Finally a post from my weekend in Yangshou!! For those of you who don't know, the school I teach at is nice enough to give us some vacation days throughout the semester :) We have a long weekend each month and then in October is our long vacation. The first week in October is the National Holiday for everyone in China so I will have the 1st-7th off in which we will be going to Bejing, Xi'an, all that good stuff so before you start demanding why I didn't go to Bejing immediately for our vacation to see the Great Wall it's because we are really far away from Bejing ;) But no worries we will get there! Actually we were going to go to Hainan- an island of China a bit east and south from where we are but they just recently had a huge typhoon that did a lot of damage so we figured now is not the best time. We will probably be going to Hainan for our November long weekend (it will still be really warm there!) and we are tentatively planning on going to Shanghai for our long weekend in September. So our first vacation in August was to Yangshou! It is a small village near a bigger city called Guilin but it is a pretty popular tourist spot. Actually I had never heard of it before ILP when they recommended we visit. But it is definitely a MUST as you will see.
We left our apartment in Zhongshan around 4:00pm Thursday the 31st and got to the bus station about 5:30 in time for our 6:30 bus. We thought we were getting a sleeper bus to Yangshou since it was a long bus ride and also so that travelling wouldn't take up most of our day since it was at night. Our head coordinator bought our tickets for us- we thought it was a sleeper bus the beds. But it ended up being a normal upright seat bus. The seats were at least comfy- it felt more like being on the airplane kind of seats but we were a bit disappointed.
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| At the bus station |
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| Upright seats...no beds |
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| Sad that our bus wasn't a sleeper bus... |
The bus did stop a few times for bathroom breaks-thank goodness! But this was by far the worst bathroom I have come across. For those of you who don't know, most of the toilets here in China are squatters. I am not even going to show you a picture of one. It is actually funny when we were at the bus station me and a couple girls went to use the bathroom and one of the squatters had a little puke on it and one of the girls took one look at the bathroom and said "I can't do it" and ran out. I swear I don't know how some of those girls hold it in for so long but I just suck it up.....
ANYWAY at this one bus stop the squatters...there wasn't even separate stalls. First of all it was one big giant trench in the ground flowing of...well you know. And there were two tiny walls to separate spaces- you really had to squat pretty low for no one to see you and even then you could still see the heads at least. Yeah no privacy really....it was funny when one girl in our group was frweaking out "GUYS DONT LOOK AT MY BUTT" Haha, and I am just like its so dark I can barely even see myself! LUCKILY this experience was when it was night so it was really dark and I was a little sick so my nose was all stuffed up and I couldn't smell a thing. However I have a feeling the worst isn't over when it comes to squatters.
Which reminds me, I feel pretty brave compared to some of the other girls in my group. Not all, but some are very picky whether its the squatter bathrooms or the food. I mean I am not the most adventurous person out there, and there are some foods I refuse to eat, and I'll admit China can be pretty gross sometimes (not just squatters but trash everywhere, or at the markets or little stands outside where they sell meat and there is just raw juices everywhere and bugs). I can see now how there can be so many diseases. But I do think I am doing a pretty decent job of not wanting to go out to eat american food (Hey I think I am actually starting to sort of like rice.....!)
Anyways that was kind of a long side tangent to my story of going to Yangshou. So we got to Yangshou a lot earlier than we thought...about 8-9 hours instead of 13.which means we got there at about 3am. it was weird seeing quite a bit of people up still at that hour and eating at restaurants. So we went to look for our hostel. It took quite a bit of time since it was dark we couldn't really see a lot so we wondered around a lot, trying to ask for directions. Eventually we found an Inn that was open and just chilled in the lobby and took a short nap til daylight and then shortly after finally found out hostel. 1) the town looks so much different in the light than in the dark 2) we never would have found our hostel anyways because it was down this really really narrow sketchy looking alley that we never would have gone down at night. But in the day its perfectly fine. Our hostel is right by the main street which is jam packed with all sorts of little shops/markets. It is a pretty nice hostel where they speak english, and we are on the fifth floor which is the top floor right by the roof-and we have a wonderful view!! There are 6 beds and 5 of us and the lady was super nice and said she wouldn't put anyone else in our room so we could have it all to ourselves :) Also it was about $12 each for 2 nights which is pretty good!
