Yangshou
Trip Start
Nov 03, 2005
1
9
37
Trip End
Apr 04, 2006
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Yangshou, China
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Finally arrived in Yangshou and what a gem of a place this is as there is loads of Western food. I know this isn't really the point of travelling but there comes a time after eating loads of rice and noodles that you kind of need a burger or a pizza or something familia. Anyway the best cure for a hangover is a fry up and it took about 5 mins from arriving at the hotel for all of us to be sitting down to bacon and eggs, sweet.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around and taking in the amazing scenery. The place is surrounded by hundreds of limestone karsts and while being quite touristy it is also very relaxing and there's no better way than beside a river with a cold beer.
Managed some good haggling over a rucksack after I'd dragged Gini round nearly every bag shop in the town, we also got Gini a Ralph Lauren hooded top but some how I doubt it's legit. I must also add that I give the vendors in the town 10/10 for effort to and make us buy some tat, luckily no room in bags so can't buy anymore rubbish.
Day 2
Today was my favourite day so far on the trip as went all hired Mountain bikes and went for a days ride through the countryside. Fantastic scenery as you can see from the pictures.
The day wasn't quite as uneventful as we thought it would be, I thought that the drivers would be really skillful and used to driving in rough conditions, oh no...
Lou (Anne-Marie's mum) didn't want to ride so they hired a minibus to take her and meet us everynow and again, or so I thought, so I was quite surprised to see the van following the bikes down some quite narrow lanes. Ok I thought they know where they can go, the path then changed into a footpath and still the van kept coming, the driver did very well until he stuck on a 90 degree turn with a 5 foot drop into a field on one side and a pond on the other. Not sure how he managed it but he was centimeters from toppling over into the pond. The only way out of this mess was for all the lads to drag the minibus round the corner which we successfully managed.
We got him free agaion after a lot of heaving and partly pulling his flimsy bumper off (he'll know for next time).
We then carried on to Farmer Tang's for lunch where his wife put on a good spread for us. We had to pump the water in the back yard where he kept his pigs to wash our hands. Strangely after lunch Gini's tyre had gone flat (mmmh???) and it was the valve that had mysteriously broken so that it couldn't be pumped up again (mmmh????) Gini denied all knowledge but the jury is still out. What we do know is that Gini got a ride back to town in the minibus with her broken bike while we had to carry on.
I'd forgotten how uncomfortable bike seats can be but by the afternoon my backside soon remembered as we cycled to Moon Hill. We had the choice at the bottom whether to climb it or not, everyone except the over-keen Americans decided to not bother but since they just had to climb it Tian (our tour leader) had to wait for an hour for them (not very impressed), while half waited in the car park cafe, the rest of us headed back to town as I thought it was better to get back for a beer than attempt to ride back after several in the sun. Took 2 days for the feeling to come back to my backside.
Day 3
Had the first signs of the cold that everyone else in the group has had and spent day blowing nose and getting stuff together before we caught over night train to Hong Kong.
I decided that the best way to get over my cold would be to sit up playing cards and drinking the best beer we'd found so far, so after promising girls we'd be back to our beds soon (lights out on train at 10.30pm) I taught the other 3 Keith's card game (can't remember name but we used to play it in Streatham all the time and Keith taught it us so hence Keiths's game) and we sat there till 4am. We all felt very rough the next day but my cold disappeared so it obviously works.
