Postcard perfect Yangshuo.The following day, we took a taxi back to Guiyang and caught a high speed train to Guilin some 2+ hours and 480 km away. From there it was a couple more hours of car time to reach Yangshuo. A culture shock here: we went from an absolutely un-touristy Getu to the uber-touristy Yangshuo in less than a day of travel. On the upside we now had a nice hotel room (complete with running hot water and even an AC) but on the downside there were the fucking tourists. The evening’s rain continued throughout the following day and so Ola took us on a sightseeing tour of the area. This included some nice villages, the famous Moon Hill Formation, and taking a spill on the scooter. Fortunately the street was empty and the only casualties were some bruising on Shirley’s elbow and cosmetic damage to the bike which Ola very kindly forgave us for. I should also mention here how nice it was to be able to use one of Ola’s scooters to get around. Sure you could bike it but not only would it eat up much more time, you’d also miss out on the driving shenanigans in the area; an adventure in its own right.
The weather cleared up the next day and we went on to enjoy a handful of climbs over the remaining four days. Our days would begin with coffee session at the hotel (first decent brew of the trip), followed by some noodle-centric breakfasts and some tinkering with the scooters which seemed in need of convincing to start on most mornings. We’d then do a bit of climbing in the sweltering heat. Things would wind down with a swim in the Li River, a dinner (thanks for all the interesting places Ola), and 8-10 lbs of passion fruit and mangosteen for supper. This last one was a good call since Bali would have nothing of interest for us fruit-wise (wrong season).
Photos
Miao women at a toll plaza in Ziyun (Sept. 2016).Guiyang street scene (Sept. 2016).Residential buildings in Guiyang. Bars on windows on the 5th floor (Sept. 2016).Guiyang (Sept. 2016).Women sitting on balls listening to a monologue delivered by a woman holding a cock. Guiyang, September 2016.Officialdom at the Guiyang train station (Sept. 2016).High speed train to Guilin (Sept. 2016).Two easy hours and 480 km later would put us in Guilin. Click photo for a quick video (Sept. 2016).Ola ordering a taxi at the train station (Sept. 2016).Rainy Yangshuo by night.A fruit vendor in Yangshuo. The green stuff is the lotus flower pods with their nutty (& pretty tasty) contents (Sept. 2016).Ola demonstrating the proper use of a family sized hip flask (Sept. 2016).Yangshuo sights – the ubiquitous scooters (Sept. 2016).Shirley in her element (Sept. 2016).Yangshuo from a karst in the city park (Sept. 2016).More views of Yangshuo (Sept. 2016).Doing the tourist stuff on our rainy first day in Yangshuo (Sept. 2016).Yangshuo (Sept. 2016).Hiking through some village near to Yangshuo (Sept. 2016).Shirley showing her copy of the Little Red Book (Sept. 2016).Traditional bamboo rafts on the Li River except, you know, made of PVC pipe (Sept. 2016).More Li River sights (Sept. 2016).A small village a few kilometers outside of Yangshuo (Sept. 2016).Old women selling vegetables at an open air market outside of Yangshuo (Sept. 2016).Open air market. Look at the size of the cucumber…zucchini?Market sights (Sept. 2016).More market sights (Sept. 2016).Fresh durian about to be devoured by the three of us (Sept. 2016).Ginger and ..something at the market (Sept. 2016).Bridge shenanigans (Sept. 2016).Launching the traditional bamboo rafts…these seem to be made out of bamboo actually (Sept. 2016).The iconic Moon Hill from its trailhead. Shirley is rocking a mud stripe on her right side courtesy of an earlier scooter mishap (Sept. 2016).The bottled water vending ladies of Moon Hill (Sept. 2016).Ola, Shirley, and one of the ladies selling water at the Moon Hill formation. She was so cute and so enterprising that we bought a couple bottles from her and could’ve probably been talked into investing in some ghost city real estate had the weather not been so shitty (Sept. 2016).Shirley and Ola with Moon Hill in the background. We had a ton of fun hanging out with Ola for nearly two weeks (Sept. 2016).Li River and Yangshuo (Sept. 2016).An interesting contraption (Sept. 2016).Walking the streets of Yangshuo near our hotel (Sept. 2016).
