The town of YangshuoOnce again, armed with my itinerary and Lonely Planet China (2007! gasp!) this time, i had higher hopes for a better and more exciting journey. We arrived in the Guilin airport at 10am. Then found the CAAC shuttle bus that brought us to the city. Karst peaks surround the outskirts of the city. I couldn't get enough of gaping at the rocks, trying to give names and shapes to each one i passed, imagining in my head scaling them all.
We reached the city of Guilin in about 45mins. Two of the Caucasian foreigners on the bus was immediately swamped by taxi drivers as soon as they alighted. They were trying to find their way to Yangshuo and these taxi drivers were quoting him Y150 to take them there. They approached me for help to translate what they need. I told them they're better off taking a bus from the main bus station in Guilin to Yangshuo as that cost only Y13 (later i found out the prices have increased to Y14). So instead i got them to take a taxi to the main bus station instead, and made sure the taxi driver used the meter. "要打表的喔！“ i said.
on my itinerary, it said that we'll spend the first day in guilin and the next 4 days in yangshuo. When we reached the Flowers Youth Hostel, to our dismay, there was only a twin room left. and the price had doubled because it was the peak season (Chinese National Holiday, which they called "十一" Oct First) It was then that J suggested we go to Yangshuo immediately. A Polish guy at the Youth Hostel said he was also going to Yangshuo and that we could give Elephant Trunk Hill in Guilin a miss because it was nothing spectacular and looked exactly as it did in pictures. Nothing less, nothing more.
So with our backpacks on our back, we trudged to look for the Guilin main bus station, which to my delight and surprise, was only across from the main street from where the hostel is located! How convenient!
We boarded a mini-bus and waited for the bus to fill before it left for Yangshuo which was an hour's drive away. Y14 per person for the bus ride. Super cheap.
In Yangshuo, you only need to know 2 main roads: Pantao Road, which is the one that links the town to Guilin, and Xi Jie (西街）or Foreigner Street. The latter has been turned into a pedestrian street where riding your bikes (motorised or not) will land you a fine (as told by our innkeeper) Xi Jie is also a super touristy street lined with touristy shops, cafes and restaurants. As we haven't had lunch, we decided to eat first and look for accomodation after. A local woman, wearing a fisherman's hat approached us and asked if we had accomodation or travel plans. She said she could take us around and be our guide. I really wanted to find out which restaurant here sells good 啤酒鱼, or beer fish, as it was one of the most famous local dish. She brought us to a restaurant that she said was one of the best and so we settled for lunch. We ordered the beer fish, a plate of Sichuan 辣子鸡 and a plate of 小白菜. The fish cost us Y20 per kilo and we had already chosen the cheapest! We actually wanted catfish, but saw that it was Y88 per kilo on the menu. No thanks, next!
Lunch was satisfying, though it came up to over Y100, which was extravagant in places like these. We now believed that the woman who recommended this place would have earned some sort of commission from bringing tourists to the restaurant. She was still patiently waiting outside the restaurant and when we approached, she once again began her tirade of recommendations. We politely ignored her, saying thank you a million times, until we found the youth hostel that we wanted to put up in. This International Youth Hostel (Yangshuo Branch) looked really bare at the front reception. We got our room for the night in a room that was furnished with only the bare essentials with the addition of a leaky toilet pipe.
Once we had our accomodation sorted, we decided to save all the climbing and exploring for the next day. For now, we will explore the small town and streets of Yangshuo and see the sights by the river. We headed down to the riverside, where we were once again approached by touts who pestered us to take their bamboo raft 竹伐 for a river tour. The first woman quoted Y100 per person for an hour's ride. We didn't want to spend that much so we told her we'll walk instead. She followed us all along the way (very persistent!), waited as we stopped to take photos. After much persuasion (on my part) and rejection, she finally left us alone. The river banks were also filled with old men dressed in fisherman garb (complete with straw hat) sitting on their rafts with storks on board. Apparently you could pay Y2 to take a photo with them but we took a picture OF them from the top of the bridge.
Finally, when we were tired of walking, we decided to approach one of the boatmen ourselves to negotiate the price of a bamboo raft ride. In the end I manage to bargain it down to a total of Y60 which made the boatman very unhappy and he grumbled and complained to his boatmen friends in the other boats.
The view from the river was awesome. We saw the Green Lotus Peak, which was named thus because it looked like an unopened lotus bud. There were all sorts of names for different peaks, but I think the highlight of our river boat ride was when our boatman received a call from his lookouts to say that the coast guards were coming. We were rowed to shore midway and the boatman told us to get off the boat and wait. Apparently, these bamboo raft were illegal as they were deemed dangerous by the authorities. However, these boatmen are all fishermen by livelihood, how can I doubt their skills? Besides, if you fall into the river, you could easily wade your way from one end of the river to the other without getting your belt wet.
