Hello world, sorry for being late as hell on this one, but I
was too busy having a time of my life. I hope y’all can
get over it... So here it is – a brand
new blog post!
Last week, I managed to meet up with my peers in Tap House
(Tuesday), and for a dinner followed up by some beer at Changle Lu (Wednesday).
As some have already left for the summer, this was an opportunity to do one
last drink before we reunite either over the summer or in September. On
Thursday, I joined the squad at Abbey Road for another trivia night, where we
flopped real hard. You win some, you lose some...
The real fun started Friday morning tho. Me and one of my
favorite people hopped in a cab early morning to make our way to the Pudong
Airport for a flight to Guilin. We booked tickets couple weeks back but we
decided not to deal with accommodation in advance and just follow the flow
depending on the mood, weather and vibe. Now, Guilin is surrounded by massive
area full of water, rivers, hills and historical towns so not knowing what to
do was not really amongst our worries. On the other hand, weather kinda was.
Forecast looked promising for the first two days but for the rest, they were
predicting heavy rains. To be honest tho, I really feel like every time I try to
pay attention to forecast, the reality always turns out to be something
completely different. So I hopped on the plane just looking forward to whatever
was lying ahead of us...
Right when we exited baggage claim area in Guilin, a very
nice guy took as aside to an official government tourist booth they installed
there lately to level up services for international visitors. The guy’s name was Vincent and both him and
his colleague spoke fluent English (with British accent) and were there
literally to help you out. Not to sell you deals, packages or anything – just to help you out. That really
took me off guard... We suggested that we might wanna go to this Yangdi village
to do some bamboo rafting but he recommended to postpone this because of high
water level that day and directed us to the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces
around 2.5 hours north of Guilin. And since the bus from downtown already
departed, he made couple of phone calls and ended up getting us a cab which
took us by the road, the bus was passing, so we hopped on that and early
afternoon, we ended up at the spot. This Vincent guy also gave me his Wechat
and anytime we needed to confirm something over our trip, we just messaged him
and he hit us right back with accurate info... I mean damn... Shout out to
Vincent!
The bus stopped at the at the bottom of the mountain, where locals
sold some refreshments, fruits and tried to get incoming tourist to stay in
their homestays and hostels. In this area, there’s this
culture of really long hair. Women grow their hair down almost to the knee
level and arrange them under colorful scarfs on their head. Their outfits
usually correspond with that. Pretty awesome. We started talking to one of them
and decided to take a room almost at the top of the hill for 120 RMB. She said
it’s about an hour-long hike up there
which was totally fine with us. I also have to give it up for them
understanding our shit Chinese. In China, I often feel that even when you know
the vocabulary, people don’t
really follow. Maybe cause you’re a
foreigner, maybe cause your tones are all fucked... Who knows... But these
ladies... Even with our close-to-non-existing Chinese, we were able to
communicate the essential info.
So there we were, climbing up the hill, stopping to dip into
this refreshing stream for a sec, and eventually arriving to this obviously new
hostel almost at the top with breathtaking views all over the rice fields. There’s rice fields everywhere. Different
shapes, countless cascades, different colors, water in them reflecting the
sky... It’s fucking beautiful. As the
light changes over the day, you keep getting new visual effects. Absolutely
amazing.
Saturday morning, we checked out and walked down the hill to
catch a bus to Guilin, from where we took a Didi to Yangdi village. Over there,
we booked a bamboo raft to Xingping town. Well, they call it a bamboo raft but
it’s more like a small motor boat.
Cruising down Li river was another highlight tho. Sea of tall green hills going
as far as eye can see. If you’re familiar
with Chinese notes, this is the area that’s
portrayed on the 20 RMB bill. We made it to Xingping town later in the
afternoon, found us a pretty cool hostel, grabbed a dinner and chilled for a
bit. On Sunday, we explored the town a bit (it is a bit touristy but hundreds years
old stone houses still keep their magic) and rented a scooter to get to the
city of Yangshuo. Since this is a relatively popular route, there are rental
spots that allow you to return the bike over there so you don't have to go all the way back. They don’t also ask for driver’s license or a passport. And are
cheap as fuck. Basically Sout-East Asia.
So there I was driving us about 25 km south. We made a stop at
the town of Fuli to check out the historical center full of stone houses and
very narrow cute streets. Unlike in Xingping, there were almost no tourists
there. In the evening, we checked in a hostel in Yangshuo, and for the first
time, we actually booked two nights. My vegan apps showed couple of veggie
friendly options in the town so we hit one for a dinner. Oh, we kept the
scooter till the very last day as it was by far the most convenient way to get
around.
Anyways, we ended up dining at this Mood Food vegetarian
restaurant which was ABSOLUTE. FUCKING. BOMB. Not the cheapest but they got it
all. Vegan burgers, pizzas, gado gado, dumplings, spring rolls, cakes, chocolate, ice cream. You name
it. A Buddhist place but a very modern one. Light electronic music in the
background and huge area with pillows where you can just lie down whenever
you feel like. We ended up going there like 3 times, trying almost everything
off the menu... And since we were the only guests for the most part, we could
literally just chill there not disturbed for as long as we wanted. If you’re ever there, fucking go there. In
terms of gastronomy, this was a clear highlight of the trip.
Yangshuo at night is on some fear and loathing shit. So many
sounds, so much unnecessarily loud music... Street food, tourist attractions,
neon lights, bars, clubs... Everything overlapping, everything blasting to the
max. All the clubs go with extremely basic EDM vibes attracting people to pay
for a table (expensive as hell) and having semi naked girls dancing on display.
Real fucking communism....
On Monday, we took it slow, chilling at the pool in our
hostel which offered views on fields and hills (they are gorgeous and
omnipresent) and after late lunch (guess where), we took the scooter to the Moon
Hill about 10km south from Yangshuo. About 30 minutes’ steep hike will get you under the arch of one of the
hills. The arch is what makes this one special. It’s shape resembles the Moon, ergo the name. That’s where the official hike ends but on
the internet, we found out, there’s and hidden secret trail leading all the way up the hill (above the arch)
with 360 view on the surroundings. We had problems finding it but one of elderly
Chinese ladies selling water up there pointed us to the right direction. Another 15 minutes
and there we were. On top of the fucking world. The view was breathtaking,
there was not a single soul around... After taking all that shit in, we did a
bit of a mediation and slowly made our way back down....
On Tuesday, we returned the scooter a booked a cruise ticket
back to Yangdi. About 3 hours of sailing up the stream and at one point
actually passing the 20 RMB scenery. This was the only day where rain hit here
and there but it really wasn’t that
bad... So weather worked for us. We took a lunch at Yangdi, hopped on a bus to
Guilin, grabbed some coffee over there and wrapped the whole adventure in this
Tianfulou Vegetarian restaurant – the only
100% vegan place in town. All you can eat buffet for 36 RMB. They got
everything – veggies, sushi, fruits,
sweets, all kinds of rice and noodles, pancakes... Another go to spot. After
that it was just Didi, airport, flight to Shanghai and taxi back to Jingan.
This whole thing was amazing and even though I can easily imagine exploring the
area for weeks, I feel we got a whole lot out of these 5 days.
And let me close it up with PSA. Since I’m leaving Shanghai for the summer
next Thursday, I’ll post the final blog for
this semester next Wednesday. Have a great week, stay positive, stay safe and
keep it 100%. One!
Highlights:
- Scooter rides.
- Rice terraces.
- Moon Hill.
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