Horrific Squatters, Concussions, Water Buffalo, and Mud Caving!

Hello Everybody!

Wow what an amazing experience to be here in China and to have the opportunity to travel around! This last week I spent time in the beautiful cities of Yangshou and Guillin which are in the Southwest of China and are known as the "Heaven" parts of China. We left our wonderful school of Wujing Tsing Ying International School at 3:00 p.m. after our last classes and got on the hour long bus to the train station. When we arrived, we boarded a bullet train to Nanjing and it was so nice! We each had our own seats that reclined and space to to stretch our legs. It was an hour and a half long ride and when we arrived in Nanjing we had a 5 hour layover. A group of seven of us wanted to explore the city, so we set out of the station and found a beautiful city square and lake overlooking the downtown skyline of Nanjing just as the sun was setting. While we were watching the sunset with hundreds of people on the docks, we found a paddle boat place and after a half an hour of charades and hand gestures, we were on the boats! We paddled out in the middle of the lake and did a show of Disney songs for all of the people while they were taking pictures and waving to us. Before we returned back to the dock, we did a REAL CHINESE firedrill boat swap! It was so much fun because I almost did the splits between the two boats! After our adventure on the water, Jessica and I stayed out in the city square and saw some lights spinning in air above us. We went to check out what they were and found that they were little light helios that used a rubber bands to project them into the air. They were awesome! Jessica and I had a really fun time playing with them and we accidentally started a show with all of the people wanting to see what the foreign white girls were doing. The guy selling them spent some time teaching us how to perfect our skills and then he gave them to us for free because of the business he got from it! After our 'show' we realized that there was another show going on! A water/Bellagio type show on the lake that we were just on! We went and sat on the deck/dock and watched the hour long show with the beautiful city sky line in the background. After such an amazing night, we got on our 27 hour train ride to Guillin and it was definitely an experience to remember and very eye opening to the ways of China. Imagine this, three people to a bench with a straight back and no padding, no arm rest dividers, no leg room whatsoever and no air conditioning! It was pretty hard trying to sleep when you have Chinese people next to you and not being able to sleep on their shoulders, but like my mom says "Everything is in the morning," and boy was she right! In the daylight we could see the beautiful Chinese countryside! Since it was a 27 hour train ride, we ate alot of Chinese cup o' noodles and as much as I tried to avoid it, I had to use the squatter on the train. IT WAS HORRIFIC! Words cannot describe the smells, the unidentified liquids on the floor, sometimes I wish I could bottle up the smells of China and send them home to people. They are like being hit in the face repetitively by death, babies diapers, and the reptile and giraffe pavillions at the zoo. To pass the numerous hours that we were on the train, we played card games, mind games, deaf karaoke, what if, and drew tattoos on eachother. We arrived in Guillin at 12:00 A.M. a day and a half later, drove the hour and a half drive to Yangshuo and we split into our groups. In my group I had Nicole, Brittani, Jessica, Maddie, Wayne and myself and we stayed in the Showbiz hostel which was way nice! All six of us shared a room, slept on bunk beds and had WESTERN TOILETS! Hallelujah! The next morning we woke up to find the most beautiful view I have ever seen in my life from our window! Yangshuo is a really small town, with one main street called West Street with lots of little shops and great shopping! After a short visit to West Street, we hired a taxi and headed to a beautiful mountain called Moon Hill. We named our driver Charlie and he was a very happy man who didn't know any English except "hello". As we drove into the parking lot a group of peasant women started chasing us and hitting the vans windows! All of us were freaked out and pleaded Charlie not to stop, and not to open the door, but he did while laughing. When we got out of the van, the women started to fan us individually and followed us around. They then told us that they were going to hike the whole moon mountain with us and fan us the whole way. They totally did! My lady was awesome! She was 77 years old and was a trooper hiking, taught me Chinese, and smiled the whole time. There were 860 stairs up the mountain and when we got to the top of the mountain I could not believe my eyes! We reached the top just as the sun was setting and it was magical because we had a 360 degrees view of the entire valley. After we got to the bottom of the mountain, I paid my wonderful helper Connie and we left home for a fun night of dinner, shopping and clubbing! The funny thing about clubbing in China is that once you walk into the club, nobody is dancing and all 100+ pairs of eyes are on you and with in moments that you start dancing, you are surrounded by Asians! It is so much fun! It's almost like being back in the good ol' states because they mostly play American music, but it's way fun