing was that next to the mud bath was a little computer station with a 10' x 10' tent around it. These two Chinese guys were looking at photos of people in the mud bath on the computer. I guess they take photos of people and put them on this computer. How random! A computer in the middle of the caves!

At this point Lieke had been looking at the map of the caves and noticed that we had taken a bit of a detour and had missed some scenic spots in the cave, mainly the "natural salt." An argument began between Roel and our guide in which the guide said there was no light there and Roel didn't believe him. I saw no reason in arguing because there were massive language barriers between us and the guide. The guide got a new flashlight at this point since I guess they had a spare at the mud bath computer station.

We continued on and saw some amazing formations, however we were also walking all over amazing formations which hurt my little cave-loving heart. I am used to going to Luray and the guides there telling you not to touch anything because the oils in our hands will destroy the formations and to be careful where you walk. Here we were leaning on things and walking on these amazing rice terrace looking formations. I even saw another group that was climbing all over these formations to get their photos taken. I was inspired to learn about cave preservation or something and come to China and teach them how to protect their caves. Of course this thought lasted a matter of minutes.

Once we hit the end we had to turn around and go back. The entire time we had been going through the cave Roel gave the guide a hard time about not taking us to the natural salt. The guide said he would take us there on the way back and that he did. We walked to this part where there was a sign "Do not Enter" or something similar (it was in Chinese). He could not explain this to us before because he didn't know how. So after all this time having to listen to Roel say that they wanted to see the natural salt, he said, "Well if it's dangerous then we should not go in there." I almost said, no way, you wanted to go in, we are going in. So the guide told us he would take us but we had to be quiet because it is not open to the public. He took out his flashlight and guided us in. It was like real spelunking! We saw the natural salt, which isn't actually salt, it just looks like it. It was ok, but not worth listening to bickering during the whole tour.

We left the caves the same way we came in and then took the same bumpy drive back. I talked some more with Roel and Lieke and turns out Roel has been to 48 countries and Lieke has been to 24! I assumed they must have inherited a lot of money to travel around, and maybe they did, but he is a teacher and she is a bookkeeper, and they just save up and then go places for a couple months at a time. It was really inspirational. I would love to do that. They also were going on about how amazing Antarctica was and how it was their favorite place and I should save up for five years and get a cheap ticket last minute (cheap not being that cheap, but still). So I got their information and they gave me some contacts, so I am really looking forward to adventures in Antarctica!

I got out of the van at the same place I picked it up and then had to find a ride back to Yangshuo. Roel and Lieke had biked there, so I couldn't catch a ride with them and it was a bit far to walk. I could have done it, but I did not put sunblock on that day and it would have been at least a two hour walk in the sun.

I walked to this area where I was told there were buses. I saw one and asked, in my very broken Chinese, if it was going to Yangshuo. The guy laughed and said no. After wandering around aimlessly I saw a van and asked again. The guy said no so I just stood there waiting for something, anything. Then I saw some of the guys from that van talking but I could not make any of it out other than that they were pointing at me and saying "Yangshuo." Eventually one of them came over to me and motioned me to the van and said "Yangshuo." I got in and assumed that they were not going to sell me to white slavery. The van stopped at the top of this street I did not know and they pointed and said "Yangshuo." So I got out, said thanks and started walking. I had no clue where I was but eventually came across a street I knew from riding our bikes the first day. Woohoo!

I met back up with Alex and Mike as Carrie had just left for the airport. For dinner we tried this restaurant that had good reviews and looked like it was a bit nicer than other restaurants in the area. When we asked if they had a table on the second level, the waitress said "Of course." Again, I wish I had videotaped her expression and how she said it. It was like her nose flared and she exhaled as she said it. We thought it was hilarious and had to hold back from bursting into laughter right in front of her. Although the restaurant was nice, it was a little odd. We ordered "chips and salsa" which turned out to be fried spring roll dough cut into triangles and sweet and sour sauce with little bits of tomato in it. Alex ordered some vegetarian tofu dish that had bits of meat in it (it's hard to be veggie in China, I don't think they always get the concept). We also ordered fajitas which were really tasty however instead of a tortilla they come with crepes! Good idea if you ever want to try something different.

