Yangshuo
All 7 of us went to our respective rooms at the Showbiz
hostel, showered, changed, & met on the rooftop bar. I can guarantee that (short of climbing one
of the surrounding mountains), this is the best view in town, nestled in the
heart of the Yangshuo mtns &overlooking the river Li. As always, we upped our numbers to 9 when we
met our new roomies, Chris from England, & Irish Conor. They spoke highly of Monkey Janes, a
legendary roof top bar... So we just had
to see what the hype was all about. Jane
was easily recognized as she was schooling her clients in Beer Pong, the venues
main attraction. Naturally I stepped up
to make the best introduction I could & smacked her ego down for Canada
& Team Ramrod! Won a t-shirt to
prove it! The usual Wednesday Doubles
Tourney was later in the evening, so Britt & Chris decided to take home
another fresh t-shirt for the year!
Overhearing our brainstorming for the next days’ agenda, Jane offered us
her special rate for the mud caving adventure, so the plan was set.
Up “early”, we took off to the caves on mtn bikes. After getting lost, some locals pointed in
opposite directions the way to the real caves.
The guy on the right looked more believable, so down the road it
was. Perfect, we boarded the bus & made
it. With our size 5, puke coloured gummy
sandals wedged on, we leaned back in our bamboo raft & under the lip of the
caves we drifted. This was, to me, &
Britt, more amazing than the colourfully lit caves in Guilin. A guide up ahead shone her light, again, on stalagmites
that apparently looked like “an old man fishing”... sure. After a bit of hiking, the cold pool was our
first dip. Not sure what was in the
water, but the locals didn’t even dip their toes in. Ah well, what you don’t know, won’t hurt
ya. Our splashing was cut short by the
toe tapping guide, so onwards we marched to the mud pit complete with rocky
slide! This was pretty damn cool. Floating in mud is a pretty trippy
feeling. A quick rinse, then to our
final pit, the hot springs. The natural
grooves of the caves walls/ floors, made for individual hot tubs... Britt said if they were serving wine, she
wouldn’t have left for days! The day was
capped off with more bevies atop Jane’s hostel to send off Nicole, Steph,
Chris, & Conor. Sad to see them go.
Next few days were chill; A bit of shopping & meandering
through the towns snaking streets.
By this time, Jane could be considered a new found
friend. Along with a couple other
Canadian boys, 4 Brits, we hauled Jane with us for some white water rafting
through the jungle. Sounds intense, I
know... As we drove up the winding roads
to our starting point, we convinced ourselves that the tricking creek below was
not the river we were supposed to be cruising down in a few minutes. Sure as shit, it was. We got to the top & were instructed to
suit up with our flimsy helmets, fabric padding, & water wings. Paddles?
No, no... You don’t need not stinkin’ paddles when you’re up shit
creek. Around the corner dingy’s were
being flung into a dammed pool, & two by two, tourists were loaded in
them. Don’t knock it till ya try it I
guess... ‘Cus just as we thought “lame”,
they opened the flood gates & starting hucking people over the 15ft drop
down the “trickling creek below”. Facing
each other, one person was usually backwards, unknowing to the 5 & 10 ft
drops at each flood gate. We got stuck
in a whirl pool at one point, & a local appeared from the bushes with a 15
ft solid bamboo pole to unstick us. With
a full force shove, the pole slipped off our dingy’s side & “pow! Right in
the kisser”. The dude could have cared
less that he just about shattered Britt’s cheekbone. Nothing another few rounds of beer pong
couldn’t heal.
We hadn’t ventured out of town, but heard of the ancient
Dragon Bridge so hopped on our “Nonda” hogs with Jane for a personalized tour
of Yangshuo’s country side the following morning. What an epic day. Water Buffalo, villagers doing their thing,
tea factory, bridge jumping, & a delicious local riverside meal... The day
was perfect, one of the best we’ve had. The
Bridge, at 15m, had a few people wobbly in the knees, including Britt. Who, with an intense fear of heights, lived
it up & took the plunge. Her wet
noodle dive won a 3.2 from the judges & a bruised tail bone. Even though we were on puttsie scooters
pressing 70km downhill with the wind at our backs, it was settled, I’m gettin’
a bike when we get home!
An old school tradition of using Cormorants as fisherman’s
aide, has turned into quite the tourist attraction. It’s hard to decide when to go see an animal
attraction when some turn out cool like the Panda’s but other’s like the
Beijing Zoo. We had to try our luck. It was a sad but sort of humorous sight. The birds are tossed in the water ahead of
the boat & smacked with a pole to scare them into diving down for
fish. When they finally snag one &
come up to gulp down their prize, a neck tie stops it from being
swallowed. Then they are hooked by their
owners & reeled in back to the boat to up chuck their dinner. Then it’s back in the water. The funny part comes when they keep trying
instead of ditching the loser in the boat.
At this point, Nico & Boner had left us to continue on
their journey’s. Guess where we went
that night?! Yup, back to Monkey Janes... This time, not for Beer Pong, but for a man’s
drink! It was Toon’s birthday (we met
Toon & his girlfriend at Showbiz) so he was treated with a snake blood
shot. When we ordered the drink for him,
we expected a young guide to come upstairs in his tour company clothing, do a
bit of hand waving & flashy business while preparing the drink of the
evening. No. Out of the shade comes an old local lady with
a squirming pillow case in hand. She
spots us waiting in the corner, pulls out a snake, chops off the heads off
quick & easy, mixes some bigou & blood, surgically removes his beating
heart, hands it to Toon & Tyler (one of the Canadian boys), then disappears
again. Gnarly, the was head still
chomping at his butcher & body twisting to suffocate anything that he could! That was a hell of a lot more intense than we
were expecting. Down the hatch, the boys
felt like men. To help ease their souls,
the rest of the snake was used appropriately in a stir fry & the bones to
marinate a noodle soup.
The town was still in full swing with the Chinese National
holiday week, so Britt & I decided to cap off our wild week with a quiet
stay at the Culture House away from the chaos.
We were boarded up with a family & a few other travellers. Never ending toast & fruit was served in
the mornings & an awesome family dinner each night! Fried eggplant, peas, tofu, duck, stuffed
peppers, mushrooms... all sooo good!
Our stay there was pretty tame... A bike ride with a few Americans, on vacation
from studies in China, out to the Dragon Bridge again. Britt’s ass still hating her (especially
after the bike ride & hard Chinese everything!), she stared down that
bridge, but chickened out of trying to concur the jump!
Our last few days were spent with Greg, a solo traveller
from L.A., & Danny & Franca, from Holland, chilling out. Yangshuo has been, in my opinion, the most
beautiful town we’ve seen so far... It
has been an amazing stay. Danny &
Franca will be around Hong Kong the same time we are, so we’ll most likely hook
up again to throw away a few dollars in Macao!
We took a spin by Jane’s place to say bye, and are now on a
“sleeper” bus which was obviously built for Chinese people. So unable to
straighten my legs I’m gonna try and get some shut eye to deal with the madness
of Hong Kong at dawn. As we are technically leaving China, I will be able to
see my cold mistress, Facebook, soon......
