Yangshuo

The next morning I woke up, cleaned up, made a run for a taxi and arrived at a huge train station. The train ride was good; I found out that I had booked a soft sleeper. During the ride I got my picture taken a few times again, posing with different people and in between I practiced my Mandarin. After arriving in Guilin, I asked for a ticket to Xi’an and they only had hard-seats available (27 hours). Not knowing whether I could easily get a ticket to Kunming from Xi’an and while running short on time, I decided to leave this one open.

Next, I figured out how to get a bus to Yangshuo, I had been told it is even better. When getting there I bargained for a big room, went for a walk and enjoyed the mountains spread around town. At night I went for a drink, ended up in a bar and was challenged for a Chinese drinking game with dices. I count myself blessed that I soon figured out how to bluff my way through. One of the girls I was playing with went to the stage, grabbed the microphone and I was told that she would sing a song for me. So I sat down near the stage and enjoyed the moment (never been more confident). One of her friends set me up with a rose, so I could thank her afterwards. The applause was ours, while she was the one that deserved it!

The next day I rented a bicycle, cycled my way through the rice fields, steered away from the water buffalos and enjoyed the round shaped mountains, huge mountainous rocks and various green colors. Along the riverside there was a small restaurant serving fresh lobster, so I paid 35RMB and enjoyed a plate full of fresh lobster. My last stop was at the riverside and I ended my day with a swim in the river, while the water buffalos passed by. The next day I decided to repeat this on a different route. Halfway through when trying to get my camera out for a picture, it slipped out of my hands and broke in the grind. Later on about 20kms out of town I had a flat tire, so I hitchhiked in a truck to the nearest town. Had my tire repaired and was off again. This wasn’t my most successful day.

The day before I left I biked my way to a water cave. We went in by boat, walked around, enjoyed the beauty of the dripping stalagmites and went for a swim in the river passing through, had a mud bath and cleaned ourselves up in the hot springs, deep enough to dive in.
For my return to Guilin, I had booked a bamboo raft to cover some of the distance. When floating down the river, I saw the scenery that made it to the 20RMB bill.