Just back from a completely wonderful, indescribable trip to Guilin and Yangshuo, China. Because this is a blog, I will attempt to describe how much fun we had and all the crazy things we did! A group of 16 people, yes 16, decided to set off to Guilin in mainland China. Prior to departure we needed some form of plan so I was put in charge of hostels, for again, 16 people. We got the hostels worked out and had a rough idea of what we do each day, assuming that we would split up into smaller groups depending on what people did. This did not happen. Somehow, even though I think it has been proven impossible, we traveled with 16 people the entire time and did every activity together and I could not have asked for a better trip! Everything completely came together, magically, and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.
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TEAM HONG KONG |
We started the trip at 3pm on Wednesday afternoon, first taking the MTR to the border of Hong Kong and China. It was kind of interesting to see people that I assume live in China and work in HK everyday. From there we grabbed some food and headed to the train station. We spent the next 13 hours on a sleeper train (like Harry Potter) with 2 full cabins to ourselves. I'm sure the rest of the train car hated us because of laughing and talking once the entire rest of the car was asleep. We played chess, sodoku, and goggles (drinking game that Maria taught us. I will teach you when I get home!) and the time actually passed quickly. Everyone went to bed and we woke up in Yangshuo, China! After the boys bought various random foods on the street we made our way to the Guilin Wada Hostel. It was not quite the Peking Yard from Beijing, but it was very nice and homey AND they surprisingly had enough beds for all 14 of us to stay in the same place which was perfect. While everyone ate breakfast and cleaned up at the hostel, the staff called a bus for us that would take us to the Rice Terraces right outside of Guilin.
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Rice Terraces |
We took one bus for 2 hours through the countryside and small little towns and then caught another 30 minute bus up to the base of the terraces. It was a bit rainy and it was hard to see a long distance into the terraces, but the hike up was great. There was a path of smooth rocks to follow all the way to the top, a bit slippery. Our whole group trekked up together stopping along the way to admire the sights. We were in the rice fields for about 5 hours. By the end of the trip the clouds and mist were clearing and we could see much further across the land. During this time, the rice plants were still green, but eventually they turn a beautiful golden yellow. We hiked up to several different viewing points in the mist and met quite a few asian ladies that sold most of our group handmade scarf things. We eventually had to make our way back down through the hills so catch our bus back to the hostel. All 14 people on the 13 person bus fell asleep on the way home and we arrived back at the hostel around 8:30pm. Again, everyone cleaned up and ate and then we hung around in the common room for the evening playing goggles again and a danish dice game while drinking. The Wada staff was so cute because every time we walked in they would say, oh so many people, and start running orders and running behind the bar.

The next morning the hostel helped us organize another bus to take us to where we could get bamboo rafts down Li River to Yangshuo. We figured if we had to get there anyways we should take the prettiest route. Again it was kind of misty/rainy, but the rafting was great. It was interesting because the "bamboo" rafts were actually made of PVC pipe. Who knew. The whole river is surrounded by the cliff-like mountains that represent Guilin and the mist just added to the serenity of the journey. We were all split into different rafts so we got see each other as people would pass by. The ride was very relaxing and quiet, we pretty much just enjoy it and tried to take in all of the scenery. We stopped once on the trip for lunch and while pulling to the side of the river, two of the guys started to get ready to jump in the river. Andrew and I had said we would swim, so we got ready really quick and jumped in at the dock for about 30 seconds. The boys were pretty impressed because I was the only girl that did it. I think I traumatized a few people in my bikini though because everyone else was bundled up because of the cold weather.
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View from the Bamboo Raft down Li River |
Lunch was decent, just a salty egg fried rice from a pretty sketchy little shack type restaurant. There were only a few more minutes of rafting after lunch when we pulled up to an extremely odd unloading area and were herded into half open minibuses. Our bus was first and of course we got stuck in the mud and the other driver had to help us. The ride was pretty intense with a bit of sliding, riding close to the edge of a cliff, and almost getting stuck a few more times. After the minibus came yet another bus to take us to the actual city of Yangshuo. The city was pretty neat with a main street, West Street, with lots of little souvenir shops and restaurants.
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Yangshuo from the roof of our hostel |
We found the hostel easily and got settled before perusing the streets for goodies. For dinner we went to a local type place and Christoph and I split Beer Fish which a local specialty. It was a bit spicy, but very good! After dinner we went to the hostel's rooftop bar and played beer pong (with extremely whack rules) against Asians and our different countries kept competing. Two of our boys had gone to this random bar where they were the only westerners and so the Chinese men kept waving them over to their tables and getting them to take beer shots with them. The tables were so neat because they were equipped with a rack of 10 beer shot glasses on top and a shelf underneath with the dice games. There was also a lady, Lisa, that sang english songs just because the boys were there. They said they had a blast with the locals and we all went back the next day.
