Day1:
We arrived in Guilin at half past midnight. The flood of people from our flight were the only souls in the airport at this hour. We made it to the exit where the vultures lined up to take passengers to their final destinations.
Alicia booked a hostel which we thought was in Guilin, but was in Yangshuo, which wasn't our destination until the following afternoon. We called other hostels listed in our guide book with no luck. Finally, we chose one that hadn't connected through the phone so we decided to just take the cab to it with our fingers crossed. We pull up to the hostel and realized the number didn't work because the place was shut down.Our cab driver offers to take us to another place that "takes foreigners." She speaks zero English so Alicia was able to see how well her Chinese lessons had paid off while I just respond with "dui" and "xie xie" every thirtieth word or so.
The next place wants 120RMB each. In China you can pay 30RMB for a bed. We are on a strict budget, so even though it's 1:25 a.m., this place is not an option.
At this point the cabbie is our friend. We've both told her "wǒ ài nǐ" ("I love you"), as she drives us through Guilin in search of a bed. She laughs at us in this adorable cackle of a voice. She then makes a call and tells us she can get us a room for 60 each and we feel we have no other option at 2:00 a.m. since we need to wake up in four hours. So she takes us, walks us in, gets the key and shows us the room. We pay the hotel then her. They gave us a set price from the airport to the city and after all the driving around she didn't ask for more than that price. Don't worry, we minded our manners and gave a tip. We took a photo with her then went upstairs to our room and passed out within five minutes of hitting the pillow.
Four hours later:
When the alarms sounded, in unison, at 6:00 a.m., Alicia said, I don't want to move. I said ok and an hour and a half later I hear, "It's so late." I asked what time and heard, "11:40." What she'd said was, "7:40."
We jumped up, rearranged everything back into our backpacks, brushed our teeth and layered up to weather the day. We spent the next half hour asking where the bus station was and being pointed in multiple directions.
Finally, a fellow foreigner is in view and I ask him if he can help. His Chinese girlfriend was more than happy to have us repeat "bus to Yangdi," in Chinese a dozen times. She sent us on our way saying, "ask people if you can't find it."
We jumped up, rearranged everything back into our backpacks, brushed our teeth and layered up to weather the day. We spent the next half hour asking where the bus station was and being pointed in multiple directions.
Finally, a fellow foreigner is in view and I ask him if he can help. His Chinese girlfriend was more than happy to have us repeat "bus to Yangdi," in Chinese a dozen times. She sent us on our way saying, "ask people if you can't find it."
Five minutes later, a hustler lady stops us and we communicate with her about getting to the bus. She says 20 each and we agree because that's how much the bus costs. The whole time we think she's taking us by cab but soon we're walking five more minutes and I'm thinking, "where the hell did this lady park her cab?" It turns out she was just walking us to the bus station where she put us on the bus like a mother sending her kids to their first day of school. Except we had to pay this mother 20RMB, ha.
Ten minutes later the bus is rolling. Fifteen minutes later I'm drooling against my backpack that I've turned into a pillow. Thirty-five minutes after that I wake up to a bus full of Chinese people hoping we're headed in the right direction.
As the only two foreigners on the bus we are enjoying the scenery as we here "hello" shouted and everyone turns to us to let us know this is our stop: Yangdi.
From here there are people waiting to recruit us onto their bus that will take us to the river where we will begin walking toward Xingpin, where we hope to stay in a village if we can make it there by nightfall.
Also, it's raining and I'm in search of a poncho. The bus stopped and as soon as the door opened hagglers were shoving ponchos and flower halos in our faces. I bought one and we spent the next 15 minutes haggling for a ferry to cross the river. Guilin is famous for taking the bamboo boats down the Li River from village to village. Alicia and I wanted to hike from Yangdi to Xingpin, but no one would let us simply ferry across the river to walk. With the rain coming down and because we had a late start we caved and got a bamboo boat with a young Chinese couple on holiday from Beijing.
Ten minutes later the bus is rolling. Fifteen minutes later I'm drooling against my backpack that I've turned into a pillow. Thirty-five minutes after that I wake up to a bus full of Chinese people hoping we're headed in the right direction.
As the only two foreigners on the bus we are enjoying the scenery as we here "hello" shouted and everyone turns to us to let us know this is our stop: Yangdi.
From here there are people waiting to recruit us onto their bus that will take us to the river where we will begin walking toward Xingpin, where we hope to stay in a village if we can make it there by nightfall.
Also, it's raining and I'm in search of a poncho. The bus stopped and as soon as the door opened hagglers were shoving ponchos and flower halos in our faces. I bought one and we spent the next 15 minutes haggling for a ferry to cross the river. Guilin is famous for taking the bamboo boats down the Li River from village to village. Alicia and I wanted to hike from Yangdi to Xingpin, but no one would let us simply ferry across the river to walk. With the rain coming down and because we had a late start we caved and got a bamboo boat with a young Chinese couple on holiday from Beijing.