when they play their chinese rap because they usually have choreographed dances for each of the songs! The next morning we rented bikes to do a little exploring in the countryside of Yangshuo. We took a 2 1/2 hour bamboo raft cruise down the Li River which we thought would for sure sink with the weight of all six of us plus our bikes, but it didn't and it was wonderful because we saw fishermen, multiple water buffalo, cranes, and of course the beautiful mountains. At the end of the cruise we pulled off by this country town, and it was so HOT! Across the bay we saw a group of kids cliff jumping into the river and we wanted to do it because we had heard nothing but good things about swimming in the Li River. We walked around and parked our bikes and set off to find the awesome cliff jumping spot. After wandering around for about an hour, we decide to swim over to the cliff jumping spot instead of going through all of the thick trees and bushes. Brittani and I were the first to get in and start swimming and we quickly realized that there were many jagged rocks in the river and the cuts and bruises on our legs confirm it. As everyone was getting in, Brit and I swam over to a couple of rocks and got out to try and find our cliff jumping place when we saw a GIANT piece of poo in the water where we were just swimming! Everyone was really grossed out, and to top it all off Maddie saw some leeches in the water. So... we decided that we probably should get out of the water, but we were stranded in the middle of the river with no choice but to swim back to shore in the rock, poo, and leech infested water. Swimming back was hilarious! Jessica and I started swimming together back to the beach and it was alot harder because we were swimming against the current and our flip flops kep floating away. At one point we tried to swim over to a rock to take a break, but I could not get myself up on the slippery rock. I kept getting water in my mouth, Jessica was holding my foot trying to keep me from floating away, and we both were laughing so hard that Jessica broke her 2nd pair of flip flops and I gashed my leg open on a rock. Good times, good times. We used a ferry to take us to the other side of the Li River and we started what we thought would be a little bike ride home. It was 20 miles! But, it was the most beautiful views I have ever seen in my life. We were surrounded by the mountains covered in mist, we passed women working in rice fields, multiple cemetaries, and men guidingwater buffalo. After our amazing bike ride and cliff jumping crazyness, we went to bed early... ish and we woke up bright and early for our amazing fun filled day! We left our hostel for our amazing western breakfast, and during the meal an old woman came up to our window and offered to take us to the mud caves of Yangshuo. Maddie, Brittani, Jessica and I went with Esther (the lady) and rented schooters and she took us on a n off roading country adventure on the way to the caves! It was so much fun because we got to meet local people, pet water buffalos, and a local farmer tried to givce each of us a baby chicken! When we got to the ticket place of the mud caves, all of us were hanging out when we met our cave guide named Ling Ling! She was awesome because she started dancing and taught us a dance! And to make things even better, our 63 year old tour guide Esther started to break it down too! She taught us a little chinese song with a hula type dance with it! It was awesome because all of the other tourists came over and we started a dance party while waiting for the bus to take us to the cave. After we arrived and all four of us were seated in our sweet bamboo boat, they seated a a late 20's Chinese looking lady in our boat and it turned out that she was American, her name was Helen and she was from San Fransisco! She was awesome! Helen was visiting her family in Shanghai and she hung out with us all day and taught us chinese! After our boat ride into the cave, we got out and had the awesome experience of exploring it! Many parts of the cave had really low clearance and on our way in to the cave I hit my head really hard. Strike one! As we kept getting deeper into the cave, it opened up and there were pools that we could swim in even though the water was freezing cold! In the pool we met this AWESOME couple from London named Neil and Beth and another couple from Portugal and Spain. All 9 of us stayed together throughout the cave exploring and on our way back through the cave I hit my head again! After my 2nd hit, I think I got a slight concussion because Brittani and Jessica said that I couldn't stop laughing and speaking gibberish. After spelunking, we went to the mud cave. It was so much FUN! When stepping in the mud, it was a little weird, but we soon were all covered in it! I was the first to go down the mud slide and in the process of navigating my way on the slippery mud surface, I slipped and face planted! We were pretty beat up from the Li River the day before, but this day takes the cake for multiple battle wounds! When in China, right? After so much fun in the mud caves, we went to the hot springs and those were wonderful! We each had our own individual holes in the rocks that we could lay in and we had unlimited time to relax! When we returned back to the ticket booth and saw our wonderful Esther waiting for us, it started pouring rain! We were about half an hour away from our