Tag: Yangshuo
Our Stay in Yangshuo
by Cinnie on Jan.30, 2010, under China
So we arrived in Yangshuo after a bumping bus ride from Xingping and we were immediately taken by this town. It’s not too big, looks quite friendly and is surrounded by gorgeous mountains on all sides except for the one that borders with the Li River. We already booked a room ahead at the Showbiz Inn (forget the silly name), which was located on West Street – the main street of this town.
Boat Ride to Yangshuo
by Cinnie on Jan.27, 2010, under China
So…Mister-Nice-Chinese-Li-Guy guaranteed us “no worries, no rain” and of course.. we believed him. Turned out.. he was wrong. How could this be possible? Guess we’ll never know.
Anyways, after a surprisingly cold breakfast we got picked up from our hostel in the morning (by Li’s cousin), we got into a small bus together with 4 other travellers and away we went. It was already drizzling, but we (ok, mostly me) were in complete denial and still hoping for a nice day for a boat ride on the beautiful Li River. We drove for quite a while through small villages and nice scenery and even got to buy some delicious strawberries on the way – straight from the field. When we finally arrived at the place where the boat was waiting for us, it was already getting more rainy and foggy, but who cared? We were going on a bamboo raft!
Guilin
by Tsemer on Jan.26, 2010, under China
The train to Guilin took 3 hours more than the stated 22.5 hours. If there was any notification of delay – it wasn’t in a language we could comprehend. So the last hours on the train were a bit nerve wrecking, constantly hoping we’re not missing our stop, even though we knew that Guilin is (supposedly) our train’s last stop. Maybe I should remove the parenthesis.
We arrived in a much bigger town (city?) than we anticipated. However, we had explicit directions from the train station, either a 2-stop bus ride or a 10 minute walk. So we hoisted our bags on our backs, and started marching straight in the wrong direction. After 15 minute walking, when we hit the city center, the smell of mistake was in the air, so we followed the recommended instructions when losing your way, and stopped by a police car to ask for directions. As expected, the policeman could not speak a word of English, so he called a younger man, who could not speak a word of English, and together they told us many wonderful things in Chinese. The younger suddenly manifested a blinking light bulb above his head, whipped out his phone, dialed, and gave us the phone. On the other side the voice said “The guy with the phone – he is my boyfriend. You should trust him. Get in his car and he will take you to your hostel.” Let me tell you, as much as Chinenglish is hard to understand face to face, it is nothing compared to how undecipherable it is over the phone. Regardless, since we were instructed to trust him – it seemed perfectly safe to trust him, so we squeezed into his car/minibus.
