Month: June 2008

Yangshuo

Expected people to join us in the cabin, but it ended up just being Natalia and I for the entire trip (other than visits by Peter, who was stuck with all Chinese).  After a noodle breakfast, we arrived in Guilin – and waited in line for about an hour for Natalia to book her ticket to Shanghai for a few days from now.   Peter is staying in Guilin, so we say goodbye to him.

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Natalia and I grab a bus to Yangshuo, which seems to leave every ten minutes or so.  It takes about an hour, and I manage to nod off – even though I didn’t think I was so tired.  There’s a guy in the aisle next to me, whose dandruff keeps getting on my shorts.  Lovely.  When he leaves, a new guy sits down and asks where I am heading.  He asks where we’re staying in Yangshuo, and tells me that he actually works at the hostel we plan on going to.  I don’t believe him for a second, but we decide to check out his hostel instead.

It’s decent, and relatively cheap, with a nice location, so we figure we’ll spend at least a couple of nights there.  I’m planning on staying in town for a while, so the nicer the better, but this will do.

We head into the busy area of downtown, and grab some lunch (pizza), which is pretty tasty.  I book my onward journey ticket, managing to get the price down from 250 yuan to 160.

After wandering the town for a bit, we watch the news back at the hostel, which plays the same China Tourism commercial over and over.  Nice looking country.

We grab some dinner next.  Beer fish – and the Americans at the table next to us encourage the restaurant owner to break out his musical instrument (I forget the name), and he plays us some music.  After dinner, I buy some sunglasses that I doubt I’d ever really wear at home, but think I’m growing fond of.  The girl who sells them to us speaks excellent english, so I ask her about the supposed festival taking place over the weekend.  She tells me they eat something called zongzhe, but doesn’t know the english term for it so she tells me to come back in the morning and she’ll bring me some.

Beer For Breakfast

The bus arrived in Kunming early, but we sat in the bus for a long time – I guess allowing us to sleep a little longer. No complaints from me. At 6am, they roused us, and we grabbed our bags. Thankfully we were right by the train station, so Natalia and I booked our train ticket to Guilin (or Natalia booked it, as she can manage a few words in Chinese). We had said goodbye to the others, but as it turned out, we had a day to kill before our train, so we met with them at the Hump guesthouse.

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Had a shower at the guesthouse, on the sly, then met up with a guy named Glen who had just arrived from America. He joined us for breakfast. At one point he asked if we wanted a beer, and we reminded him it was not quite 8am in the morning. He was still on U.S time, so it seemed perfectly normal to him, but he opted for a coke instead.

After breakfast, Glen, myself, and Natalia headed to the lake in Kunming, to relax and to check out the bird and flower market en route. Did some reading in the park, then headed to the University area, to meet up with Craig, Jonas, and Kathy at Salvador’s Cafe for lunch.

Shopped around the University area for a bit, after that. Some arty shops and the like, that were fun to check out. After shopping we figured we better get our bags, and head to the train. At the Hump, we ran into a friend of Natalia’s – Peter from Denmark, who was also going to Guilin, so we shared a cab to the train station.

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Checked in at the train station, and then boarded the train. We find out it’s a 16 hour journey, not the 10 we were expecting, so we settle down for the long haul.

Banana For People

We were all up early, so we could get a head start on the last little bit of the trek.  The french fries we’d had for dinner were so good that we ordered two more for breakfast.  After everyone was finally up, we got underway.  More of the same on the trek, but with a few more goats and some waterfalls.  Waterfalls running right over the the trail.

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Our destination was Tina’s guesthouse, so we stopped there for a drink.  A few people were planning on spending a night, but I was staying behind.  Sadly everyone in my group was heading on, so I said goodbye, and had to wait around Tina’s for Craig, Jonas, Kathy, Roriku, and the Kims.  They showed up about an hour later, and wanted to eat, so we did that, then made our way back to Jane’s guesthouse to collect some bags.