hostel so we started the wet and awesome drive on our scooters! Even though we were all chilled to the bone we made a game out of the drive home and gave eachother scores for how big of a splash we could get with the puddles as we drove through them. It was such a fun day! On Wednesday we woke up to find that it was still raining! We knew that we had to leave home to Changzhou from Guillin (an hour away from Yangshuo) the next day at 4:00 p.m., so we decided to have a chill day and get massages to celebrate Moon Festival Day! Brittani and I set off in search of a massage parlor and we found one right next door to our hostel. It was so sketchy! Brittani and I were not about to spend money for a 'crap' massage, and as Brittani said, "I don't want to stay here unless I take my clothes off!" haha it was very awkward trying to communicate to them that we were leaving and finally just got up and left. We went in search of a massage parlour and we found an amazing one! Our room overlooked the river, they gave us silk pajamas, and it was an hour and 1/2 of pure heaven! They massaged every part of our body, even our face and ear lobes! They even had the bars on the ceiling so they could massage and stand on our backs, and the best part was that it was only $10! After our massages, Brittani and I were so relaxed that we could barely keep our eyes open! We went home and slept for 2 hours no problem and when we woke up, Brittani, Nicole, Wayne and I decided to go to Guillin for the night and celebrate Moon Festival there! We got to our hostel around 9 and we set out to walking street to get some dinner and go clubbing! For dinner we went to this super swanky restaurant with leather couches for seats and we ate by candlelight! It was pretty darn good! They gave us a beautiful assortment of fruit and Brittani and I got our first pizza in 1 month of being in China! After our $5 dollar dinner, we hit up up the clubs and it was so much fun! They called us up on stage to dance and we met some fun chinese people! After a wonderful night of dancing, the next day we went back to walking street for breakfast and nothing good was open or cheap! While walking around, we met this Chinese man named Tom who was awesome! He helped us get tickets for a river cruise and he found us the BEST place to eat ever! We had an amazing breakfast of strawberry french toast and hot chocolate! After we ate, we found out that Tom teaches art at a University in the Province so we went to one of his galleries and he is talented! I couldn't help but buy one of his pieces of the Yangshuo mountains and he gave us amazing cheap prices! After we left his art studio, Brittani and I wanted to get pedicures so Tom took us to a salon and translated everything that we wanted to get done! I thought I was going to get my eyebrows waxed, but apparently in China they don't wax, they shave! I was mortified but she made my eyebrows look really great! Oh China. For our pedicures, they soaked our feet in rose water and made our feet pretty. Tom sat with us the whole time and helped us translate that we wanted to get chinese characters on our toes of love and happiness. After one of the ladies did one of Brittani's toes, Tom said that the ladies weren't good enough so he painted our toes and held the fan for our toes to dry! He's awesome, good old Tom. After saying bye to our new friend and going on our awesome river cruise, we headed to the train station and almost missed our train! We sat as a group, but Brittani and I had the pleasure of having tickets by ourselves and having 80 pairs of Asian men eyes staring at us for the 27 hour train ride. Seriously, imagine this, if we sneezed, adjusted our seat position, talked to eachother, we would have everyone standing up around us craning their necks to see what the white girls were doing. If I looked out the window, everyone would look out the window to see what I thought was interesting, if I wrote in my journal, they would look over my shoulder and watch me write. At one point of the journey, I had a guy sit down by me who could speak a little bit of English and I started writing in my journal and he had the nerve to lean over me and tell me that I misspelled a word. I was so bugged! The entire trip Brittani and I shared the bench with a young chinese woman and we hoped that she would get off the train so we could lay on eachother and have the bench to ourselves, and when the time finally came, a guy who was sitting on the other side of the car yelled out and started sprinting towards us and told me to scoot over. So much for being comfortable and having our own bench! Oh chinese men, why don't you wear deoderant? After a very long and more great and unforgettable moments of M.A.S.H, Pit, alphabet games, and with unidentified liquids in the squatter, we arrived home to our beautiful city of Changzhou and our wonderful school. It is so wonderful to be home and to see my kids! Since we've been home it has gotten alot colder and now we have to wear scarves and light coats! Fall is here and the leaves are changing! I can't believe that I have lived in China for a month already, time is flying and I am having the time of my life. I am so thankful to be here, and I leave to Beijing for another week vacation tomorrow! I'm sorry it took so long to get this post up, I promise to be better about writing when I get back! I love you all and I hope you're doing well!

Wo Ai Ni!