Yangshuo – Sweet Cherryette
March 8, 2008
From Beijing we flew south to Guilin, where we then took a bus to Yangshuo. The plane ride was great… normal. The bus was the opposite. First off, we dubbed it the “dirty diaper express” due to the waft of dirty diaper smell that permeated the bus the entire trip. Thankfully the spectacular view kept our minds off the stench and on something much better. Despite the overcast weather, you could still see the silhoutte of all the crazy mountains that 
seemed to come out of nowhere. The mountains around Yangshou were interesting because there were single mountains popping up everywhere instead of one long mountain range. Aside from the scenery and the poopy diapers the bus ride was quite an adventure. The road we traveled was a two lane road but everyone passed one another either in the left lane or on the shoulder and horns were going off every couple of seconds. We never felt in danger even though everyone was seriously all over the road. We soon came to realize that in southeast asia horn honking and passing at any opportunity is a way of life.
The more I think back on Yangshou the more I realize how much it held. The karst mountains, the beautiful Li River flowing through it, the great market, 
and the fabulous happy hour were things, at the time, I thought we’d find everywhere and we have found one of those elements in every city, but to have a town with them all is truly awesome. The markets were packed with all kinds of goodies but the one item that dominated was silk. There was also an overload of knock-off Columbia and Northface winter jackets that I resisted to buy.
Yangshou was a beautiful small town we used to relax in in-between city sight seeing. We rode bikes outside of town through small villages and over beautiful bridges and we took a motor boat ride up the river to get a better look at the mountains. While the motorboat ride was fun, the weather was still chilly and a bit 
overcast. We recommend if you’re going to go and do a boat ride it’s probably best to do a bamboo boat ride on a beautiful sunny day while someone paddles you. You’re also able to hire a bamboo boat with a table where you can eat dinner while going down stream.
Interestingly enough, we ran into a guy in Yangshuo from the town next to where I live, who is a photographer named Shea. Shea and his tour guide, Julie, met up with us one night for some happy hour drinks. That was still the best happy hour we’ve found on this trip, buy one cocktail, get the second free! Keep in mind, the cocktails were around $2 each. However, the greatest part about the drinks were they were made by a ten year old! This little girl had a bartenders guide and couldn’t see over the counter top. Gotta love those lax 
Chinese drinking laws! Actually, Julie, Shea’s guide told us in China drinking isn’t a big deal (much like in Europe) and most Chinese youth don’t really start drinking until after they’re done college. Julie also asked us why our government is so oppressive. We laughed and asked her the same question! Needless to say, this whole trip has been a huge learning experience as far as getting to know the people, gaining a better knowledge of how they work, and coming to understand how they view us as well.
Our next stop… Vietnam! I wish I could say we jumped from Yangshuo to Hanoi, Vietnam in no time but our trip took us from Yangshuo to Nanning,
China where we had to catch a train to the border. In Nanning we stayed in the grossest roach motel I’ve ever seen. While brushing my teeth I started to gag from the poop fumes and Drew freaked because he saw his first rat here (not in the motel thankfully). Crossing the border went without a hitch and we were off to start a whole new country!