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| Our hostel :) Ended up loving it! |
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| Hidden alley where our hostel was located |
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| Finally found our hostel at 6:30 am after walking around for 3 hours |
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| Beautiful view from the rooftop of our hostel/outside our window |
After we settled into our hostel and rinsed off we went to eat breakfast- we found a place right by our hostel with real breakfast! Yay! That is probably the food I miss most so far. Scrambled eggs, ham/bacon, french toast, pancakes, waffles, cereal, you name it. Breakfast is my favorite anytime of the day and its a little sad that the chinese don't usually have a concept of breakfast. Our breakfasts are usually not that different than lunches or dinners so that was nice.
afterwards we explored the shops for a bit-I really wanted to get a chinese fan (not for a souvenir) but because it is SO HOT here and those fans really work wonders especially wen standing around waiting for buses, trains, etc. So There was a lady selling some and I asked how much. She said 85 yuan! I was like NO WAY and started to walk away not even tying to bargain and she lowered to 60, I walked away again and she went down to 30, and this process continued. I told her I didn't have a lot of money and she said how much I was willing to pay, I said 15 and she went to 25, then 20, then finally 15! Which is like less than $3. Ok I probably could have done a LOT better and got it for like 5 yuan but this was my first time bargaining and I didn't really know what I was doing (and I desperately needed a fan) so hey, I am proud of myself for getting it as low as 15 from 85. I'd say that's pretty good start but for future reference....I'll be going even lower.
After that we met up with the other 6 girls from the other group and we went to the mud caves! There was a nice lady who drove us there and got us a discount-60 yuan for tickets instead of 80 so about only 10$ for the mudcaves!
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| In the van on the way to the caves! |
They were gorgeous!! Not a lot of pics to share (didn't want to risk my camera or phone) so one girl brought her camera and I will mooch off her pics. The cave was beautiful, we walked around for a while until we got to the mud caves. Kt was nice and cool, great way to escape the heat. It was fun getting down n dirty! Also a weird thing is...you float! Yes you can just lay in the mud pool and float. It was really fun and after that there was a hot spring in the cave we got to enjoy :)
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| They had pretty lights in the cave! |
Ok here's another random side tangent. So far the food in China has been moderate for me. I haven't eaten anything despicable or nasty, but it's not like my loves for italian/indian/mexican food. I mean I have eaten some pretty good food and I am excited to try it but I don't LOVE it. And rice isn't too bad. I have eaten a lot of rice. And noodles/soup, pork, and veggies. But they flavor the veggies with garlic and ginger which I love so hey they are pretty good. Where we live in Zhongshan, it seems like pork is the majority of the meat we get served (or beef) Don't get me wrong I like pork and beef a lot but I almost miss having chicken sometimes . Normally I am not a big chicken fan either-what is happening to me??) Haha actually my roommate said to me the other day "I noticed you have said a lot that you normally don't like certain things but you seem to like them here." (chicken, rice, squash)
Ok back to Yangshou. After we ate yummy food we went back to our hostel and just took a little break/rest. We hadn't really gotten any sleep all night-I tried sleeping on the bus and at the Inn/hostel early in the morning but I'm not sire if I ever actually fell asleep....so for getting very little to no sleep...I had a lot of energy! I didn't even want to take a nap, I wasn't tired at all. So technically I may have pulled my first all nighter? Two of the other girls did fall asleep so I did some blogging. When Maegan woke up we decided to go back and explore the streets/shop. It gets crazy at night! It was way crowded, but I kind of like the night atmosphere with all the lights and music. I think one of my favorite parts was when two little boys came up to us and asked us our names and where we were from. At first I was a little suspicious BUT they had adults with them recording and they asked us all these questions about us that was for an English class assignment and at the end we had to sign a paper for them And of course we got a picture with them! How neat! I had a lady ask to take a picture with me and she said I was very beautiful and then a few mins later she came up again and her friend wanted a picture. Then later a boy who was probably a teenager came up to us and asked for a picture and then said "sorry I was a little nervous!" Haha. Guess he was just stunned by us two beautiful American women hehe All in all it was a fantastic day!!
It was finally nice to get some sleep! Saturday morning we slept in, ate breakfast, and then decided to go to hike Moon Hill. We ended up getting a ride from an old man on a Tuke-tuke (not sure how its spelled but that is what it is called) It was more expensive then our only 3 yuan for the van yesterday but didn't have much choice. It ended up being fun because it is all open- it is not an enclosed vehicle so we could feel the breeze and get a better view of our surroundings so it ended up being a really fun ride. Also the man gave us a *small* discount on our moon hill tickets.
