Can you believe it has already been 4 months? I sure can't! This last weekend the girls and I headed out on our last vacation together. We decided to go to Yangshuo, which is a pretty iconic place here in China. Yangshuo is known for bamboo river boats, biking through the countryside, and of course the rice terraces.
Thursday afternoon we had our last final performance with our 2nd graders, and right after we headed to the train station. Caley's brother, Noah, joined us on this vacation, so we had 7 people on this vacation, instead of our normal 6. Luckily, our train ride for this vacation wasn't nearly as long as all of the other trains I've taken in China. The train to Guilin was only about 2 hours and from there we took a car another 2 hours to our hostel. We got to our hostel pretty late on Thursday night. We were all split up into double rooms because the hostel had messed up our reservation and wouldn't have a big enough room for us until Friday night. So, of course, Cassie and I shared a room. We decided to wake up early on Friday morning to get a good start on the day, but when we woke up at 7 it was pouring rain. So, we decided to sleep in a little longer. It didn't stop pouring until about 9, so that's when we decided to get up and head to the main part of the town known as, West Street. West Street is this long street lined with tour groups, side shops, street food, restuarants, bikes, mopeds, and so many other things. On Friday morning we stopped at a little food cart and got some food for breakfast. After that we found a tour guide to take us around on bikes. Turns out we got the same tour guide Caley had the first time she was in China. Her name was Esther, and she was so happy and fun to have as a guide. So, all day Friday we took a bike tour with her. First, we biked through some of the country side in Guilin/Yangshuo until we got to the river. There we took the bamboo boat rides.
Cassie and I had the best Bamboo raft-driver. Every time one of us posed to take a picture he would yell: "Yi, Er, San!" (which is 1, 2, 3) and then he would hit the water with his pole to splash us with water! He made the ride so fun and he was happy and laughing the whole time! He even let us try to steer the boat.
After the bamboo boats, we did some more biking through the country side and then lunch at a delicious cafe!
Noah taking a shower in the rain outside of the cafe we were eating at.
We got to a part on the trail that was covered in mud, and the bikes we were riding were definitely not equipped to make it through. We were all slipping and sliding around and trying not to fall down. Eventually we just had to get off and drag our bikes through. We were all covered in mud by the time we got off the trail. Good thing we were heading to the mud caves next!
When in China, right?
And then, more wandering through the country side.
We ended off the day by biking back to West Street and wandering around for a while. There are so many fun and interesting things here in China, that wandering has become one of my favorite things. Cassie and I found a whole strip of restaurants that were owned by white guys, so we decided to stop and try out the "American" food. It was actually pretty good and it was fun to sit down and people watch for a while. You never quite know what is going to happen or what you are going to see. For example: this old man dancing on top of 2 stools, in the middle of a very crowded street, trying to sell us t-shirts. Oh, China!
Saturday: We got up and headed back to West Street. On our way over there we noticed that there was a lot of black smoke that looked very out of place. Turns out there was a big electrical fire going on.
We stopped for a while to see what was going on, but then we continued on the West Street. (Later we found out that nobody was hurt because of how early it was, there were not a lot of people in the buildings that were effected.) We wanted to take mopeds and we wanted to try to get Esther again. By the time we got over there, Esther was already on another tour with a different group, but her brother was there and he was happy to take us. We got to drive through some pretty amazing and beautiful mountains.
A little later in the afternoon we hiked to the top of a small mountain to see a incredible view. And then we rode a ferry across the river to see the picture that is printed on the 20 yuan.
Cassie and I stink at taking pictures. Every time we tried to snap one, one of us wasn't cooperating.
Annie also got to take this awesome picture with these weird looking birds, just chilling on a stick.
Then more mopeding through the mountains:
Sunday, we did some more biking, Caley did some rock climbing, we took Sunday afternoon naps, and explored YangShuo some more.
In YangShuo they have these drums everywhere. I've been dying to try one since we got to YangShuo, but I was to nervous to ask. On Sunday night we found this really nice Australian guy who let me play his drum and even taught me how to. It was a lot of fun.
Monday morning Noah and Caley left because Noah had to teach Tuesday morning and the train that the rest of us where taking wouldn't allow him to get back in time to teach. The rest of us headed off to the rice terraces for the day. The rice terraces were about a 3 1/2 hour drive from where we were staying, so we started our day off early. The tour guide that we had would occassionally stop the car, pull over, and buy a super fresh watermelon and start cutting it up for us. I will probably never in my life eat a watermelon as fresh as the ones here in China.
We got to eat lunch inside a ladies house. She cooked fresh mountain food for us, right there. My favorite were probably the little fishies you eat whole. I've come a long way with my food habits here in China.
Then we were off to explore the rice terraces some more.
Meat that has been smoking for a REALLY long time.
We headed back to YangShuo and finished any last minute shopping we wanted to do. We also stopped for one last mango smoothie at Mango Mango, which we had become obsessed with over the weekend. China has spoiled me in the terms of delicious mango's.
Then, on Tuesday morning we had to get up very early to ride in a car for 2 hours back to the train station and then catch our 2 hour train back to our city. We got back home and then had to get ready to teach. Today is our last day of teaching, tomorrow we have our last party with the kids, and on Friday some of the girls leave to go to Hong Kong early and Kim and I will be leaving on Monday morning to get to the Hong Kong airport. China has been an amazing experience. I couldn't have asked to be in a better group of girls. they have influenced me so much, for the better, and we have all become incredible friends. I'm so thankful that I was able to come here and grow and change in ways that would have never happened without China!
No comments:
Post a Comment