Awaiting the grand appearance of the coast guardsAfter the boat ride, we wanted to climb the Green Lotus Peak as it was recommended in the Lonely Planet guide (and of course it was in my itinerary). However we found out it was Y30 for the admission fee and the climb was only halfway up the peak, we then decided to give it a miss. We decided to walk around and look for the Dragon Head Peak 龙头山, which was apparently 600m away. Onward with our trekking!
We spent the night walking around Xi Jie and Pantao Road looking for the night market listed in Lonely Planet. According to the guide, the night market from across the bus station sells the local delicacies like fried dried rat and fried squirrel. However, after asking around, we found out that the night market has closed down and that these delicacies were outlawed by the government. There is another night market on Chengzhong Road, which is just behind Xi Jie, but is very much a tourist trap. We decided to look for accomodation for our next four nights because more and more people are arriving in Yangshuo. An old woman approached us when she overheard us looking for accomodation. She brought us through a long alleyway and up some stairs to a corridor. At this point we suspected that she actually lived here because she took out a key to unlock a gate. We entered into an apartment when she opened another door to reveal a bedroom. This, she charged Y150 a night. I asked to see the bathroom and she brought us to the opposite end of the corridor to reveal a common bath. We politely declined and said we'll think about it. Don't get me wrong, it was a clean and decent enough room but we wanted to go see more rooms and keep our options open.
We found this inn that was also listed in Lonely Planet called the Bamboo Inn Youth Hostel. The staff spoke very good English and were very helpful and pleasant. We decided to stay here for the rest of our trip. They also rented out bicycles (Y20 per day) without any need for a deposit. That was good enough for us and we headed to find ourselves a decent dinner.
On our next day, we got up really early, as enthusiastic as we were, because we were going to ride our bikes down to this village called Fuli （福利). According to the innkeeper at Bamboo Inn, Fuli is only an hour's ride away. Using our Y6 Yangshuo map, she pointed us in the direction we should take. One hour seemed pretty manageable to me, so armed with our map, bottled water and Lonely Planet guide, we rode away into the morning.
It was a pleasant ride except that I had no cow sense enough to rent a proper mountain bike. I had rented one of the ordinary bicycles, complete with a basket at the back (which i thought might be useful to carry our bottles in). However, when we hit the off-road trail, I began to regret immensely. Firstly, the suspension was NIL. Secondly, it was so difficult pedalling up the gravel roads and excruciating bouncing on my bicycle seat going downhill. We stopped now and then to take a breather, to climb small peaks along the way and to take magnificent pictures. In the end, the pedal on my bike hit the back of my left ankle and started to swell.
Can you tell which is the swollen ankle?The original plan was to cycle to this place on the map called 渡头村. From there we would be able to board a boat (with our bikes) to cross the river to Fuli. The boat ride apparently cost us only Y3 per person. But when we got there, the woman quoted us Y5 because we were taking our bikes with us.
It was a short boat ride. And Fuli is a very small village known for making paper fans and paintings. The people are friendly and the streets are safe. One woman told us we could just lock our bikes and place them in the corner while we roamed the village. They will be safe where they are and we can rest our minds and take to exploring. This is also the first place in which I tried my first taste of Guilin noodles, and I loved it! I also loved the tiny, old shop in which I ate my meal. They had little tables and stools for customers as if we were all child-sized. I added lots of chilli and green beans too! Yummy!
Guilin noodles!
The village of Fuli
There was nothing much to see in Fuli so we headed to the Fuli market in the village center. Market day happens every three days starting from the 2nd day of the month. I read this in Lonely Planet and had expected a market selling traditional Guilin crafts, touristy stuff. Instead it was really a proper market! This is a market where all the villagers go to to get their day-to-day necessities and groceries. It was interesting to walk through the different rows of stalls. There was even a row for food, although all the stalls looked like they were selling the same dish. Unfortunately, we didn't try any.
It looked as if we had come to end of the day's tour. There was nothing more to see in Fuli. We decided to ride back to Yangshuo. Instead of taking the same off-road trail again, we decided to take the main road back to Yangshuo, hoping it would take less time. To my dismay, the road less travelled would have been a wiser choice. It was a terrifying experience riding at the side of the road, sharing the road with vehicles that have never taken the highway code or stick to their lanes. At any moment vehicles could swerve in and out of lanes even if it meant crossing over to the lanes going in the other direction. Many times I have been frightened out of my wits when big buses coming from behind me gave a loud friendly toot at a million decibels. My swollen ankle didn't help. When I reached the hostel, it was purple as an eggplant.