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| Bamboos |
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| Alicia and Daisy; weathering the rain |
Language isn't necessary to communicate when you're on adventures. The natural beauty surrounding us in all directions, including down, since we're floating down the Li River, speaks louder than words. The smiles on faces, fingers pointing left then right, then back left, while eyes filled with awe and wonder is plenty of understanding.
Throughout the boat ride we pass endless mountains and the day is eerily foggy and the rain continues to fall in a light drizzle. We see many famous hills along the way: Pen Holder Peak, Liyuguabi Hill, Boys Bow to Kwan-yin Hill and Nine Horse Mural Hill.
Nine horse Mural Hill is incredible and we spend a solid 10 minutes trying to find at least one of the horses, while Daisy, the Chinese girl with us, says she sees seven. We take photos and load back on the bamboo boat. We still have a half hour ride in the rain until we reach Xingpin.
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| Group selfie on the bamboo boat |
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| Nine Horse Mural Hill |
Once in Xingpin, we located the replica scenery from the 20 yuan bill. A cliche foreigner act, but hey, I am a foreigner! We left the bamboo boat and headed toward the village: Xingping Ancient Town.
The things seen can only be believed if you see the pictures. We are literally in a picturesque village somewhere off the map in the south of China. Granted it's a well-known tourist spot, we're here in the off season and the amount of foreigners there, including Alicia and I, was two.
We walk along a brick wall with shards of glass sticking out on the top, which I assume is to keep off the pigeons, like the spikes used in big cities. To my surprise inside the brick wall was a school- a bit extreme for my taste. We passed a woman hoeing a garden of various things I couldn't identify.
The things seen can only be believed if you see the pictures. We are literally in a picturesque village somewhere off the map in the south of China. Granted it's a well-known tourist spot, we're here in the off season and the amount of foreigners there, including Alicia and I, was two.
We walk along a brick wall with shards of glass sticking out on the top, which I assume is to keep off the pigeons, like the spikes used in big cities. To my surprise inside the brick wall was a school- a bit extreme for my taste. We passed a woman hoeing a garden of various things I couldn't identify.
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| It was really hard to capture the whole view while holding the 20 and the camera. :) |
If I never hear "bamboo" again I'll be happy. The river life must be hard. Like all places known for tourism, locals know who to target and many can be stubborn as mules on their prices. Many Chinese assume if you're a foreigner you have a lot of money so they name outrageous prices. You really have to know how to haggle in this country because in certain situations you can just become stuck. you should also always research the prices so you have a knowledge and don't just pay ridiculous fairs. Know a bit of Chinese to communicate. It pays to not be completely ignorant here.
First, our trusty Chinese couple from the bamboo boat guided us to the bus station so we would know where to go later. We wished them safe travels and we parted ways and found some lunch. Lunch was incredible, and I was so hungry I even ate my vegetables. We had three hours to catch the bus after lunch and we wanted to find the fisherman's village. This is a top attraction where you can catch the locals using Cormorants (a type of bird) to fish from the river. This is actually common in most of the villages and towns throughout the southern Chinese provinces.
We walked according to the map as best we could but hit a dead end. When we turned around we stopped for some Chinese sweets that is similar to peanut brittle, and I don't know the English name for it. The man selling it spoke impeccable English which was a miracle given where we were. He informed us, to our dismay, that it was a two-hour hike. This meant we couldn't make it there and back in time for our bus in three hours. We thanked him and decided to make our way to the bus stop and leave earlier. We perused through the dozens of bodegas with handcrafted jewelry, jade sculptures and other trinkets.
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| Making scarves |
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| You can ALWAYS find locals playing poker or Mahjong |
We were approaching the bus stop as the bus was leaving so we jumped on and were now bound to Yangshuo This was an hour bus ride through the mountains to the next town of civilization.
Pulling in, Yangshuo was much larger than Xingpin, but was more incredible than we imagined. As the sun began to set, more and more neon lights light the path of the main road from their signs. When night came, lights shown on the mountains in the distance.
The mountains here are so incredible in shape and structure that they look photoshopped into reality. They look like movie props and we're just walking through a city designed by a Hollywood set crew. It's completely
indescribable and myself, through words, and pictures, captured through lenses, could never bring the right feel of this town's beauty.
We sat on the rooftop bar having a cocktail staring at the mountains in the moonlight. The mountains are yards in front of us just beyond a row of buildings. They almost serve as a wall for the city that's in its valley because no signs of life or another world appear to exist beyond the mountain except for silhouettes of more mountains.
Pulling in, Yangshuo was much larger than Xingpin, but was more incredible than we imagined. As the sun began to set, more and more neon lights light the path of the main road from their signs. When night came, lights shown on the mountains in the distance.
The mountains here are so incredible in shape and structure that they look photoshopped into reality. They look like movie props and we're just walking through a city designed by a Hollywood set crew. It's completely
indescribable and myself, through words, and pictures, captured through lenses, could never bring the right feel of this town's beauty.
We sat on the rooftop bar having a cocktail staring at the mountains in the moonlight. The mountains are yards in front of us just beyond a row of buildings. They almost serve as a wall for the city that's in its valley because no signs of life or another world appear to exist beyond the mountain except for silhouettes of more mountains.
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