ying to the YANGSHUO

Where do I even begin? Yangshuo was nothing short of perfection and I miss it so much already. I'm like sitting here dreaming of going back. And like I've only been back for two days. What is this life, Hazel Grace? So here I am, sitting on that one darn awful red couch in our fridge room, trying to relive Yangshuo for the sake of this here blog post. Where do I even begin? Hmm maybe with the to-die-for pineapple popsicles, crapping my pants in a corn field, almost being pit-pocketed, or perhaps the view from our hostel's roof.

Okay, wait, I'll start with our alarms that went off at 4:10 AM the morning we left. Madi and I were the only ones who woke up somehow (quite the change up coming from the morning of leaving to Shanghai) and we did not think to wake the rest of the crew until 4:30, which was the time we were supposed to head out the door. Dumb on us, I know. Everyone jumped out of bed in a panic and we left around 4:40. I could not stop laughing as I walked around the apartment getting ready. I just always laugh my butt off early in the mornings. Don't ask me why. We made it to the train station with time to spare. It was pretty miraculous since we had trouble fitting all of us on one bus to get there. Madi and I also felt pretty sick to our stomachs that morning, but that didn't stop us from acting like lunatics the entire bus ride there. The train ride did not end up being too awful. Yes, it was twenty four hours, but we did have beds and well... each other. We mostly just slept, played games, watched movies, asked each other questions, gave each other massages, ate noodles and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches. I actually thought it was pretty glamorous. Getting there is half the fun, right? But don't get me wrong, as much as we LOVED (maybe a little sarcasm, if you didn't catch it) the train, we were ecstatic to be hopping off the next morning. Not only that, but we were in the great city of Yangshuo, finally. It's what we had all been waiting for.

We thought we were off to a great start, but no. Those Chinese people sometimes like to take all they can from you, including your sanity. When we walked out of the train station, there was a very nice man taking our bags saying that he was the bus driver to get to Yangshuo. So, we handed over our forty RMB each and got on the bus, only to realize that as we drove away, he was uhh not driving the bus, but rather, standing on the sidewalk. Hustled in China. That's what we are going to call this. The real bus driver came around later during the ride and collected our money. Turns out it was only supposed to be ten RMB. But it's okay. Things happen, right? Maybe we fed his family for the night... or paid for his drugs. Who knows. But we helped someone out. And that's only like eight dollars anyway. In that same bus ride, we did almost die as the bus driver swerved out of the way of a car. I kid you not, we were on two wheels, about to roll. Some people even fell out of their seats. If the Chinese are freaking out, you know it is a big deal. Yangshuo was absolutely beautiful. We walked down a really pretty street where our hostel was and there were small red flags lining the buildings, music playing, people dancing -- it was everything I pictured China to be before I came. This was the China I envisioned in my head. We made it to our hostel, Monkey Jane's and we all got ready and relaxed a little, then we were out to explore around the streets. We were all tempted to begin souvenir shopping, but we held back and just resorted to looking around. We walked around the Li River and took pictures and then everyone ate some rice and dumplings at a place on the side of the street and I got some really yummy street dumplings that actually ended up being my favorite thing there. And we soaked our feet in fish bowls. Uh I hated it so much. The fish would just nibble at your feet and it tickled so bad. Madi couldn't do it either. I am proud to say that I did it for like a couple minutes, but that was all. The hostel on our roof had the best view and it was also the place to get wifi, so we spent quite a bit of time up there each night. The first night, we saw some baby lizards and let's just say that it resulted with Madi on Kayl Salad's lap, shaking like a leaf.

One word -- LIZARD

The next day was spent touring around Guilin and we even had Sonya with us from China Horizons and thankfully she knew a tad bit of Chinese, so that helped out quite a bit. We wanted to bamboo raft down the Li River, but we arrived too late, so we ended up walking around the city and just taking a small bamboo raft out to a really cool view to take some pictures. It was beautiful. We found these amazing pineapple popsicles on the street and these not so amazing noodles. But that's okay, sometimes you'll run into bad food. Oh, and there was this really rickety bridge. Uh, you thought you were about to die when you walked across. AND the Chinese people were riding mopeds across. Those crazy people. On our way to the bus late that night, I felt pressure on my backpack, only to reach around and feel the front pocket unzipped and there was an older lady standing there looking really suspicious. She hadn't taken anything but had tried and then she disappeared into the crowd. It was so freaky and I felt really weird after that. I hate when people steal. Or even try to steal. After the bus, we got home on motorcycle taxis. Talk about an exhilarating experience! It was so scary. That night around one in the morning, some of us were starving, so we resulted to street noodles that ended up being the bomb. We also invited these two really nice guys to sit with us. One spoke pretty good English. The other one was just adorable and he bought us coke since we said that we didn't drink, then he proceeded to have us all do "cheers" the rest of the night. It was so cute. The whole thing. Just sitting there in China, in the middle of the street, two strangers. When we said goodbye, we had someone take pictures of us -- "1.. 2.. 3.. smell!!" We all gave hugs and the one with good English gave the air kiss on both cheeks, TO ME. I felt high afterwards. What a night.

Motorcycle taxi!