Yangshuo Day 2 - Hike down the Li River

On Sunday we had breakfast at a place called "The Best Coffee" but I do not recall their coffee being that amazing although they had nice presentation. We took a bus to Yangdi, a town further up the Li River, to start our hike. On the way we passed two people carrying a stick on their shoulders. Between them hanging off the stick were two long vertical baskets with a live pig in each one. It was kind of disturbing. However we now have a new phrase, whenever you feel like crap you say you feel like "a pig in a basket" (ok, not really funny, but like pig in a blanket? Get it? Lame, I know).

When we got off the bus in town, a group of really short old ladies came up to us and were trying to get us to buy their oranges and peanuts. It is amazing how persistent they are. Along the path we walked through an area with a few houses and there were two little boys sitting outside. Both were really cute except that one of them had a stick and he whipped all of us in the bum as we walked by. So we turned around and took photos of them. I get nervous about taking photos of people when they are doing their thing, but when they come after me, it's like revenge and I feel no shame. Not that I am a vengeful person, but I just don't feel so bad anymore.

There was a designated path to follow along the river however somehow we did not follow it correctly. There were spots where we were supposed to take a boat to cross the river but we missed them. This worked ok for most of the way until we found ourselves walking through a farm to a dead end at the river. Our choice was to go back or hail a boat, yep, hail a boat. We stood there for a bit until we saw a guy in a bamboo raft coming down the river. Naturally we began yelling and waving our hands and he came our way. We only wanted to cross the river because we saw the path on the other side, however he only wanted to take us down the river. Since we didn't have much of a choice at this point we took the raft. Unfortunately our combined weight was a bit much for a skinny Chinese bamboo raft operator and so we took turns helping him paddle. What fascinated me was that like in Egypt, he was using a paddle that had nearly no width. We were moving so slowly and the raft was a bit low in the water. As with the previous day we were avoiding touching the water like it was the plague. Along the way we saw a dead pig on the edge of the river. We couldn't quite figure out what had happened but it looked like it's hooves had been cut off. Bleh, but of course I took a picture. In the middle of our nice raft ride down the Li River, looking at the beautiful karst peaks and all the nature around, we hear a musical ringtone. Sure enough it was the raft operator's cellphone. He picked it up and was talking on his cellphone while guiding us down the river. Nothing is sacred.

After a while it was apparent that we could walk faster on land than he was getting us down this river, so we had him "pull over" and let us off on the other side. He told us there was a restaurant, and we were really hungry, so we checked it out. It was a bit sketchy to say the least. The menu was entirely in Chinese so Alex and Carrie just started asking if they had specific vegetables. The waitress was getting really frustrated with us and told us to go to the kitchen and pick what we wanted. We had fried rice and some eggplant dish. We were the only foreigners sitting there. The rest of the people around were locals who just stared at us. There was another old lady trying to sell us oranges and peanuts, a man wearing a suit who looked so out of place, and two children also trying to sell oranges and these massive grapefruits (not sure what they are called). We bought a couple oranges and a grapefruit from the kids and then asked if they had a knife to cut the rinds off since they were pretty tough. One of the kids pulled out nail clippers and started cutting that way and the other took out a little knife and stuck it in a fish tank to "clean" it. Bleh . . . Needless to say, I did not eat any oranges after that.

We continued walking to this part where there was a creek on one side, and trees on the other and in the middle grass and a bunch of a water buffalo. I decided to walk through the group group of water buffalo instead of go around. One buffalo took interest in me and started coming after me so I tried to briskly walk away without running. Luckily it did not find me important enough to chase after, so I continued on my way and missed the photo. We got to a point where we had to cross a small creek about 5' wide and 6" deep to get back on the right path. Normally if I was in the states I would not hesitate and would not care about getting my shoes wet, but again, you know our fear of the water. It was also rocky on both sides so it wasn't like we could just run and jump across. Another group of Chinese tourists came by and started picking up rocks and throwing them in the middle so that we could create a step. Then a local couple came with a water buffalo and offered to let us ride it across the creek. It was starting to get pretty absurd, seriously, who needs to take a buffalo across a 5' creek that is no more than 6" deep! Because it was so absurd we thought it would be fun. Carrie went first but did not know how to get on a water buffalo. So the woman and the man tried to push her up and as she was getting on the buffalo the man told her it would cost money so she wanted to get off. Then they tried talking her into paying for a photo of her on the buffalo. Luckily I got some photos of her getting onto it. Eventually enough rocks were thrown into the water that we had a step to go across. Alex did slip and her foot went into the water. Let's hope she doesn't get the plague.

