Hello all!
Sorry it's been so long since I've written, good Lord a lot has happened... where to begin?
I've wrapped up my first trip! The first 5 days were a bit rocky, but after that I felt like I got in a bit of a groove. At least I wasn't stressing as much -- except for the reoccuring dream I'm still having about taking passengers to the wrong bus station and not making the transfer!
The trip went well. I had an interesting mix of old and young, completely crazy and relatively sane... :-) I thought I had them convinced that this was my second trip (counting my training trip as one), but they figured it out by about the 3rd day that it was my first trip. Good thing they still stuck with me though and didn't say anything until the end.
My pax loved China, from the very first day we crossed the border. We stay at a very sweet guesthouse run by a very sweet lady named Grass. I'd never been there before, but they have 8 seperate bungalows for two people, and the place is situated right in the middle of Butterfly Valley! We just happened to be there as all the little white butterflies were emerging, so walking around the property was like being in some fairy cartoon, with these beautiful ribbons of white butterflies everywhere. That night in HuaShan (which means Flower Mountain) was also the first night I sensed the group really gelling; in the afternoon one by one they wandered to the common area and we had a lovely time sitting together telling stories and swatting mozzies << that's Aussie for mosqitos ;-) We were also priveleged to celebrate Grass's daughter's 11th birthday - and oh the karaoke! The Danish boys and Peter were so funny!
After two times on this route, Chenyang (the Dong village) is still my favorite place on the trip. It is such a peaceful, beautiful, authentic village. It was a little bit cold while we were there, so I introduced my pax to the wonders of mijiu... hot, sweet rice wine! I personally think the stuff is disgusting, but it gets the job done for warming everyone up, and getting them a bit trashed to boot! Mandy was quite cold so she nearly finished a teapot of mijiu by herself, and she got very silly! Her quick Austrailian speech slowed way down and she was LOOPY! From then on I called her Mandy Mijiu :-)
The trek through the Longji Rice Terraces was SO MUCH EASIER this time, given that I wasnt throwing up into bushed the whole way like last time! Much much better without the stomach flu. My opinion of the hike and Longji in general are much improved. My pax didnt feel the same way the day before the hike though, when we got struck by the effects of the May Holiday. Wuyi is the Worker's holiday, and it's basically like Labor Day, for a whole week. Transportation slows down, everything runs on limited schedules, tickets are harder to secure, and every Chinese man woman and dog is out travelling! It didnt become a problem for us until the bus to Longji wouldnt take us all the way to the top of the hill. It dropped us at another bus stop and we had to climb half the mountain to get to our guesthouse! As it turned out that part of the hike was harder than anything we did the next day on the long hike, but the pax did NOT appreciate it, or me for not warning them (when I didnt know it would happen). To make matters worse, Mandy had a minor panic attack because she has a slight heart condition. So she's at the very end of the group climbing up to the guesthouse, and Danny, ever the sweetheart, is keeping her company. When I found out what was going on I stayed at the back with them to make sure she was okay. Danny and I started making up stories to distract her... somethig about a water buffalo who fell in love with a horse and they had a horse/buffalo baby that Santa recruited to drive his sled because Red Bull give you wiiings.....! :-D Oh my gosh, it was awesome! hehehe
My favorite moment of the trip, hands down, was leaving Longji to head to Yangshou. I had been warning my passengers all week that this was the "Indiana Jones" bus, brutal going over bumps and huge potholes, etc. They're prepped and ready for the ride, but as it turned out once we got into it they were enjoying it! Next thing I know, all 11 passengers are singing the Indiana Jones theme song on the bus! I was dying laughing, it was fantastic! Actually that reminds me, on the bus to Chenyang we had a bus driver who was literally FALLING ASLEEP at the wheel! Every time we'd go around a corner he'd sway and blink and shake his head to stay awake. Mind you, this is a 3 hour bus. I eventually popped up to the front to chat with him, just for the sake of keeping him awake. I even offered him my Pepsi for the caffeine, which he found amusing -- all of this through pantamime and mangled Chinese on my part. My pax decided to help out the effort by singing karaoke along with the video on the bus! Only every 5th sentance was in English but they put their whole hearts into it! Peter even put on his big man voice as they were singing "You are my super boy" :-D The Chinese were not amused but the bus driver was and it helped keep him awake!
Not much interesting happened toward the end of the trip, at least not with the majority of the pax. If any of you have viewed my photos on Snapfish you probably figured out that I had a lovely little romance with one of my passengers -- the Dutch guy, Danny. It was quite cute how we thought we were being subtle by holding hands under jackets on buses, or always finding ways to sit next to each other at dinner and hold hands under the table, when in fact it was quite obvious to everyone. They didnt mind though because I didnt neglect any of my passengers or my job. We came clean about three days before the end of the trip and everyone confirmed that they had already known :-) He does live in Holland, but I cant see that being any more of a problem than if I had left a boyfriend in San Diego or Australia or even had another tour leader boyfriend considering we'd never see eachother. My only concern is I didnt expect anything to happen so early or so quickly, so we'll see what comes of this. If anything it made my first trip all that much more memorable ;-)
Currently Reading: The 10th Circle, Jodie Picoult
Current Injury: Falling off a bicycle in Yangshuo, scuffing my hands
