Day 58 - Yangshuo

18.09.09

None of us could get a room in 'Giggles' for tonight, so we all head into Yangshuo town and manage to get a hostel with a room for all of us. Albert decides to stay and do some more work, joining us later, while me, Wolfram and Muriel head off on a bus to Yangdi for the 24km trek to Xingping. When we reach Yangdi we manage to avoid being scammed by a woman who tries to sell us a one way ride across the river to the start of the trail for 15 yuan, when we can buy an official trail ticket that gets us three crossings for 16 Yuan. She's a menace.

The start of the trail leads alongside the river and past small villages, farmers and their animals, rice fields and the peaks of the area. We stop off for some lunch that we packed with us and then continue on towards Xingping meeting Albert at the last crossing. He hired a bike and travelled in the opposite direction to walk back with us, we catch him chatting away to the locals at a shop, improving his seriously impressive Chinese language skills. It turns out to be a power walk back to Xingping as nightfall is setting in and we need to make it back for our 7.30 bus or face being stranded in Xingping. On the route back we pass the famous scene which is on the reverse of the 20Yuan notes. In the sun set it is beautiful and there is even a bamboo raft on the river to make it exactly like the picture.

When we get back to Yangshuo safely on the last bus, it's the feast of the trip so far and we end up having eels, snails, rabbit and beer fish (a catfish cooked in beer). It's a great meal if not a little pricey, but it is Yangshuo tourist central and is a lot better than my bill at the Giggling Tree, which turned out to be quite large considering I was only there for two nights. I thought the buy now, pay later deal would get me. After dinner it's off to the local bars where we drink until the early hours and meet some Canadian girls and a guy from Manchester called Frank. My fellow Brit was the best of your obnoxious and sarcastic home grown talent and opened his introductions with true British Sarcasm towards Canada, Germany and Switzerland. Me and him ended up having a good old English sarcasm insult death match and I am embarrassed that the only British guy I meet while in out in Yangshuo is an arse. To everyone else it just seems as if we are having a quirky conversation, and Albert is loving it and said he wished he could speak English well enough to be sarcastic. The night ends well and it feels good to have a good night out, they say it's a pre birthday celebration and I hope the 21st turns out just as good.