So far, Yangshuo has been the most amazing place I’ve been to so far on this trip, and maybe even the most amazing place EVER! It’s so hard to describe exactly how I was feeling and exactly what I was seeing… all I know is that is that I thought I was in a fairytale. The landscape and scenery of this place is just so out of the this world!!! Everything from the limestone peaks, the Li River, the water buffalo, the off-road villages, the town itself… absolutely everything. Some parts of it were really dirty though and poor, but people in general just seemed so happy to be living there. Who could blame them though… the live in one of the most gorgeous places in the world! I will be posting some pictures up later tonight, so you guys can get a little taste of what I experienced the last four days. But let me continue on from my last entry…
That second night at the hostel we decided to bum around because we were all pretty exhausted from a day of biking. Glad we did, because we ended up meeting Lawrence and Eunji, a couple from Hong Kong. Eunji was Korean and Lawrence was Dutch, such a cute couple!!! So glad we decided to stay at a hostel because it’s cool to bump into people from all the world and to hear their stories! They decided to join us in the morning where we explored around town, went to a cool look-out point and ate lunch at the Pure Lotus, a vegetarian restaurant that Lawrence and Eunji had recommended! I’m no vegetarian, but that meal was definitely up in my top 5 best meals ever!!! It was just so good… after lunch we walked around a different side of town, which had a lot more shops and vendors we hadn’t seen before. Also got to try straight-up sugarcane which was pretty interesting… and while browsing through that side of town we actually ended up bumping into the Li River where we wanted to do that bamboo raft tour. We ended up doing a riverboat tour instead which was absolutely… unbelievable. Again, words can’t describe. We had this guide take us down a part of the river where we enjoyed the most breathtaking views and saw grazing water buffalo along the shore, fisherman fishing for beer fish and famers tending to their fields and animals. We stopped at the village of Luli Linsia (I think that’s how you spell it) where we were greeted by some of the locals and got to walk around for a little bit. Here is where we met the cutest little puppy EVER who became almost like a little tour guide as it kept checking behind to see if we were still following her… met her owner, Lisa (her English name at least, don’t remember her Chinese name), who was the most precious girl I’ve ever met!!! She was only a few years younger than us, but she completely melted my heart. It was so hard to say goodbye to her when we had to leave and not gonna lie, but I teared up a little. Just hearing a little about her life was just so moving. It amazes me how people live so simply and off the little resources that are available to them. Just blows my mind, but is so interesting to me. Definitely gives me a different perspective on so many things about life in general, especially after being able to see experience them up close and personal. While our boat was pulling away from shore I threw the girl a couple of my bead bracelets… I wanted her to have something to remember me :) It was definitely a moment that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life…
So later that night we met up with some other SAS students who were also in Yangshuo at this bar called Monkey Jane’s. It was so cool and such a fun time!!! Since Yangshuo is considered a backpacker’s paradise there are a lot of foreigners scattered throughout, if you know where to look lol Monkey Jane’s was one of these places! We met a lot of people from all over… England, Australia (Jayyy!), Germany, Finland (Riika!), the list goes on. Everyone here on different agendas, but all here to have fun!!! We all had a blast walking through town together, hitting up a club and eating good local food! It was another long night, but definitely worth every second of it!!! A few of us out of my group, Laura, Abby and I went rock climbing early in the morning with Lawrence, Eunji and some other SAS students. They met a guy, Craig who is originally from Canada, who has been climbing for over 30 years and has been living in Yangshuo for the past year or so, just doing what he does best, climb!!! Such a life. I definitely wouldn’t mind being a climbing bum hahaha life is just so simple!!! Anyways, so he brought us to this hot spot in Yangshuo and let us use his equipment and everything! It was so much fun, definitely up my alley! Haha, I hadn’t rock climbed in a while though, so I was pretty exhausted after one climb, but it was more than enough. The views were amazing and the work out was awesome! After climbing a bunch of us ate at the Pure Lotus again… even better than the first time!!! Just such a good restaurant overall.
We left Yangshuo later that night, took a sleeper bus to Chenzen, or Shenzen, however you spell it haha! Let me tell you… this was definitely the most ridiculous experience I’ve ever had in my entire life… like some kind of a sick joke!!! Hahaha, I had no clue what a “sleeper” bus looked at, but I figured that it would be fairly large, because they would have beds in them… well, the bus was definitely smaller than a large coach bus (I’m sure you all know what those are) and the layout was just insane. There were 3 rows of bunk beds I guess you could call them, stretching from behind the driver’s seat all the way to the very back. The aisles in between the beds were so narrow that you almost had to turn to the side to walk down them… I was on one of the top bunks, in the middle. And the beds were like the width of my body laying flat down on my back and when you stretched your legs all the way out (which actually went into this cubby-like compartment, like under the person’s ahead in front of you) your toes still kinda curled. I’m not even that tall either… I can’t imagine how some of these people managed who were inches taller and wider than me… guess they may be used to it!?? Who the hells knows. All I know is that it was the most uncomfortable night sleep of my life and I have never felt to grimy and disgusting waking up the next morning. It was just 12 painful hours of awful haha (with no bathroom btw!!), but definitely an experience I’ll never forget as well!
Now I’m in Hong Kong, which was another adventure trying to find this morning… haha, our ship happens to be like on the OTHER side of Hong Kong lol. Haven’t done much of anything all day, because I’ve just been too tired to go explore, which is weird for me to say, usually I always want to explore, and sleep later, but it’s all starting to catch up with me. Just took advantage of the free wifi in the mall, located conviently right outside where our ship is docked! After dinner though I’ll go venture… heard Hong Kong was cool at night! We’ll see! Tomorrow will be going to Lantau Island to see a Buddhist monastery and the big Buddha! I’ve been disappointed with SAS trips so far, but I’m hoping it’ll turn out good, but definitely will be relaxing since everything is just all organized for us!
We leave Hong Kong tomorrow night and only have 2 days at sea before we port in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. Crazy, right??
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