I woke up yesterday to the sound of spitting outside our window. Although we had heard about the spitting in China, we hadn't seen much of it in Beijing or Shanghai. We had just enough time to shower, pack our bags, and check out at noon. They are very strict about check out times here and will charge you half your daily rate for check outs between noon and six (we haven't experienced this yet, but it's posted in most of the places we've stayed).
I'll admit that I was feeling a bit under the weather and grouchy. We got a recommendation for a pizza place on the main drag and despite the gestured vague directions were able to find it. We were rewarded on our way with views of the Li River and we were already enjoying getting out of the cities. The pizza place was touristy, in other words it rose to Western standards of cleanliness and had a wonderful little patio where we could sit and look across the road to the river. But the prices were also inflated. Despite the cost, it did not disappoint. We both had great coffee and shared a thin crust pizza. It was exactly what my flagging spirits needed. And they even had a clean restroom.
After we ate, we made our way to the bus stop to catch a bus to the main bus station where we would get on a bus for Yangshuo. As we were waiting at the bus station, a rickshaw driver came by and offered us a ride. We negotiated a price that was about 1 yuan more than we think the bus price was and jumped on. Reid ended up giving him a 1 yuan tip because the most he tried to sell us was some "river fish" that we could eat on the way. We arrived at the bus station and walked inside. No English desk. Well, at least we know how to say Yangshuo. The Lonely Planet explained that you wanted the express bus, not the local bus. We understood that the local bus only left from the train station, but after the airport, we wanted to be clear that we got on the right bus. We pulled out our mandarin book and Reid managed to buy us two tickets on the "kuaisu" bus to Yangshuo that departed at 2:35 for 30 yuan. We picked up some snacks and Reid used the bathroom and then we tried to puzzle out where exactly our bus left out of this busy bus station. Our tickets were almost entirely in Chinese. We could read that it left on 4.28.10 at 14:35 and that one of us was "3" and the other "4." The only other number on our tickets was a "10" and our guess that this was the departure bay was correct. We queued up with some locals and bordered our bus about 15 minutes later.
It took an hour and a half to get to Yangshuo and the scenery was beautiful. I was glad, however, that we chose to sit in the middle of the bus where we couldn't observe the drive. If the honks (emitted by our bus and cars around us on the road) were any indication, it wasn't something we wanted to see. We arrived in Yangshuo at 16:04 and as soon as the bus pulled in a group of touts huddled by the door to "help" us find rooms and places to rent bikes. We were able to fend them off and they didn't even follow us half a block away where we went to re-group. We ducked into a bar and ordered a beer while we oriented ourselves and then set off to Bamboo Inn. They operate two locations, the Inn, which I think is mostly dorms, and a newer Bamboo Hotel. They had a double room available at the hotel, so "auntie" walked us three minutes down the road to the other location where we have a great room for 130 yuan ($19) a night. It even has a bathtub! No more showering over the toilet for our stay here. The bed is soft, a novelty in China, and we have a little two-person patio with a bit of a view of some karsts. Perfect. It's booked starting on the 2nd, becuase of the Chinese Labor Day, so we'll have to move to a different room. But we'll enjoy the balcony while we have it.
After checking in, we showered off the travel day and walked around before finding dinner. The river is a stone's throw away and, if we choose, we can take a Bamboo Raft ride down the river. It is just beautiful here. After checking out the scenery we went to a Vegetarian restaurant for dinner. In Southern China they eat rats and dogs, so we are happy to avoid those whenever possible (I'm probably being paranoid, though. This is a very touristy area, so I don't think anyone is going to sell you dog or rat without you knowing it.) After dinner we took a long walk back to our hotel and were met by the general glare of neon lights announcing the various bars, restaurants, and shops that were all peddling their wares. The karsts had spotlights on them so that you could enjoy them as a backdrop. I told Reid that it reminded me of being at the State Fair. I was suprised I didn't run into anyone trying to sell me funnel cake. Despite being so touristed, Yangshuo is charming and I appreciate the variety of food here. I probably wouldn't have to eat anything Chinese for the balance of our stay. The Chinese food we've had here is very good, but you do find yourself craving something familiar.
We had planned to rent some bikes today, but after a leisurely morning and late lunch it started to rain. We wandered around the shops instead and found a pair of matching bands. Yay!! We then headed to the farmer's markets. We managed to avoid seeing any dogs skinned, but did see a bunch of cages housing any type of fowl you'd want and some pretty fat bunnies. Well, I think we've figured out dinner plans, so I think I"ll sign off so we can get some food.
No comments:
Post a Comment