The hike was a lot better than I thought! For some reason I thought we would be out in the hot sun but we were in trees the whole time- and not just in trees but surrounded by bamboo! Hiking in a real bamboo forest in ASIA! Sometimes it still blows my mind! Anyways, the hike ended up being around 800 stairs. It was pretty much just steps. That's about how many steps I climbed at the Notre Dame! It wasn't as bad as it sounds though, I was surprised that I was in the lead of our group most of the time and my legs didn't hurt that much. The view from the top was also amazing!! Yangshou is soooo beautiful. I really can't get over the "Dr.Suess" mountains, they are so unlike anything I have ever seen before.
After hiking we got lunch and took a little break. We were supposed to meet up with the other girls for bamboo rafting but we couldn't get a hold of them so we ended up just walking around and exploring some more as well as dinner. OH and fish pedicures! I can't forget that. They have these little fish pedicure places everywhere and we had been wanting to do it so we were excited when we found one. It was 20 yuan for unlimited time which is like $3!! (there were several other places with a time limit so of course we picked the unlimited for the same price. Anyways you just sit down in a chair and put your feet in a tank of fish. They come right up to your feet and start sucking all the gross nasty dead skin. It tickles! It takes a little while to get used to but it kind of feels good! And my feet were a lot better after (especially because I just feel like my feet get so gross from China. When I get home I think I'll have to burn my shoes and buy all new ones haha).
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Also another group of Chinese English students came up to us-this time a lot bigger with young kids as well as teenager age. And each student wanted to talk to us, which is great helping them practice their English (I mean I am here to teach English after all). But eventually it got to a point where we didn't have time-there were so many! As we saw more coming my head teacher Maegan shouts "Run!!" and we start booking it so they wouldn't follow us (and they had a big camera this time too).
Sunday
Our last day in Yangshou!! We planned to get up earlier for bamboo rafting but of course things don't always go as planned. So we got up and packed up and checked out of our hostel. The hostel lady was super nice and let us leave our backpacks there until the evening so we didn't have to carry them and let us use a locker for our valuables. We then went to rent bikes since that would be the best way to get to bamboo rafting. They were $15 for a bike for the entire day! Which is like $2.30. Then we headed on our bikes to the bamboo rafting! I am not really sure how long that took...but it was probably one of the scariest experiences of my life. Roads in China are SCARY- the rules are more like suggestions. I usually fear for my life every time I am in a moving vehicle here. But it was sooo beautiful biking and enjoying the view! Once we got to the bamboo rafting we took a little bus that would take us to the starting point. When we got there we ran into the other group of girls! We waited a long time until we were able to actually make it on the river though-not sure why, it was pretty busy. Finally it was time to go rafting! Only two per raft and each raft had a guide. The guides were pretty fun, they would splash us or wobble the raft and almost making it tip (but it didn't!). The whole ride was about 2 hours of gorgeous gorgeous views! Seriously, I am not sure if I will ever get over it. None of my pictures or videos will do it justice. At one point me and Maegan saw these pretty purple flowers on the side of the river, and we were saying how beautiful they were. Not sure if our Chinese guide understood or heard what we were saying but suddenly we were drifting over to the edge...the guide went over to the flowers and picked some for us! So sweet Once we got out it took a while for the others to catch up with us. One girl in our group decided to buy a coconut where they drill a hole and put a straw in it. After she was done drinking it they wanted to figure out how to open it. It took a while of banging it on a sharp rock and then cutting into it with a knife but they finally got it open to eat the flesh. I think that was my first time having straight up coconut. It definitely does not have a strong coconut flavor like most "coconut flavored" things are. Once the others joined up we got our bikes and headed back. It was a lot less scary going back but still a little nerve wracking. By then it was time for dinner, a little last minute shopping, and then back to our hostel to get our stuff and head home! This time we got a REAL sleeper train with beds!!
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| Flowers our guide picked for us! |
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| Some adults having fun with water guns! |
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| Finally a real sleeper bus! |
MORE PICTURES
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| Yup I'm a foodie. I love food and taking pictures of it. This is yogurt with watermelon canteloupe dragon fruit and oats :) |
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| watermelon juice!! |
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| Trying to cut open a coconut.... |
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| Felt so bad for these monkeys :( |
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| Coconut juice- very refreshing :) |
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| What is Forever 21 jewelry doing at a market stand in China?? |
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