Messing about by the River Li and Yu Long!
Trip Start
Oct 28, 2009
1
12
26
Trip End
May 14, 2010
Yangshuo, Guangxi Zhuang, China
Monday, November 30, 2009
We successfully pronounced our way to the airport in Shanghai and caught our flight to Guilin. The flight was great – well it was slightly delayed but when they put Terminator Salvation on in English we were happy as larry and not in the slightest bit annoyed about the delay. We even got a great meal on the plane which we hadn't bargained for.
On the plane we were sat with a woman from Guilin who’s been in Shanghai on a training course and she started to chat with Neil. She was really helpful with things to do in Guilin and Yangshuo and ended up offering us a lift to the bus station in Guilin so we could catch a bus out to Yangshuo.
Now she had warned us that she had a small car but really it was a matchbox on wheels! So Neil was in the front and I was in the back with the backpacks piled on me as well as the gifts she’d bought her family and friends from Shanghai. Her car was new so she had red ribbons tied to the wing mirrors for good luck. We made it to the bus station, which with her driving was some sort of a miracle – after her announcement that she makes herself car sick we weren’t sure what we were in store for.
A quick purchase of a bus ticket and we were off to Yangshuo. After 60km we found our river view hotel and wandered off round the town in search of food. Yangshuo wasn’t really what we were expecting, the book makes it sound like this little village but in reality it’s a neon den of market stores, bars and restaurants. But after finding some woodfired pizza we were fine and loving Yangshuo.
1st December 2009
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me la la la la la crikey another birthday! We started the day opening my cards and parcels I’d been sent away with and yay it was so lovely to have cards with messages in and toiletries to spoil myself with.
I’d decided that the main focus of the day was going to be food! With so much choice I thought for one day we could just be pigs and eat our way through the day. So for breakfast banana pancakes it was on the balcony.
We then booked ourselves some tickets for the light show, which is one of the highlights of the town. I can’t really begin to describe it but I think this website will help
http://www.guilin-yangshuo-guide.com/yangshuo-light-show.html
It was fantastic! Not like anything we’ve seen before and we loved it.
Before the show we also hired bikes and went off for a cycle to find Moon Hill and look at the beautiful scenery around Yangshuo. After negotiating roundabouts and junctions with wagons, buses and all other sorts of transport we were on the highway to Moon Hill. We then decided to climb Moon Hill to see the view – another 800 steps. I’m beginning to wonder how many more steps we can fit into this trip before our knees completely give up on us?????
After the climb and cycle ride it was time for birthday cake! Yangshuo is renowned for its cheesecake so coffee and a slice of cheesecake over emails it was for us – yum.
Birthday dinner after the light show was pizza and beer
2nd December 2009
Today was the big adventure day – we decided to cycle out to Dragon Bridge on the Yu Long River to see the bamboo rafts being punted down the river. As we were going out for the day on bikes we swapped our shopping basket bikes for brand new mountain bikes – little did we know how much we’d actually need a mountain bike!
We set off with an artist impression basic map heading for the river. After successfully navigating a few roundabouts and cross roads we made it off the beaten track and to the little tracks through the villages. We then decided to go off the roads and on to the farm tracks through the paddy fields and fresh water fish breeding ponds. We also picked up a stalker in the form of a woman who was determined to get us on her husband’s bamboo boat. She put up a good contest as she followed us for a good 1.5hr and even faked a bike breakdown when we tried to fox her and lose her!
Well we made it to Dragon Bridge but the weather had taken a turn for the worse, the river was low and there weren’t many boatmen around. So we had lunch took our pictures and headed back on the other side of the river. 3 hours later we arrived home with saddle sore butts and sore hands from gripping the new handle bar grips. The ride home was great as we were in the middle of paddy fields and having to ride over very narrow paths across the fields and through small villages, as well as the orange fields.
As we’d cycled a good 45km that day we treated ourselves; a burger and beer for me whilst Neil tucked into Shepherds pie. We then trekked the well worn road of West Street taking in the evening atmosphere before retiring to CCTV 9 – our favorite Chinese TV channel!
3rd December 2009
As the weather had been rubbish the day before and we weren’t able to get on a bamboo raft we decided to hit the road again, but this time on a bus, and head over to Xingping. After another death defying ride on Chinese roads, although this time there was an accident! We were hurtling around a corner as was a truck the other way, he then swerved to miss us but then realised that there was a little man walking along the road, and he swerved again. This in itself was ok but he then went on 2 wheels and his load, a very full load of gravel, was spilt all over the man on the road. The poor chap must have been buried in gravel.
We made it to Xingping without any further incidents and also got ourselves a boat for half the price we’d been told – Neil and his bartering again. We set out on the river and it was pretty chilly. But the scenery made up for it, until the cruse boats from Guilin tried to get passed and sounded their horns for most of the journey.
The journey was 1 hour up to Yangdi and then a return trip through the karst limestone mountains, each of which has its own name and legend. Not sure how they came up with names such as 'Grandpa loves Apples’ and ‘Turtle on Back’, but we thought they were great names. Neil asked the bamboo owner if he could have a punt but was met with a resounding no! Neil tried to persuade him through his best Chinglish that he knew what he was doing and had done it before but that didn’t seem to help him.
We wandered around Xingping a little before heading back to Yangshuo to do our final souvenir buying and final meal. We decided to go with a recommendation from the book and it was a great Chinese. The food was amazing, schezuan chicken, aubergine and pork hotpot, broccoli and garlic, braised pumpkin, far too much for us both to eat, even though we tried to fit it all in we just couldn’t.
The final part of the night was the bus journey to Shenzhen, near our port to Hong Kong. The bus cost £13.50 for a 10 hour ride and even had beds! We got to the bus station and the bus arrived on time, there’s a first for everything in China. We settled into our beds – yes we really had beds. They convert the buses so they have 3 aisles of beds on 2 levels and also some tellys. It might sound great but within 20 minutes of setting off we realized it was probably going to be the worst night’s sleep we’d have. The driver was a maniac and it didn’t help that we’d seen him buy 4 cans of red bull for the journey. Honestly I’ve not been scared of a bus journey before but this one was something else, he took corners so badly that I nearly fell out of my bed a number of times. The result of his driving was also 50% of the bus suffering with travel sickness and in particular the woman sleeping behind Neil who took it upon herself to throw up in a bag very noisily just by Neil’s head.
It got a lot worse as all the bags she was throwing up into she left on the floor for them all to leak right by both of our heads. Needless to say this resulted in me shouting at her very loudly in English explaining that she should throw up somewhere else and that she should clean up after herself – it fell on deaf ears. 5 hours into the journey and the bus stopped for a pit stop so at 3am in the morning everyone was woken up, if you were actually sleeping, to go to the loo. However, the best bit the drivers swapped over.
Funny enough the puking stopped and we got a few hours kip.
Comments
What amazing pictures of the mountains, just like the advert wtih the cormorent and the old man on the chinese punt!
However, what a bus journey - horndous!
Love Ma x
I love the photos on the river, it looks so beautiful and tranquil...