Guilin

Well, I am in Guilin. It is much more beautiful than any other place I have been to in China. Let me start from the beginning. We all started our weekend with a bang, going out and having a great celebration to begin our week long vacation. Without any worries of school work or errands, everyone had a blast. Waking up Sunday morning to pack wasn't the most logical thing to do, but I made sure that I was not forgetting anything. Except for my phone charger. So now, I have no phone and some pretty scarce internet in Guilin but I'm managing to get by. The 22 hour train ride was a great time. My friends and I successfully entertained ourselves for the entire ride and I would even go as far as to say that it went by quickly. When we arrived in Guilin, we had this weird notion that things were going to be warm and sunny, but that didn't start until yesterday. It was kind of cold, a little overcast, maybe foggy or misty, but in any case it was still beautiful. The mountains here are spectacular and we began our trip going straight from the train station to Lao Hill. We ascended the tallest peak, Lao Hill, on a "gondola" aka ski-lift. With shorts, t-shirt, flip-flops and backpack, I pretty much froze to death the entire ride up, the 45 minute summit rest, and on the way down. The view from on top of Lao Hill was awesome. The mist and the fog swallowed up the hilly mountains one by one until they faded into whiteness. The mountains were larger and more prominent the closer they were to Lao Hill, but beneath us we could see the farm lands and small buildings of the town beneath the looming giant mountains.



When we were done looking from on top, we took the toboggan ride down and headed back to the hotel. We were all starving. Taking a 22 hour train, there isn't much to eat besides instant noodles and fruit. No one had eaten lunch, we were all a little confused by the cold weather, and the hotel was on the opposite side of the river away from the bar street and restaurants. When we got to the hotel, I had to register for classes, shower and then meet everyone for dinner. Not having a phone, a few of us were separated from the group that had left for dinner. The cab driver dropped us off at a main avenue, but we couldn't find out where our friend had gone to dinner. It felt like hours searching for our friend's restaurant and I was fuming with frustration being lost and hungry. Trying to find people in China is a very difficult task. All of the restaurants have flashing colored neon lights, the signs are in Chinese (obviously) and every street looks very familiar. When we finally found the restaurant, it felt like an hour had gone by. We arrived to empty plates and not so good food. I have to say, I was pretty irritated. I knew that the food was going to be eaten and generally speaking no one likes being lost and hungry. We ordered a few more dishes and I scrounged off the remaining plates. Once I had a little food in me, the night went on and we had a great time exploring Guilin. This town was equally beautiful at night as it was during the day. The rocky mountain hills were lit up and lush. There were a few streams running through the city that reflected the mountains and street lights and the ambiance was just right. We had a pretty late night out meeting locals and bar hopping but we all made it home safe, sound and ready to start another day.



Yesterday, we woke up early to take a bus ride to Yangshuo. Yanghuo is a smaller town just outside of Guilin. It is spectacular. When we arrived, we checked into our hotel and ate lunch. This town has some major pros and cons. First off, it is a tourist town. Tons of westerners, western food, beautiful scenery, warm weather, accommodations close to the main part of town, and so much more. But the same things that make me love this town, make me strongly dislike it. First and foremost, there are too many westerners. This means that everything is touristy and unauthentic. The food is slow, service is mediocre, and the people just aren't as nice. Besides these things Yangshuo is a great town. We left lunch and headed off for an hour and a half Li River cruise. This was amazing. In groups of four, we headed down the Li River weaving along and around the majestic mountains. The mountains are shaped exactly how the pictures look. They are even more lush and green than the pictures and look like melted wax dried after years of dripping and running. The river is fairly rapid but you can still see the reflection of the mountains in the waves. The sun had begun to set and the light streaked through the rolling hills filling the river valley with rays of light. Passing in and out, in between and around the mountains was overwhelming. This was the rawest and most purely Chinese thing I have seen. I wish I could have taken everyone on this cruise. It is here, in the south of China, that I have seen the typical Chinese farmer, bent over in the fields, rice hat to shield the blinding sun and water buffalo grazing in the background. The people rely on nature for everything and you can tell by their culture they are still awed by the surrounding landscape. The people fish with large nets and it is here that they have specially trained river birds to catch for them. By tying string around the birds throat, they release the birds to catch fish from the river and being unable to swallow, the birds return to the boat to give the fisherman their meal. It is a spectacular relationship between bird and fisherman.

