Thursday, Sept 24th, Yangshuo

Well, finally a bit of free time! Spent the last two nights in Yangshuo and it’s been such a great change of pace from the massive hazy cities. This is the first time we’ve seen blue sky in three weeks! Yangshuo is a travelers haven, similar to places like Katmandu or Cuzco, Peru. It’s easy to get around and plenty of western food for a change of pace. Though since our leader Milly has been introducing us to all kinds of local places, the touristy element feels a bit much. At 300,000 people, this is considered tiny. And compared to the other places we’ve been, it definitely is!

I’ve taken WAY too many pictures in the last few days so there may be more pictures than writing on this one! Since I last wrote, we had a really long brutal travel day. I started the voyage off right with a local egg pancake from a street vendor. Then 4 ½ hours by bus to get to the overnight train (15 hours this time!) But the time went pretty quickly with an intense six hour game of 10 Phases (a game our German tourmates taught us.) Maxi, Daniel, Paul, Christine, Emil, Sarah and I were in a fierce competition with barely time for a noodle soup break! Maxi pulled it out in the end! We’ve also learned Mahjong from Milly and played trivia a LOT, so I’m getting my game fix with all my GAP buddies!

The overnight train was a rough one, then we had more than 2 hours by public bus to Yangshuo. Felt like paradise by the time we arrived!

Since then, we went bamboo rafting (thanks to Peter, our Canadian counterpart for the brilliant idea of bringing bottles of local beerfor the ride!) Nicely done, eh! Plus he’s also a Bruins fan, so Boston sports are everywhere!

Following rafting, we saw the local illumination show by the person who did the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies.

But yesterday was really the packed one. We started at 5:20 with a spectacular sunrise balloon trip over the massive limestone structures all around Yangshuo. Guilan and Yangshuo claim the best scenery in the world and while I haven’t been everywhere (yet!) I’d say they have a fair shot! Paul, Ulla, Georgi, Mans and I got cozy in our basket though Paul and I were of course the ones leaning way out over for the best pics! AWESOME!

Following the balloon ride, we headed out for a countryside bike ride. Apparently we were much faster than other groups, but it was great. I did a good hike to moon palace rock with six of us girls and only one guy. The rest relaxed at the restaurant. Of course, I wouldn’t stop until we reached the peak. We six touch ladies earned our lunch that day.

Next was a calligraphy lesson where I learned to write my name in Chinese. And at night, we went cormorant fishing. Though that was probably our least favoriate as we were packed into a hot boat with a bunch of other tourists watching the birds dive ahead of the fisherman’s raft to catch fish. They tie off the necks so they can’t swallow until their master feeds them. Not really like the Amazing Race bird fishing I was hoping for.

After doing all the activities yesterday, I decided to pass on Tai Chi and the cooking class today and take it easy. We have our final overnight train tonight (yeah!) and arrive in Hong Kong tomorrow early afternoon. Hard to believe China is almost over! They have been a very busy and fun three weeks.

I’ll try to do one more post from Hong Kong before I join Kathy in Borneo for our jungle and diving time.

Cheers everyone!

Val