On our third day, we decided to give our hurting butts (and my swollen ankle) a rest from those unforgiving bicycle seats. We took a bus to XingPing 兴坪, a village further up north from Fuli. We heard that in Xing Ping you could keep your eyes peeled for caged rats and snakes as they are a delicacy there. True enough, when we walked past a stall displaying their live catch of fish and shells, we decided to pop the question. "Do you sell any snakes or rats?" The owner lifted the table cloth to reveal a cage of king cobras under the table. These cobras go for Y200. J was esctatic, but that was not in our budget so we asked for cheaper items. Apparently, they do have other "poisonous" snakes going for Y100, which we eventually ordered. We asked to see the live snake before it came out as a fried dish. It was a long thin snake that looked pretty harmless. J thought it might have been a rat snake. We tried to take photos of the snakes but were told by the owners not to. Capturing these creatures for food has been outlawed by the government.
Fried snake
Rats for a snack?Upon deciding our lunch menu, we went to take a look at the other live creatures they had on sale. There were pheasants, and bamboo rats (that looked like civets) and field rats. I could not stomach the thought of eating rats and made sure my point got across. So no rats this time, only fried snake, that was served with a side dish of pepper and salt. To be honest, it wasn't that fantastic and the thought of eating snake made me feel really guilty and queasy after that. Kind of like when I ate live shrimps in Hangzhou. Why do I keep doing it?!
After that not-so-satisfying lunch, we walked towards the harbour to take a boat to a nearby fishing village called 渔村 (Yu Cun). However, we didn't book our tickets in advance and the tickets were going for ridiculous amounts that we decided to give it a miss. J spotted a hill just by the harbour and we decided to check it out. It was a blessing in disguise that we were broke. This nameless peak that we scaled offered the most amazing view from the top. Best of all, it was FREE! Finally, ONE hill that needs no admission fee, because I guess most people who come to the harbour had one purpose in mind -- to ride the boats to other destinations like the 九马画山(Jiu Ma Hua Shan) or 渔村. So happily we ascended the hill, with me hobbling along.
It was quite a climb and halfway through we were bashing our heads in for not having the foresight of carrying water with us. The steps got steeper and rockier towards the top, and it was drizzling. We were praying that it doesn't get too slippery.
At the top of the peak there was a red pavillion. We sat down to rest and to take in the breathtaking view. It was also here that we met 3 friendly Americans who were in China for work. One of them owns a factory here in China and the other two were sail designers. Yes, sail designers. Like how much more fun can your job be, to design sails and get to test them out? They decided to try scaling the other peak on the other side of the hill. It looked really dangerous to me as there were no steps leading to top, only a long flimsy ladder. We decided to stay where we were for a while longer to enjoy the view while they went ahead. On our way down though, the two groups met up and the Americans told us that there wasn't a way up because the ladder was cordoned off (probably to dissuade eager beaver adventurers like themselves). We made our way down the hill once again and headed for home. We never got around to figuring out the name of that hill, that I was proud of climbing even with my messed up ankle.
The view from the top
Day four was a cycling trip to the Moon Hill 月亮山 (Y15 + Y1 if you want them to "look after" your bicycle in the parking lot). The friendly innkeepers at the hostel once again pointed out the way to Moon Hill on the map and we were off, but not before arming ourselves with bottles of water and Snickers bars for breakfast.
Moon Hill was a friendly 40min ride away and we found it with much ease. Mostly due to the fact that everyone else was headed in that direction. All you have to do is follow the crowd. Moon Hill is thus named because there is a moon-shaped hole at the top the hill. When I read that in Lonely Planet I had imagined a small tiny hole in the ceiling of a cave. What it really is, is a rock arch. They say, depending on your vantage point, the hole can look like a half moon, a crescent moon or a full moon. To me, however, in every angle I looked, it just looked like a half moon. Maybe that's why sometimes it pays to have a guide. Non?
The moon-shaped hole is not the highest point. You can take either the main steps up to the top or veer off the road to the the trail less travelled -- a beaten path that takes you to another tip of the peak. We followed the latter (as we usually do) and what we discovered was truly amazing and well worth the climb. Here, I experienced vertigo never felt before. I had to dig my fingers into rock crevices to convince myself I wouldn't fall. About a metre away stood a pole which you can climb to get an even higher view of the world (don't ask why you even need a higher POV). Guess who scaled it? The monkey.
