I'm on a boat

I know it has been a while, and there hasn’t been a great deal worth reporting on. But it seems that now is a good time for an update. The weather has finally turned and it is a beautiful spring day here in Kunming. I’m sitting here in bay window looking at a qoi fish pond, sipping coffee. Lest you think this is how I spend all my days, I must say that we are still on spring break. Ridiculously late in the year, I know. It did coincide with the Chinese tomb-sweeping festival. You go to your ancestor’s tomb and sweep out all the dust, kind of spruce the place up a bit. You give them fresh offerings of fruit and incense, burn some fake money so that your ancestors can buy themselves something nice. It’s kind of like mother’s day for dead people. The best part is lighting off a huge string of firecrackers when you’re all finished, effectively making passersby feel as though they are in a war zone.

I just got back from a trip to neighboring Guang Xi province. They have landforms called “karsks” which are basically gigantic rocks that shoot up from the ground. And by gigantic I mean really really gigantic. Check out facebook for pix. Anyway, on a lovely Friday afternoon a group of us hopped on board a train that would be our home for the next 20 hours. It’s like a moving summer camp with several dozen complete strangers. Good times. We purchased the top bunks, as those were the cheapest. Aside from requiring acrobatic skills to climb in and out of them, they were quite nice. The only minor inconvenience was that occasionally the train would jerk about as though we had just hit a cow (I’m pretty sure it was just moving to a different set of tracks, I’m fairly certain no harm came to any livestock during our journey) and forcibly jerk a sleeper awake. The light sleepers among us were unimpressed. But my cabin was next to the bathroom, so I really can’t complain, although the bathroom made me very happy that I had brought along my rubber boots.

We arrived in Guilin, the capital of Guang Xi province, about 20 hours after we left Kuming. There we wandered about in the rain and found a travel agent who helped us get a hotel. Subsequently we spent a lovely evening having dinner at pizza hut, chilling at a bizarre coffee house, and prowling a night market. The next day were up bright and early to head out to the rice terraces at Ping An. The day started rather bleakly, with nothing but rain and fog as far as the eye could see (again yay for rubber boots!). So we piled into a bus, where the tour guide proceeded to talk (yell, rather) for an hour straight about all the things we would do and see when we arrived at our destination. It made want to bust out a window and make a break for it. We finally arrived in a ridiculously touristy fashion, herded into the tourist information center (read: place where they make you wait in hopes that you will buy their sourvenirs) and after enough time had elapsed we get onto a different set of buses and head up the mountain. This is where things get fun. Careening through narrow, rocky paths on the side of a mountain is really what I came here for. I like the sense of adventure, it’s far better than any roller coaster.

We finally arrive at our destination, a lovely little village nestled in the mountains, home to a minority tribe called the Yao. The views were breathtaking, however it was a bit sad to think that these people just subsist on selling their culture to tourists. We saw a “long hair show” which consisted of the women (who never cut their hair) showing us how long their hair was. There were old ladies everywhere aggressively hawking their wares. One decided that my friend’s fiancé (who was wearing shorts) needed to buy one of her shawls to wrap around himself like a skirt so that he could keep warm. While it was really beautiful, there was something kind of depressing in the commercialism of it all. But they need to eat just like everyone else, and if this is the only way they can do it then more power to them.

After the village we headed up to the rice terraces. On a clear day you can see for miles. This was not a clear day. We didn’t really get to see the rice terraces, but the fog was beautiful in itself and it made for a really cool hike. We ate a delicious meal of chicken and rice cooked inside of bamboo shoots. They actually stuff the food inside of the bamboo chute and put it in the fire. It was one member of the group’s first time to use chopsticks in his life. It was kind of funny. After spending the afternoon hiking through beautiful fog, we returned to Guilin just in time to catch a bus to the neighboring town of Yang Shuo. We met our excellent guide, Christine, and checked into the Fawlty Towers Guesthouse. Funny name, but a lovely place. They had sheets and hot water and everything like that. We arrived in Yang Shuo around 8pm. Christine lives outside of time, so we had to wait at the bust station for her to arrive. While were waiting, we noticed that all the mountains have lights at the base, so you can see the mountains lit up at night. We also saw a cloud of smog that changed colors and weren’t really sure what that was all about. We figured it has something to do with the light show. At least we hoped it did. Anyway, after checking in and showering we strolled down the main western street and had dinner. At which point we were so exhausted that we promptly returned the guesthouse and passed out.

The next day was river day!!!! In the morning we took a bus to the village of Xing Ping and rode power boats down the river. You’re supposed to sit in them, but that was really boring so I stood on the front, much to the amusement of the Chinese tourists. It was like something from Lord of the Rings, huge mountains, basically enormous boulders, on either side of the river. We went upriver and then turned around. At the turn around the boatman made us put on life jackets, which seemed strange to me since we’d come this far without them. Apparently the government safety patrol didn’t start work until we’d stopped to turn around, rendering prior life-jacket usage unnecessary. We returned to Yang Shuo for lunch, and then we rented bikes and biked to the river for bamboo rafting.

First, a word about biking. I love biking. Pedaling hard, having the wind in my face, is the absolute best feeling in the world. I am not a leisurely biker, biking slowly sort of defeats the purpose. Many in our group did not share these sentiments, so I would go ahead of them, bike back to make sure they were still there. At one point I took a wrong turn and had to bike back a long ways, but I still say that was their fault for not keeping up with me. We arrive at the bamboo raft place and found a jolly band of raftmen sitting around. After exchanging some dance moves (we are working towards better cultural understanding) some of them finally decided they were low enough on beer money that they were ready to take us out. There are a few small cascades, so old ladies sell plastic bags to put on your feet to keep them dry. I opted to removed my shoes and roll my pants up. It was definitely the better decision. It was really nice and relaxing to just float on a boat down the river watching the biggest mountains I’ve ever seen.

We alit from the bamboo rafts and took the scenic biking route back to Yang Shuo. It was like biking in Cambodia all over again. Dodging water buffalo, riding 6 in wide rice paddy roads, biking through huge puddles and over gigantic rocks was quite refreshing after the traffic of Kunming. Upon our return to Yang Shuo, we split up, some going back to guesthouse, others heading to McDonalds for some coffee, fries, and ice cream. Dinner of champions. After dinner, my intrepid adventure buddy Kim and myself wandered around the city, then we found an excellent spot to sit and people-watch. Got stared at, stared back, played “where do you think they’re from?”, ate fried bananas. Nice. We got back to the guesthouse and played card games. The next day we returned to Guilin and played cards at KFC until we had to leave for the airport. Got back to Kunming and ate take-out while watching the Last Samurai. Lovely end to a lovely trip. And school doesn’t start til Monday!!!

Take care all