It's been awhile since we wrote last so excuse us for our memory deficiency.
Let's see, I believe we left off in Lijiang, where we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. We met two Americans on the last day we were here and it was heaven on Earth.
Dali was our next stop and it was pretty much the same as Lijiang,
but smaller. One of our American friends met up with us here and gave
us some insight on what to do around town. We followed his advice and
rented some bikes for the day. Trying to find this "ancient city" he
was telling us about, we ended up riding around for 16 kilometers both
ways. I don't think we ever found what we were looking for. In fact, I
think we rode right passed it. But it was a fun misadventure,
nonetheless. Some crazy old woman wanted me to play cards with the
Chinese men, but they weren't having it. And she was starting to scare
us so we quickly escaped. Of course I can't be on a bike without
hurting myself. The roads we were riding on were in between farm fields
and there was a bit of drop off. I was trying to stop and tell Mel
something and the next thing I know I fell over board into some
shrubbery. Luckily, it was just a bunch of weeds and bushes. I got
scraped and scratched a little, but I was okay. An old lady walking by
thought it was rather amusing, though. We also went horseback riding up
a mountain. It was a little sketchy because before we even got up the
mountain my guide was scaring my horse to obey his orders, and the
horse jumped and started trotting off with me on it!!!! Of course, the
ladies watching laughed at my expense again. So the entire time I was
terrified that my horse was going to make me his runaway bride. Mel got
a real kick out of it. Now she wants to have a horse of her own.
I must say that the food on this leg of our China tour was
far more better than the first. They like to eat meat and potatoes. My
kind of people. Especially with it being cold. They have Grandma's
potatoes, which are like mashed potatoes, but chunkier. And Grandma's
beans that tasted just like my Grandma's white beans except with a
Chinese spicy twist. Soooo delish! We're fattening up for America.
It was really hard to leave both Lijiang and Dali, but we felt that we didn't have much time so we had to press on. We ended up in Kunming just in time for Christmas. Lamesky. It was nothing more than a big city with little to do. Oh, except for the infamous Wal-Mart
with nothing but Chinese goods, of course. We wanted to take a trip to
the Stone Forest, but our hostel said we had to have two more people.
No one seemed interested. They were all there for the same reason: to
get a visa out of China. We only had to wait three days for our Vietnam
visa, then we scurried off to Guilin.
We were prepared for our train ride this time as we loaded up with
plenty of meat and cheeses and a bottle of wine to put us to sleep. Of
course it was longer than we expected about 20 hours, but a beautiful
train ride that rode us through limestone mountains and gorgeous
greenery.
Guilin
wasn't anything to write about. We stayed here a couple of days to eat
some dog hotpot....Just kidding! We did see some snakes and possum in
cages, though. We opted not to take the river cruise because it was
freezing cold and kind of pricey. I did spend some money on some brand
new kicks. And a nice pair of jeans that I won't be needing for the
next three months, but China has some really trendy jeans. Oh, and we
found an underground arcade where I went bananas. They had this drummer
game with an actual drum set and you play with the music. I wish my
parents would've bought me one when I was younger. Sigh...
An hour from Guilin is Yangshuo,
where we still are now. It's probably been the record stay for us. But
not on purpose, we just can't leave until the 7th when our visa starts
for Nam. We've been trying not to spend too much money, but we did take
a day tour to Moon Hill, the Big Banyan Tree and Silver Cave. All of
which were really neat to see, but the hagglers here are insane. We
rode our bikes to all these places and at one point these ladies
sitting on the side of the road dropped everything that they were doing
to hop on their bikes and follow us. Follow us up 2,000 stairs (that we
walked in record timing!) and back down again just to ask us if we
wanted something to drink. I visibly had a bottle of water in my hand
the entire time. And one lady grabbed Mel's bike to force her to buy
some postcards. They are really good at making you feel sorry for them.
It's hard to say no sometimes. We spent New Year's here, which was a
heck of a time. We met another American earlier in the day that joined
us later on for the festivities. They had fireworks and lots of
drinking and dancing. We ended up chatting with some Chinese, Frenchies, Aussies and Austrians until 6 in the morning. Good times.
Yesterday we met a Hawaiian man, who has travelled all over the
globe. He wants to teach me how to make sushi. And his friend wanted me
to work for him when he opens up a Western cooking school. That is the
third job offer I have been approached with. It's just too bad that I
don't want to live here. Then we met some more Americans from Kansas.
The parents live in Shanghai and their daughters were just visiting.
They ended up paying for everything yesterday. And even took us out to
dinner. Really nice folks.
Well, I think that about sums it up. Tomorrow we are taking a bus to the border of China, then continuing on to Hanoi.
I hope everyone had a Happy New Year! I bid thee farewell.
JUICE!