The river cruise ended and we headed back to the hotel for dinner. We ate at a noodle bar and got ready for the "Impression Liu Sanjie" night show. This show was 100% not what we expected and for a hefty Y200 price tag, I can't help but say I was a little disappointed. But, before I give you the wrong impression let me explain what I expected and what it turned out to be. Directed by Zhang Yimou, the famous director of the 2008 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony (the one I accidentally fell asleep to in the sweltering heat), the show depicts the life of the Guangxi people. Guangxi is the province that Guilin and Yangshuo are located in. The production has a natural mountain background and has over 600 local fishermen and women working together with ethnic minority people. Even though I was expecting shooting fountains, flashy light shows and yea, a few fireworks, I wasn't shocked that the entire production was in Chinese making it hard to understand. Lucky for me, I was sitting next to John, our TBC leader and he translated a few key parts for me. There was a love story, a depiction of a typical day as a fisherman, a night scene depicting the stars and moon, and a few other things I can't recall. It was a good show, not what I was expecting but that was OK.

Today, we woke up early to get American breakfast and with the slow service, I didn't have enough time to eat at the restaurant. It wasn't an issue because today was my cooking and river rafting excursion. We arrived at the cooking lessons shortly after 9 am and I was surprised to walk into our tour guide's house. And what do you know? Our tour guide, Richard, was also the master chef who would teach us how to make dumplings, kung pao chicken, spicy sauce (lajiu), fried noodles, and beer battered fish (a local delicacy). Free food. Master Chef Teacher. What more needs to be said? We were stuffed. After making dumplings, steaming them, frying some and eating all of them I was ready to start my day. It got better. The spicy sauce, no joke, is definitely going to be made for everyone at home to try. I'll do whatever I have to do to get the ingredients, but something this good can't be left here in China. The fried noodles were fried noodles, but the over all experience of cutting the peppers, bamboo, ginger, garlic, and everything else was a blast. Not to mention, this guy had a penthouse on the sixth floor overlooking fields and more mountains. The kung pao chicken was my favorite to cook. Adding in spices and throwing in vegetables, it was not only a lot of fun to make, but especially delicious to devour. When we finished eating and cooking we made our way to the Dragon River rafting.

For this experience, everyone came prepared for fun in the sun with our swimsuits and all. It was a blast. The best part about the whole trip was that on the way down to the boats they were selling water guns. Two people. One raft. It was war before we got on board. Jim and I got on a boat together and we were off. Within five minutes, my water hose cracked and leaked and within the first half hour Jim's was broken in half. It was hilarious to ride down the river shooting the other boats, avoiding getting hit in the face and just having a great time. Balancing on the boats was hard, but we coordinated with our drivers to sneak attack people from behind. The Dragon River has about 8 or 9 small waterfalls that added a little excitement to the trip while we were not squirting water at eachother. The waterfalls were more like mini plunges but no one's boat flipped over. At one point along the trip, it was full fledged pirating and pillaging. Boris, my friend from Fairfield University, is a member of the swim team. He started the piracy by jumping off his boat and pushing people off their boat. When this happend, it was all of themselves. Jim got in and took over a neighboring boat. While he was gone, I was attacked from three sides and had to abandon ship, jumping off and heading toward a third boat. On Jim's conquered vessel, he took their weapons and tried to reclaim our original boat, but somehow everyone ended up on eachother's boats. By this time, we had given our raft drivers quite a show and they told us to sit down for one of the waterfalls. We were soaked and the water was pretty murky but we were living the good life. A few of us got mouthfuls of river water, but hopefully none of us get sick. No one really knows what things live in those waters but our boats got this mysterious foam on them and there were some dead fish floating along with us.

The boat ride was great. The Dragon River was so still that the reflection of the mountains was perfect. Like I said, I can't even explain how beautiful this scenery is and my pictures can't even do it justice. Hopefully I'll be able to write soon and tell you about the mud diving we're going to do tomorrow.