Vacation Time!
We hopped onto a sleeper train at 10pm and
headed off for our 26-hour train ride to Guilin and Yangshuo where we spent our
week vacation. It meant more to us to be together on the train this trip than
it did for all of us to have bottom bunks so I got to experience the very top
bunk on the train. I always try to be a good sport about things but I admit I
had a mini germs-panic-attack while I was up there because it was extremely
close quarters and nothing was clean. The top bunk proved to be worth it though
because I had privacy up there, no one sat on my bed, it was quieter up there,
and I didn’t ever have direct sunlight on me which made sleeping most of the
way possible. We entertained ourselves with eating, sleeping, card games,
movies, books, scriptures, music, etc. We were super happy to find out that the
ride is actually only about 22 hours long, so we got to the city sooner than
expected.
At the train station our group split in two and
we went to our separate hostels. Theirs was right across from the train station
but ours took a little bit more walking. Finally we found it hidden in this
back little area and I was less than impressed, but all the good reviews we had
read about it were proven true once we got inside. You would think I would have
learned by now to never judge a book by its cover. Even the people that worked
at Wada Hostel were super incredible. Everyone was nice and spoke English and
basically encouraged fun, partying, and mingling. They catered to our every
need and helped us find any place we were going plus they booked all the
tickets for us for events. Every once in a while (which turned into every night
because it was SO good) we ate dinner there, and boy was it worth it! The cost
was higher than street food but it was by far the best café-type food that I
have ever eaten, including in America. Oh it was heavenly! Our room was quaint,
but always damp, so we only spent the necessary amount of time in our rooms. If
you ever go to Guilin or Yangshuo in China, I highly suggest staying at the
Wada hostel for at least the night you get there and the night before leaving.
Note to future ILP people: Stay at least one night at the Wada in Guilin but stay the rest of the time in Yangshuo; it will save you time and money.
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Guilin is the main city, and Yangshuo is a small branch off
of it, but both cities are incredible! I felt more like I was in China in these
two cities than I have felt anywhere else in China. They felt more like China
than even Beijing or Shanghai because there were way more people on the streets
and the scene behind the city was incredibly gorgeous and there were just many
more things that I saw and experienced that I had previously imagined would be
in China. Guilin is more like the bustling, business, city life and Yangshuo is
more touristy and pretty. We loved our hostel so much that we stayed in Guilin
every night and had to take a 1½-hour bus ride to Yangshuo everyday. My very
first day in Guilin I realized that I need to step it up learning Chinese so
all day I practiced the numbers and little phrases that I had learned, so when
it came time to get buses or barter prices or discuss time I was able to be the
person that interpreted for the group. Such a cool experience! Because of that
experience, I have a new and burning determination to learn Spanish. No matter
what I will learn it!
In
Yangshuo, you could look down any busy street and you could always see gorgeous
mountain scenes right at the end. We were literally at the base of all of these
fantastic mountains… the best way to describe them would be to call them Dr.
Seuss Mountains.
Me and the other girls in my hostel left the
group a bit early and returned our bikes (after a long and memorable day of
thrilling scenes and a blissful ride) so that we could make it back to our
hostel in time for the dumpling making class/party. They Chinese taught all of
us foreigners that were staying there how to make the dumplings (pot stickers)
and then we cooked and ate them all afterwards. That was way fun and it was
enjoyable to be so social with people from all around the world.
Tuesday morning we woke up early and found a bus to the Rice
Terraces. On the way there we met another foreign friend named Michael who was
actually touring the world. He had worked for 7 years near his home in Germany
and decided to join a sailing team just for a few weeks, but he caught the
“traveling bug” and still hasn’t let it go 7 months later. While on the boat he
realized that he had all of his vacation time saved up plus he was single with
no one else to spend his money on so he figured that was the prime time in his
life to do some adventuring and now he has gone to uncountable places around
the globe. The ride to the Rice Terraces was 3 hours long in a tiny bus on
switchbacks up through the mountains. Surprisingly I rarely get sick here like
I do at home. That motion would have instantly made me sick in America but
didn’t effect me at all here in China. Interesting. Anyway, the Rice Terraces
are mountains that have been cut in a stair step-like pattern so that farmers
could utilize the space to grow their rice. These mountains are so famous
because of the size and number of them. It really is incredible imagining all
the year of work it must have taken to cut out over singly level and layer of
the terraces just so they could plant their rice on the mountains surrounding
their village. It was a very rainy day but I think the mist added to the vast
and stunning view of the terraces.
On the top of one of the mountains we stopped at
a hostel to look out on its deck at the view. A Chinese lady asked us if we
were hungry and we treated her like we do all of the store owners and basically
blew her off like we do all people trying to sell us stuff and said, “No, not
really, but thanks for offering.” She paused then said, “I don’t work here, I
was just being kind and wanted to strike up a conversation.” Oh. Awkward. China
has ruined me in that aspect: I never accept random gifts or services from
anyone without questioning first, I don’t wave at the cars (taxis) that honk,
and I always assume that people who talk to us are trying to sell us stuff.
