Yes, we're still alive. There's just been so much to do here in Yangshuo that we haven't had time to blog. And Blogger has been playing tricks with us, making it difficult to access our blog. But enough excuses!
We left Guilin, traveling by bus and bamboo rafts to Yangshuo. The rafts weren't actually made of bamboo but plastic, and they had an engine, which killed our fantasies of 'a peacful drift on Li River' (but later we were glad that it had an engine, because otherwise the almost two-hour-ride would have taken forever). Later we got the chance to take "real" bamboo rafts though, and if you ever happen to visit Yangshuo it'll be quite hard not to take one at some point. Everywhere you go, they yell: "Hello, hello, hello!! Bamboo raft! Bamboo raft!!".
Arriving in Yangshou we were surprised by all the tourists (even though we'd prepared ourselves that we wouldn't be an unusual sight anymore). There are Americans everywhere and remarkably many families with small children. It cranks up the prices in some touristy areas, the only way to survive is by bargaining.
The Chinese really have a sense of business. When they see a laowai, they smell money.(We've heard them exclaim "Hello money!" upon seeing us... I felt I was their piggy bank waiting to be emptied of savings. Bargaining was a pain in the beginning, but our skills are improving exponentially. Our tactics have consisted of threatening to walk away from the deal, start off with a ridiculously low price and thus offending the sales person or just simply complaining. "That's soooo expensive!!") Virtually every Chinese knows at least one phrase in English: "How much?". The rest is handled with charades or by writing with a stone in the dirt.
Even in the countryside, when you think you're alone, you'll soon be trailed by a so-called "hello"-entourage (people trying to sell you their services or goods). When you're lost, it's kind of helpful to have someone to consult. We're not that annoyed so far.
So far we've visited a local school's 'English Corner', biked up Li River, walked between Yangdi and XingPing and visited our first beach (where we actually swam! ...although the water in Li River isn't the cleanest). More details of what we've done coming up later.
The countryside is amazingly beautiful, with green peaks and blue rivers. No wonder it's such a popular destionation for both Chinese and Western tourists alike.
Our hostel, Monkey Jane's, is pretty well located in an alley right off West Street (the biggest shopping/bar street). But ironically enough, though this is the warmest weather we've had so far, this is the coldest hostel we've lived in (second after that freezy one in Beijing). And it hasn't helped that the shower indicates that for warm water turn left and for cold, turn right. This has led to that only this morning did I understand that the labels were wrong and until now we've been showering in ice cold water, thinking we've turned the handle to hot when we'd actually turned it to as cold as it gets. Not nice.
Tomorrow we are headed towards Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province. It borders to Laos and Vietnam in south and Tibet in west. We figured it might be time to start hauling our butts in that direction, since our visas won't be valid forever. There's so much to do in Yunnan, so it'll probably be a close call. Kunming's an 18-hour train ride from Guilin, so luckily we got hold of hard-sleeper tickets this time. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope it's a train less nasty than the last one...
//R & S
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