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Christoph and I with the beer fish |
Saturday was biking and drifting day. We all went to breakfast together which took a while with our now 16 people (we collected two more from Guilin after we got to Yangshuo). Again the hostel helped us and got a lady to come meet us and take us to her bike shop. Originally we were going to get a few mountain bikes and regular bikes, but once we got there we saw that she had tandems and switched. Yvonne (Austrian) and I were tandem partners along with 2 other tandem bikes.
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Yvie and I |
We all rode through the streets of Yangshuo which was a bit difficult considering they do not abide by any type of rule, the middle line means nothing, and 3 cars could be side by side in a one lane road. We were safe though Mom. We only drove a short bit on the city street and then it opened up into a less crowded road. We made quite a few stops to regroup, but eventually we got to the Moon Hill which was our ultimate goal. We had to be back for drifting so a few of the boys literally RAN up the mountain and the rest of us started biking back so we wouldn't be rushed.
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Sights along the way |
Everyone regrouped, the hostel lady walked us to the bus station to take us to our drifting trip (aka rafting without a paddle. The river just sort of takes you). The trip started out questionably which was a bad sign. The bus was completely disgusting, hoses coming oddly out of the ceiling and just seemed about to fall apart. About 10 minutes in I could smell some fumes and I look to the back of the bus and see everyone covering their faces and a cloud of fumes around them. We all smushed into the front of the bus and had to open the emergency roof for some air. We were obviously in Asia. Once we got to the rafting place, we took.. oh wait...a bus for about 10 minutes up a mountain. We were all thinking, this does not seem very good. We might be getting ripped off. We suited up with helmets, elbow and knee pads, and life jackets and partnered up for the raft ride. Maria and I joined forces for Team Normerica and got into the pretty cold water. Eventually we either became numb or just got accustomed to the water and it was very refreshing. After everyone was in their rafts, we started the journey off with a 13 meter drop. This is when we realized the rafting trip actually might be okay. We rafted for about 2 hours, screaming, yelling, and laughing the entire time. It was neat because you kept passing different people depending on how fast you were and we regrouped before every drop so you would go off in a new order. Felix and Rasmus pulled each other in the water at the beginning and at the next drop Rasmus thought it would be fun to jump in my raft and push me out. Nice. The whole trip ended up being great and really was some of the most fun I've had! Unfortunately we had to get back on the fuming bus to get home.
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The only picture I have from "drifting" |
For dinner everyone went to the same restaurant because the lady had ordered a snake for everyone. An older Asian man brought the snake up in a bag and took him out so everyone could hold it. It was about 4.5 feet long. After pictures, the man took it upstairs to kill it and brought back the snakes blood in alcohol for everyone to try. Supposedly the Chinese think that fresh snake's blood is good for your body. They also cooked the snake meat in a curry dish for everyone to try. Andrew, Debbie, and I saw the snake, but then we went to a different restaurant because we wanted to try something else. We met and back are were going to go Night Cormorant Fishing, but it did not work out. Instead we went to the bar where the boys had gone and partook in dancing on the stage with some of the Chinese people and one of our guys singing the Titanic theme with Lisa, the singer. Everyone headed back to the hostel and Chris and I went down to the desk to figure out plans for the next day. We wanted to go rock climbing but we were not sure if it would work with 16 people. At first it started at 8:45am and 180 yuan and the hostel staff got the company down to 9:45am and 150 yuan which worked for us! We went back up to the rooftop bar and played pool, hard arm wrestling competitions, and then decided to call it a night.
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The creepy snake |
For Sunday we met at 10am and Pin came to meet us and took us to a... you guessed it. A bus. And we drove just about 10 minutes to the "mountain" we would be climbing. They briefly explained the equipment a little bit of technique for going up and how to sit in the harness to walk back down. There were 4 guides/4 ropes so even though we had to wait to go it worked out because we could cheer everyone on and none of us would have been able to climb the whole time without passing out. I climbed 2 of the ropes and was pretty proud of myself! If you could find a hand and foot hole then it wasn't too hard. That was the hardest part. With our shoes covered in 2 inches of mud, we headed back to the hostel to shower. We grabbed lunch (I got a burrito because I'm a bad Asian) and a few of our members got massages. Then it was time to take the bus back to Guilin and go to the train station. At the station we were all hungry with no restaurants so we got some pretty good street food including watermelon, corn on the cob, crepe type wrap, and spicy pork skewers. The train ride back was another 13 hours, but again it went by relatively quickly. We all sat in the restaurant together and talked until it was time for bed. When we walked back to our cars, everyone was asleep except for us. Again we went to sleep and woke up to horribly loud Chinese music in a new city! Back to the hot and sunny Hong Kong!
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Me climbing (Mom please don't get sick) |
Hi Whit! I'm so glad you're including us on your journey! The kids and I want to track your travels on our own little map. I LOVE the picture of you on the raft. You're so beautiful! And I could not help but think of our NC rafting trip when I saw your group photo. :) Love you, be safe!
ReplyDeletedear goodness...scaling craggy cliffs, riding tandems thru traffic craziness, whitewater rafting, slippery, muddy roads next to extreme dropoffs, and snake's blood... glad I didn't know about all this until it was over!
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