The aforesaid monkey
Monkey King with his entourageWe had lunch at the foot of the hill, and decided to eat only the cheapest thing on the menu. We're on a budget trip here, hello! After which, we cycled on to find the Water Cave 水岩, a cave filled with stalactites and stalagmites. The Water Cave is the biggest out of the 3 in Yangshuo. There are two others -- the Black Buddha Cave and another which I forgot the name for. The innkeeper recommended Water Cave because it is the most spectacular and also of course, the biggest. We were advised to buy the tickets from our lodgings (Y80) because the entrance fee was Y128 if you got it at the door. Whether you are able to bargain admission fees was something I didn't find out and didn't intend to. Too much hassling wastes my energy unnecessarily. When we found the official ticketing booth for the right cave (and there are many there, don't be fooled!) we parked our bicycles in the area provided. There was a shuttle bus provided to take us to the site of the Water Cave, which was probably about a 15min drive away. Thank goodness we didn't have to cycle through the dusty, bumpy gravel roads, with the relentless sun beating down on us. I would have given up halfway through.
When the bus disgorged its contents, we were immediately swamped by sellers who hawked their wares everywhere we turned. We took a long narrow path down to the entrance of the Water Cave, and were stopped halfway to collect tickets for a boat ride. Confusing. Too many modes of transport!
When we FINALLY made it to the entrance of the cave we found out that we had to change into non-slip footwear provided. Alternatively, if you are completely disgusted by the lack of hygiene, you could buy a pair of grass slippers from the stalls by the road side. Or you could just stick it out and trudge on with your own footwear. The only downside of keeping your own footwear is that you might 1) slip (if you were not careful) or 2) get it soaking wet. We were just broke little cheap snooty bastards who refused to use common footwear but too poor to afford grass slippers.
Entrance to Water CaveThe entrance of the cave was filled with water almost all the way to the top, which was why we needed to take a boat to get inside. Helmets were provided because the ceiling was so low in some parts that you could easily hurt your head if you were not careful. The cave was a four hour trail (2 hours in and 2 hours out the same route) with a guide provided. I was pretty impressed to see that the middle-aged guide provided commentaries in both Chinese and English. We had a few Caucasians in our group of approximately 15 people and so the guide had to translate his commentaries into English as well. The cave was different from the one I remembered in Guilin. I had been to a Guilin cave when I was about 12, and all I could remember were garish green and pink lighting, illuminating the stalactites and stalagmites within. This cave is so much better because they did away with the colourful lights. The guide told us that this tour was 30% reality and 70% imagination, which meant that whatever rock formations you see, use your imagination and you will see how they were named. We passed by the Lovers Rock, the Palm, the Longsheng Rice Terraces and a tortoise with a chinese character on its back. My favourite spot is the one called "Meteor Shower" (流星雨). It was a spot where there was a continual drip from the ceiling of the cave, and when the guide shone his torch upwards the drips lit up and looked like shooting stars falling to the ground. Amazing. My other favourite was a stalactite that was completely white and glittering. It was called the "Snow Mountain". I am pretty darned impressed with Mother Nature and all the marvels that has been created. I want to see more!
NB: My camera chose the most unfortunate moment to run out of battery hence I have no pictures of the interior of the cave. Anyway the pictures won't do it any justice. Go check it out for yourself.
I was a little bit unwilling to leave Yangshuo for Guilin the next day. But first, I had a hearty meal of a chocolate banana pancake before heading off. The famous banana pancake is very thin, more like a crepe than a pancake. My set breakfast also came with a fruit salad (YUM!) and coffee. It was such a healthy breakfast. *shudder*
Folded Brocade Hill
The view from the topOur flight was at 9pm so we had almost a full day to explore Guilin. My itinerary listed out a few peaks to check out. We wanted to find the highest peak there was in Guilin city, and so Elephant Trunk Hill 象鼻山 was the first to be ruled out as it was the shortest peak. I wanted to check out the Solitary Beauty Peak 独绣锋 which stood at a 152m tall. However, it was enclosed in a bigger area called the Princes City (Y50), another tourist scam. So we went in search of the next highest peak which was the Folded Brocade Hill (叠彩山), standing at a mere 70m tall. When we reached the foot of the hill we were pretty disappointed. After scaling peaks and hills in Yangshuo, these Guilin hills were dwarves in comparison. Yes, even with my bruised and swollen ankle I was
sorely disappointed (pun not intended). Yet, with hours before us and nothing else planned, we paid our Y20 and tried to make the best out of it. The view from the top was beautiful but not as spectacular. This was after all, the city. Yangshuo, in comparison, is a town embedded in the palm of karst peaks.
As we descended the hill, we decided to head back to the Flowers International Youth Hostel for a game of pool and a few beers. Then we would have our last authentic Guilin noodles before heading back to Shanghai.
Yangshuo at night