Well after apologizing and talking with her awhile we decided to have lunch
with her at this hostel overlooking the valley-village and terraces. A little
while later Michael showed up with a friend he had found, Henry, and they also
joined us for lunch. It was so fun sitting and talking with all our new friends
at this gorgeously scenic area. After lunch we all finished the hike up the
mountain together, took group pictures, then headed back down. We all decided
to take the same bus back so we got to basically spend the whole day with our
new friends and it really was sad when we had to split so everyone could go
their separate ways.
Our hostel was so awesome that we
didn’t mind spending our extra time in the evening just partying at it. We
would eat the fantastic dinner there almost every night and just talk or play
board games. Tuesday night after the Terraces everyone was pretty pooped so
they headed to bed early but Ellen (another ILP) and I knew we had to make a
plan for the next day. We stayed up and discussed with the hostel owner where
we could go, how to get there, the times, prices, etc. There was also a group
of French guys that were getting sloshed while playing pool who decided to jump
in and help us as well. Little ole’ naïve Lexa learned that day that alcohol is
made out of grain because their breath smelled like my mom’s rising bread.
Interesting.
The next morning our plan was
finalized and we caught a public to the Reed Flute Cave where they lit up the
stalagmites and stalactites with different colored lights so it was more like a
light show in a cave. Many reviews said it was cheesy so we went in with the
mind-set that it would be cheesy so we left happy and impressed instead of
bummed. In the middle of the tour (spoken in Chinese so us Americans just kind
of did our own thing until we realized that the lights would turn off after the
main group left the area…) we were all gathered in a big main area in the cave
and all the lights turned off and they projected this awesome show on the wall
about how caves transform over millions of years. It was actually pretty neat.
After the caves we hopped on
another bus to Yangshuo again. Once we arrived we found a pretty cheap taxi to
take us to the Mud Caves!! We arrived and looked around for dressing rooms but
all we could find were the bathrooms… which…. I can’t even explain them well
enough! It was just one big room with little half walls creating squares along
the walls. When you went into the square, there was a long crevice/ trough
splitting it in half… yes, you were supposed to squat over this trough and “do
your business” then eventually a big bucket of water at the beginning of the
trough would dump and wash everything down through the trough ‘til it drained
at the end. Bleh! But of course I used this trough surrounded by a halfway just
to say I did! Can I just insert here that changing without allowing anything to
touch the ground included your own feet is VERY challenging, not impossible,
but very hard. Well when we finished we locked up our valuables in some lockers
and started our tour though the cave. It was funny because this tour was almost
exactly like the Reed Flute Caves because the walls were lit up with light just
like the previous cave… oh well! At the end of the tour the guide brought us
into this larger room that was less lit up and pointed to the side and said,
“and here is the mud bath.” Woohoo! Yes, we legitimately swam/ trudged around
up to our necks in mud! It was so incredible! Also, when you lay down, your
body just kind of floats in mud… it’s so cool. There were dinky showers where
you could rinse off the majority of the mud then later there were some hot springs
where you could wash off the rest of the mud. It was good and bad that the hot
springs were so dirty because then no one could see what your were cleaning on
your body because they couldn’t see through the water! Luckily there was a real
(kinda haha) changing room (that’s right, one open room for the males and one
open room for the females near the end of the cave where we all changed and got
ready for the ride back.
Thursday was half the group’s last
day of our vacation. We started out by wandering around a cute shopping strip
where they were tons of touristy trinkets and fun cafes. One café was called
Lucy’s and we got burgers, cordon bleu, pizza, snickers milkshakes, and apple
crumble. Oh boy it was so good! Then we rented some bikes (real pedal ones this
time) and rode around the mountains. This day was SO HOT! We were all roasting,
so we decided to stop and go bamboo rafting like we had wanted to do the first
day. They were trying to tell us that it was 180 yuan for 2 hours on the bamboo
ride. First off that is WAY to expensive and secondly we didn’t want to be in
the direct sun for that long. I have to brag right here a little bit because I
was able to be the interpreter for my group and the Chinese person we were
talking with! Yes, the little Chinese I did know was very broken,
mispronounced, and very slow but I knew Chinese and was able to be useful in a
situation because of it! I told them the price was too expensive and how much
we wanted to pay, and then actually almost understood their response, and then
was able to tell that that we only wanted to go for a half an hour and how much
we would pay for that. Success! After the incredible bamboo ride we headed back
to the bus for the 2-hour ride back to Guilin so I could start packing up my
stuff. We got our train tickets a little late before we left on the trip so
half the group went home Thursday night and half the group went home Friday
night. I guess I’m kinda glad I didn’t stay Friday because that was the main
holiday day and so everything was packed, more expensive, and the temperature
got to the 100s so all the girls got fried! They returned home burnt and
exhausted (one girl actually got 2nd degree burns on her thighs
because of the intense heat).
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| On the bus ride back several high school students chatted with us for a while so of course we had to get a picture with them! |
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| This is what I packed for the week trip: a backpack on my back full of clothes and a backpack on the front full of all the valuables and food. |
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