After a ways, we got to the next boat crossing point. When we first started the trip we had to buy a ticket to take the boats. We were told that one ticket would be good for all of the crossings. When we got to this crossing point they told us it would cost more money. At this point we were tired and wanted to get back, so we took another boat down to the end of the hike. As we were pulling into the dock, a woman walked down these stairs holding a pole with a bird balancing on either side. She came down to the dock and just stood there waiting for us. This was obviously someone posing for photos. It kind of cheapened the experience.

After docking we had to walk a ways into town to catch a bus back to Yangshuo. Back in Yangshuo we ate at Drifter's, which is known for it's good apple crumble. Who would have thought, some place in Yangshuo has good apple crumble! Yangshuo is full of restaurants that serve both Chinese and foreign food. During our entire time there we only ate foreign food, mainly because Carrie got food poisoning from eating a Chinese eggplant dish there.

That night Alex and I got a room at the Buffalo Bar. They advertise wireless internet in all the rooms but it only seemed to work within 20 feet of the router, which was behind the bar. It was kind of nice because it forced us to get out of our rooms and we were able to eat fries while using the internet. Fantastic! The owner of the Buffalo Bar is this Australian guy named Alf. He was pretty cool and was really good to talk to get ideas on hikes and things to do in and around Yangshuo.

Yangshuo Day 1 - Arriving and Bike Ride

Our trip was off to a rough start when the water in the shower came out brown and scorching hot. This set us back about half an hour or more. We took a taxi and of course our taxi driver had a hard time understanding that we wanted to go to the airport. We got to the terminal and when we asked someone where the Air China counter was, they told us it was a ten minute walk to the next terminal so we started running with our massive backpacks. When we got to checkin, the woman told us we had five minutes to get through security and on the plane and she just smiled. We continued running, and cut to the front of Security where a very nice Chinese man stepped aside for us red-hot laowai (foreigners) to get to our flight. Both of us had bottles of water which the security guys opened and smelled, I guess to make sure it wasn't baijiu (Chinese alcohol), which further delayed us. After going through security we looked for our gate, gate 25. We saw that gate 24 was not far, so we figured we were almost there. Oh how wrong we were! For some odd reason every other gate was normal, but gate 25 was a ways off and was it's own mini terminal that was divided into sub-gates. We found the gate and got onto a bus that took us to the plane. Of course the bus did not go anywhere near the gate, instead it drove all the way around very near to the first terminal we entered. How backwards!!!

My first experience on a Chinese domestic airline was decent except for the screaming baby kicking the back of my seat for almost three hours. I turned around and gave the mother the "Control your child or I will rip off it's leg with my claws" look and that worked for about . . . fifteen minutes. The food on the flight was surprisingly ok, it was actually better than the Continental flight to Beijing. On top of that, my ears did not even pop!

When we landed in Guilin the air was so humid and warm, the complete opposite of Beijing. For about five minutes it felt good until we started sweating for no other reason than it being humid. Carrie had a driver pick us up and drive us to Yangshuo. Driving to Yangshuo was amazing, the colors were so vibrant. Some of the greens looked like they contained colors outside our viewable spectrum, it was so intense.

While driving through Guilin we saw people carrying some weird things on their bikes, the strangest and saddest to me was a man biking with crates of live chickens in the back. They were all completely squashed together.

When we arrived in Yangshuo we were met by Carrie and her cousin Mike. Mike has been living in Bangkok, so Yangshuo was a good place for us all to meet up in the middle. We brought our stuff to her room at the Buffalo Bar & Cafe and then rented bikes for $1.25 for the whole day. I don't know why but they gave me an extra cushion cover on my bike seat. Was that to protect my not so boney bum? Out of everyone, I think my bum was the least in need of extra cushioning. We followed a path that Carrie had been on earlier in the week (she had been in Yangshuo for over a week before we arrived) and got to see some really pretty farms and amazing scenery.

While biking through the farms, we came across some people selling oranges and bought a few. This woman was carrying oranges and had a baby on her back and all four of us were taking loads of photos of her. I felt a bit weird because I don't much like invading peoples' spaces and taking photos if they are unwilling, but she seemed cool with it.

