Saturday, June 7, 2008

Heading out of Yangshuo

Note: I love watermelon juice! Why don't we have this in the states? Or have I been missing it?

The today and yesterday weren't quite as eventful as our first day here.

Yesterday we took Alan up on his offer to take us down the big Li river... it wasn't half as spectacular. Beautiful, don't get me wrong... but not quite as majestic, even though it is bigger. To Alan's credit, he did warn us of that.

It was a bumpy bus ride up to the bamboo raft (yes another bamboo raft... only this one was fancy with a propeller attached to a lawn mower motor). We rafted down the river with Alan pointing out all the peaks. It's funny because they're very into naming things after animals and what they're shaped like. Lion Riding Carp hill, Yellow Cloth in Water, Apple, Grandfather Watching Apple, etc.

Then it started to rain. A lot. Again. :) My umbrella broke so that was fun.

We had a yummy lunch of the most delicious fried vegetables I've ever had. They had a cousin to the bamboo shoot in there, so yum. We also had the local specialty which is called beer fish.

We were in the oldes village around, with many of the buildings nearly 2,000 years old. The only problem was we felt a bit rushed and didn't get to explore and take as many pictures as we'd have liked to; Alan had picked up a couple of Chinese tourists that spoke Cantonese and they were tagging along. I'm not sure how I felt about that.

Then it rained some more and another bus ride later we were back in town. Alan asked for even more money to take us to his house the next day... we declined.

The good news is, we had the hotel staff wash and dry our laundry instead of handwashing it ourselves... how lovely to have fresh clothes again! We only packed enough for 4-5 days (one small backpack and messenger bag each) because we wanted to pack super light. We haven't had to check a single bag! It's been nice.

Alan found us this morning anyway and we had to tell him again that we didn't have any more money to spend. We said our goodbyes and mainly wandered around the couple of parks here and around the town and market. It was good to see the town, but now we're hot, tired and sweaty! Yum yum. We're having a cold drink right now, then we'll wander some more until it's time to catch our bus back to Shenzhen (and subsequently Hong Kong).

Apparently, there's an ongoing commentary by the staff about how fast I'm typing. They look at me wide eyed (according to Jim), point, and talk to each other. Apparently I'm quite the spectacle!

I'm starting to hit the point where I'm just about ready to come home again. Of course I love exploring, I just really miss the dry climate and being able to not feel like a sweaty pig some times, you know? I'm also missing... how shall we say... nice standards for restroom facilities.

Love and miss you all!

4 comments:

Chris Bennett said...

We can't wait for you guys to get here! We do have nice standards for restroom facilities. And a washing machine.

Anonymous said...

ah my little traveler. missing you as well and looking forward to my hugs. Love you both..da mama

Anonymous said...

I too know what you mean about restroom facilities. Julie is learning so much from your travels and her own. Thanks so much for sharing your adventures with all of us. Continue to have fun together and take everything in.

Wendy & Julie Wilson

Carrie said...

Ooh, I remember the toilets in China. They were absolutely revolting. No toilet paper, and if you looked at them cross-eyed, you'd get a communicable disease. I'm looking forward to you guys coming back!