The bus back to Lijiang broke down a couple of times in the onset, but after the driver fiddled with a few things, we seemed good to go, and were able to eventually make it back to Mama Naxi’s guesthouse.  Wandered around downtown for a bit, and ran into some of the Koreans who hadn’t gone onto the gorge with us.  We said our goodbyes to them, then headed back to the guesthouse.  Kathy, Jonas, Craig and I booked our bus.  Mama Naxi gave us a bag with some bananas and exclaimed “Banana four people”, which we immediately decided ought to be “Banana For People”, which seemed like a good Communist propaganda slogan.  Natalia, a Russian girl living in Ghana, was also heading to Kunming on the bus, so the 5 of us headed to the bus station together.

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Sleeping on the bus is pretty much second nature now – and I was lucky enough to have two beds, so it was pretty roomy too.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

I order porridge for breakfast, but end up with muesli.  It’s pretty tasty, so I don’t complain.  There are about 15 of us heading to Tiger Leaping Gorge to do an overnight trek, so we take up 3 vans and make our way there.  The buses stop to make one stop, which has a pretty scenic view, so we take some photos, then continue to the gorge.

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Several of us are leaving bags at the first guesthouse we come across, which is called Jane’s, and run by a ladyboy.  We decide to eat lunch there too – but it takes forever.  Finally, with everyone sorted, we head out towards the gorge.  In tow are Kim and Kim, from Korea; Ruriko from Japan; Anna and Anna from Holland; Aidan, Alan, and Wolfy from Ireland; Daniel, a fellow Canadian; Jonas from Finland; Kathy from England; and Craig from England, but living in China.  Not content to wait for lunch, the Dutch girls had set out before us, but eventually we run into them at the Naxi Family lounge – part way up the 900 metre ascent (we’ll eventually be at 2650 metre elevation).

We branch off into different groups, and I seem to be a part of all of them at some point.  The Korean, Japanese group is going a little slow, so I move up with Craig and Jonas, and then eventually we catch up with the others.  We stop several times along the way to relax and enjoy the view.  Our destination is Halfway House (which is really 3/4 of the way House) and we make it there eventually.  The guesthouse advertises scenic bathroom views, and they’re not kidding.  Quite nice.  We all shower, then grab some food and drinks and stare out at the gorge.  Quite a lovely view, and the price is good – with only Alan, Wolfy and myself in a dorm room for 20 yuan (less than $3).

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Narrow Lanes

Up early, and figure the others will be in bed for a while, so I go grab some breakfast and mess around on the internet.  When I finish, the women running the cafe suggests I check out the market.  She points it out on a map, but Lijiang is a mess of small narrow streets, so I’m not sure I’ll find it.  “Just follow the women with the baskets on their backs.” She tells me, so I figure I’ll give that a try.

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I find the market eventually, but after going way out of my way at one point.  Had I made a left at one point, I’d have found it much easier.  When I do find it, it’s quite big and bustling with people, and I’m not sure how I managed to miss it.  Must have been a lull.

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After the market, which I just walk around in, since it’s mostly fruit and vegetables, I follow a bunch of Chinese tourists, who seem to be heading towards something.  A lot of the young girls are dressed up, so I’m under the impression some sort of event is going on, but maybe people just dress up on Sundays.

The herd leads me to Black Dragon Pond park, which used to cost 80 yuan ($9) to enter (park/sight prices are outrageous in China – at least in comparison to a 30 yuan ($4) room).  Nice park, but nothing terribly outstanding.  I meet a Chinese girl who seems to work at the park, although I am not sure what exactly she does.  Her name is Fei, and she’s pretty depressing – but wants to practice her English (which isn’t too bad already), so I listen in.

After the park I try and find my way back to the guesthouse, running into a British woman, Kathy, at one point.  She’s at the same hostel, but a different building, so following her is useless.  I find my actual guesthouse soon after, and run into the Irish boys, and a few others who have arrived from Dali.  They’re all going biking, but the weather looks like it’ll turn to rain at any moment, so I pass.

After another great dinner, I help Stephanie with her hard drive, which doesn’t seem to be working anymore.  It’s a little difficult to accomplish much on the computers, which are all in Chinese.  I tell her everything should be okay, and to try another computer, so we’ll see what happens.  Alan, Wolfy and I head out to see if we can buy some pants (I still haven’t gotten a pair since I had mine stolen).  I don’t find anything worth buying, but the other two do.  We buy some snacks for the gorge trip in the morning, and since it is pouring rain, figure we may as well sleep so we’re rested for the trek in the morning.