We were on to riding mopeds the next day. When we walked out to get on them, a few of us just hopped on and didn't really know what we were doing, so the guy freaked out when he saw the driving skills we were lacking and was like, "get off now!! You can't drive." Luckily, after practicing around the block a little, the guy was sort of convinced that we could do it. We had so much fun trying to get around in all the Chinese traffic and riding around in the beautiful mountains of Yangshuo. We stopped and took pictures in different places, got flower crowns, rode down bamboo rafts, and went to the mud caves. The entire day was a blast. We had to have the mopeds back by seven and we were running a little late, so we all rushed down the mountain, in the traffic, in the dark. And we ended up getting split up. It caused me to swear a bit and Madi and I almost died trying to meander through the China traffic. Madi and I luckily found Kayl and Sonya and we found our way back, but the other girls all got pretty lost. On the bright side, it was an amazing day and we all lived.

Thursday was kind of a lazy day and we just ate good food and shopped around. Kayl had her wallet stolen from her purse while we were shopping, so that was awful. Courtney found this guy who was a cop and he took us to this restaurant. We all felt like we were on a date with Courtney and the guy, James. James even paid for Courtney's meal. I'll have you know that the meal was quite bad and we had to pay 45 yuan each for it. Yuck. Madi even spilled her pork on me while trying to have me smell it, so that was hilarious.

On Friday, we spent the majority of the day on a rickety bus, feeling nauseous, only to see the Rice Terraces. Don't get me wrong, they were amazing. But let's be honest, I felt sick (as usual) and the buses were not awesome. There were these little girls who were adorable and following me and Madi around. They loved our eyes and just really wanted to be American. They were so sweet. It was about a 3-4 hour drive there and back and we had barely any time at the terraces. Still unsure if it was worth the $50!

On Saturday, we rented the mopeds again and I think this was probably my favorite day. We just rode around through the mountains on beautiful roads where no one was driving, so that was amazing. We just relaxed and had fun exploring. We even took the mopeds off-roading. UH that was scary to say the least. At least Jennie was driving and not me. Haha. Later, Cocaine and Brooke had a cooking class, so the rest of us went and swam in the Li River. That was like my favorite thing ever. It felt so good after a long hot day and we had all been waiting so long for it. It was so nice. We then had the bright idea after that to go back up into the mountains to use the rest of our time on the mopeds. We stopped to take pictures at one point and Dakota and Kayl got their key stuck in the moped when trying to open the seat. Uhh so we were stuck in the middle of a corn field, no one around, mopeds not moving. We eventually flagged down a really nice, adorable family of four all on one bike and they tried their hardest to help get the key out. We ended up having to call the hostel for help and they sent one of their mechanics. But while we were waiting, like I mentioned, I've been sick, I pooped my pants. It just came on and I tried to run over and go in a river, but I had a one piece suit on under my clothes and yeah. So that was less than hilarious. Madi luckily helped me clean myself up in the dark with wet wipes in the middle of this corn field. Well, she held the flash light. When we finally were on our way back, Madi and I again got split up from the group and got so lost. We were lost for about an hour and we were both beyond frustrated, so by the time we made our way back, I was so flustered that I ran the moped into this guy's stand. haha and don't worry, then I showered. What a night it was.

To read a really hilarious version of this pooping my pants, running people over, kind of day, click here to read the words of My Pet Jean (AKA Dakota).

Have you ever had a charlie horse in the Li River?

We spent most of Sunday shopping and getting the last of our souvenirs, which was a great success! Jennie, Madi, and I got our faces painted on shirts. They had really good shopping in Yangshuo and it's always fun to barter with the cute little Chinese people. We were sad to be leaving. We woke up bright and early on Monday morning - 3 AM to be exact. We walked out to this taxi van and somehow managed to fit all of us, plus our giant bags in there. And we had seven people. And there were only six seats and the smallest trunk ever. We were crammed and thought we were about to be murdered as the guy drove through the freakin woods. Madi farted a lot and almost pooped her pants during the drive, but we made it. And I don't even want to speak about the train. Since this week was a holiday in China, the sleeper trains were full, so on the way back we were stuck in seats. More like slightly soft benches. Yeah. It was hell. I am surprised I am still living, literally. Some people pay to stand, so there are people everywhere. They lean on your seat, so you usually have someone's elbows in your head, or butt in your face. It stinks, there's no AC,  the squatters are awful, people like to STARE. And trying to sleep on there was the worst. I mean luckily Dakota kept me company and we laughed our way through the misery (scraping our teeth with oreos and what not), but NEVER again. Plus, if it wasn't already bad enough, I was sick (you know) and whenever the train stops to get people, which is extremely frequent, you can't use the squatter. Of course, Murphy's Law, every time the train stopped, I needed to go. So I would pace up and down the crammed aisles to try to save myself from pooping my pants. Luckily, I never did. I am still so grateful. We were so glad to be home and I fell asleep immediately. 

Our paparazzi while having ourselves painted on shirts!

These adorable little girls brought us these candies to help get us through the torture. Too bad the wrappers were stuck to the candy, so they were not edible. 

I MISS YANGSHUO, but not that awful train. 

XO Kenzie