We kept riding on and came upon a little town with some really nice old Chinese architecture. We stopped for a break and this woman with silver teeth kept hassling us to look at her menu. After walking around a bit we went in and had some snacks. The food was surprisingly good and the view was really lovely. The day was how I had imagined Yangshuo, cloudy, misty and surreal. We sat around for a while before we decided to leave. It was getting to the point where if we kept riding our bikes we would not make it back before dark, so we decided to catch a boat down the river back to Yangshuo. This proved to be harder than we had anticipated. When we went down to the dock there were two boats. One was reserved for a group of over 10 Chinese tourists and their bikes and another was reserved for a couple who did not have any bikes. We asked the couple because there was tons of space on their boat. The guy was really sneaky and acted like he would help us and then their boat started leaving and they just told us no. So we went to the Chinese group and they were really cool in trying to find room for us on their boat. The boat had an indoor area where they all squished in. Apparently there was room but we decided to put our bikes on the back and stand on the back. There was barely room for the four of us with our bikes but we made it work. It was a lot of fun but we were also trying not to get wet as we all seem to think that if you touch the water in China you will get the plague.

After we got off the boat, we rode our bikes to the light show. As we got close to the ticketbooth, several women were trying to sell them to us for less. We bargained with them all the way to the ticketbooth. We discovered that their "tickets" were not really tickets. It was more of a "You pay me and I will take you to a secret place where you can watch for a third of the price and a third of the view." We thought that we could find the same place without paying them since they weren't real seats. It was getting darker and we were walking down dirt paths with our bikes and these women kept following us even though we kept telling them we did not want their tickets. After spending some 20 minutes trying to find the secret viewing spot we found a group of people walking along a path and we followed them. Eventually we got to these dirt stairs that went towards the water and then some really sketchy boards you had to walk on to get to a floating raft of benches. We were ultra paranoid that our $1.25 rented bikes would get stolen, so we lugged them the entire way up into the seats and locked them up. I wish I could have filmed the entire search for the secret spot because it was really much more involved than I can write. At this point we decided we had to pay them something because it was their "boat." So we watched the light show from behind the scenes and it was pretty cool. Maybe not worth the $22.50 they charge for it for the actual seats, but it was pretty cool.

Before the show completely finished we decided to leave. At this point it was late at night and very dark out. We somehow had to navigate our bikes back down the stairs, across the planks of wood and up the dirt stairs, through the narrow dirt path and back to the rental place.

It was 11 PM and we were tired, however we had not actually booked a hotel for the evening. We thought the Buffalo Bar would have an extra room but when we got there they had sold out. We checked some 10 other places and all were booked. Eventually we found the Magnolia which is a step above most of the hotels. We stayed there for a decent price since we arrived so late.

Quick wrap up of week before Yangshuo

The other week I was trying to plan Kurt's visit to China. He is coming for 12 days, woohoo, so we are going to go to Kunming, Shanghai and then back to Beijing! I used this website to buy our flights. First off, they have flights online for around $95 one way which I guess is good. I was pretty psyched and tried to book it but the website said it was sold out. Why put a flight online that is sold out? I found another flight that was more expensive and booked it. A woman called me to confirm it and I told her I needed to book another flight. She said she could do it so we started talking and she found a flight for around $95 again. I was super excited until she said that it wasn't really available and here comes my favorite line: "Maybe they put a cheaper price to attract you, but it is not the real price." What the hell?!?! This has become a trend here when communicating with Chinese people. When talking to someone about a service you normally expect yes or no definitive answers. Here you get a lot of "I think maybes" and those drive me nuts. I don't want an "I think maybe" when I am asking if I have a seat on a plane.

The other week I also went to a concert at the Bookworm (a cool cafe/library) with Empi and Mikael. It was really interesting. The group consisted of two Mongolians and one Kazak. One of the Mongolians did amazing throat singing. He was pretty funny too. This may be one of those "you had to be there" moments, but I will tell you anyway. None of the members in the band seemed to speak English as everytime they spoke it was in Chinese, to an English speaking audience, so it was translated. Throughout the concert they would tell little stories about each song and why it was important. The last song was a catchy throat singing song and out of nowhere during the chorus, the main guy says, "Everybody!" So everyone starts singing the chorus. Mind you people spend years training their voices to sound like this, so here is this guy who is amazing at throat singing telling all of us foreigners to sing along. It was pretty funny, guess you had to be there.

Yangshuo Greetings

I am back from Yangshuo and had an amazing time. I went biking and hiking. I went rock climbing for the first time ever and although it totally kicked my bum, I loved it and hope to continue doing it. Also saw some pretty sweet water caves! Anyway, it is after midnight and I am really tired as I barely slept on the 23 hour train back to Beijing.

Tomorrow I will be spending all day updating photos and this blog, woohoo! Some photos are already online however around 15 of them got screwy, so I may have to redo that album.