my travels so far

so this is actually a post i had been working on as a draft but i never finished it so i thought id post it anyway, its almost 2 weeks old now but whatevs

my trip has been going quite well as so far. i am currently in a hostel in guilin awaiting my train to kunming for a few days and from there i dont know.

lets see where to start. i arrived in guilin on sunday morning and got lost when i got off at the wrong bus stop, i went one more and then i found it easily. i was too early to check in so i attempted to buy some breakfast and instead wound up with 10 bread sticks, stupid american. i spent my day just walking actually around the edges of the touristy scenic areas and found some interesting markets and made a few paintings during my wanderings. the night was uneventful and i just hit the hay for my early morning boat ride to yangshuo with some swedes i met in the lobby.

got up early in the morning and hoped on this little janky motor boat barely big enough for the five of us to fit. we had a nice cruise down the river with some amazing scenery. we parted ways once in yangshuo and i went to find my first hostel in yangshuo as the one i wanted was booked up for the first night. i was met at the boat station by the owner whose distinguishing mark was the half a finger missing on his right hand, just as the website had stated. i got settled in and grabbed a bike and headed for the countryside. i made my way first toward the famous moon hill which like a mountain with a half moon shape cut out appropriately. it made a nice hike up to the top minus the old ladies following you up to the top trying to sell water. they will follow you all the way to top just so you might buy on bottle of water. so as mean as it sounds im a total asshole to them in hope that they will save their energy and not follow me cause i wont buy water from them almost entirely on principle. so i got the top with out my shadow only to have another one attach to me and then i had to get her to leave me alone and then she tried to guilt trip me and then finally gave up. finally i had a peaceful view of yangshuo with no, "hallo, you buy water!" "just buy one, you buy later". i continued my bike adventures and got quite muddly going through the "bike path" that wasnt marked at all and consisted of riding through random village streets. meetup with two guys from chicago and an english couple who were equally lost and we eventually found our way back via a super muddy road. oh and on the way i took a quick swim with a water buffalo which was rather refreshing. i made it back in time for the family style dinner and had a great talk with a father from Belgium on topics ranging from politics to hip hop. wandered around the city to quell my boredom for the evening and ran into a nice guy who ran a rock climbing gym and offered to take me out climbing in a few days.

so here is where my life got a littel complicated as i had to transfer to a little known hostel on the outskirts of town. i hitched a moto taxi and got half only to realize he was trying to rip me off. i got off and stuffed a 20 in his pocket and walked the rest of the way which wasnt actually that far. arrived at my new hostel, the giggling tree, a wonderful converted barnyard run by a very pleasant dutch family. i dropped my stuff and made my way to the "real water cave". this adventure actually wound up being quite fun for two reasons, swimming underground in a cave and no crazy multicolor lights like in every other chinese cave. i actually just kind of hung back and made the tour myself. there was a really cool mudbath pond that was a first time for me. and at the end there was a huge underground waterfall that you could stand under, just like in those herbal essence commercials =). i spent the remainder of my afternoon relaxing on the terrace overlooking the farming valley and amazing hills.

for my last day in yangshou i made arrangements with the friend i met the evening prior to go out rock climbing. i got up bright and early and cycled into town to met up. we grabbed some gear and a ton of bananas and headed for wine bottle hill. i hadnt climbed in about a year so i was pretty out of shape, i still managed to make it up a 5.9 and about halfway on a 5.10. after a few climbs i was tired and we headed back. the owner of the gym offered me some free noodles at his restraunt which were quite delicious, a really nice and genuine guy. i could really see myself staying in yangshuo for a few weeks and just climbing and hanging out. maybe someday, at the moment i have the travel bug and i need to be moving on. just after that the most random moment of my travels so far occured, i spotted on the side of the road the couple who we were marooned with in guangzhou airport and once again ran into on a private beach in sanya. it still amazes me how small the world is even here in china .i crashed for sometime back at hostel and waited for the midday heat to die down. around 4 the light was such a beautiful shade of yellow that i couldnt resist one more bike ride around the valley. on my way home i ran into my belgian friend once again for the second random encounter of the day.