Drop and Give me Ten...for Life

Nov 5th-12th

After a well-needed sleep, I took a small, surprisingly empty bus to Yangshuo to meet up with Josh, who had gone there the previous day.

Within an hour-and-a-half, I was at the bizarrely named hostel En Attendant Godot, where he was staying. We decided to stay there on a recommendation of Helinä, our Finnish friend, who was leaving the day after my arrival to head to Vietnam.

The rain that had started in Guilin seemed to have followed me to Yangshuo, which was a pity because Yangshuo is renown for its dramatic limestone peaks and outdoor activities like rock-climbing, hiking, kayaking and cycling.

With the rains as unrelenting and torrential as they were, we didn't think they would last.

Oh how we were wrong.

It ended up raining for 6 straight days. Every time we thought the storm had passed, it would just start raining again. It actually turned out to be a really cost-effective week because the only activities Josh and I did during the day was surfing the web and alternating meals between a dumplings place and a Guangxi rice noodle restaurant. The evenings, however, were another story.

Since we never had a reason to get up early in the mornings, we could stay up late and party to our hearts content.

Our first few nights were spent at Mojos, an empty bar with an amazingly fun waitress and a beer pong table. We partied there with Helinä, along with Andy and Suzy, a German couple Josh had met during a cooking class, for Helina's going away party. Needless to say that we all ended up at one of the many clubs containing an inexplicable stripper pole (all clubs in Yangshuo had at least one stripper pole, but never any strippers).

We eventually grew tired of the emptiness of Mojos and made the move to Monkey Janes.

Monkey Janes is the backpacker hangout of Yangshuo and is located just off West street, the tourist street, where most of the bars and restaurants can be found.

Once at Monkey Janes we were instantly welcomed by our backpacker brethren and challenged to beer pong by Jane herself.

Jane was an imposing woman, whose trash-talking and sexual comments made her quite the character. Another traveller who had been in Yangshuo for quite some time had said that Jane had spent time in prison for apparently killing someone, and then opened up her hostel following her release. A questionable story, but having met her, it doesn't seem too far fetched!

It was at Monkey Janes where we were introduced to a game that sticks with you for life by Phil from England and Ferdi and Henry from Holland. The game is simple: under no circumstances are you allowed to say the word "mine". While it seems quite easy to avoid that word, veterans of the game are quite adept at getting you to say it. The punishment for saying it does not involve booze, but you have to drop and do ten push-ups wherever you stand (elevators, bathrooms, etc) or women have to do 10 jumping jacks for obvious bouncy reasons.

On my first night, thanks to the work of Phil, Ferdi, Henry and Josh, who is always quite good at getting me to fall for things, I ended up doing almost 200 push-ups!

With major pectoral soreness already setting in, we returned the following night for my 28th birthday celebrations, where I was only tricked into doing 100 push-ups.

The night was full of beer pong matches, drinking games and plenty of lewd comments from Jane. She did give me a Monkey Janes t-shirt and a shot with dead snakes stewing in it as a birthday gift.

The best gift of all, however, was to settle a dispute between a German girl and a Norwegian girl as to who had the bigger breasts. They each claimed that the other was more endowed but needed the unbiased opinion of a fellow traveller. Seeing as though it was my birthday, everyone nominated me to be the judge.

With an unscrupulous attention to detail and thorough empirical comparison, I came to the conclusion that the mountains of Norway are in fact bigger than the German alps.

Happy birthday to me!

We continued to frequent Monkey Janes every evening thereafter and played Chinese dice and other games with our new group of friends. Josh even managed to beat Jane at beer pong a few times.

After 6 days of rain and 6 nights of partying, there was finally a break in the weather: it was sunny!

To take advantage of our one nice day, we decided to hike along the picturesque Li river and its iconic karst mountains, along the 16-km hiking trail between Yangdi and Xingping.

In order to complete the trek, you need to hire a boat to cross the Li river at 3 different points along its length. We ran into a problem when trying to negotiate at the first crossing. The woman wanted to charge us 10 times the normal rate and when we refused and tried to find another boat, she proceeded to follow us and told the other boats to follow suit.

By this point, we had been searching for an hour and still hadn't even started the hike yet. We saw two white people and asked if they could help us. They already had a package tour but we spoke to a Chinese man who also spoke fluent French who was walking with them.

He tried to get a captain to take us across for a fair price. In an incredibly selfless move, he had already paid for a river cruise for him and his significant other, but refused to go unless the driver also took us across the river. The captain finally agreed and did the 15 second detour it took to bring us to the other side. We thanked the man who stood up for us and told him we would not forget his kindness. Something that should have only took 15 seconds ended up taking an hour-and-a-half, to think we had to cross two more times!

Once we were finally on the trail, the rewards far outweighed the difficulties: orange-tree fields as far as the eye could see framed by magnificent karst peaks, cut intermittently by the gentle Li river.

This was the China I had always envisioned. We passed many farmers toiling in their fields who were unfazed by our presence, and screaming school-children, intent on getting our attention.

Along the way, we passed Andy and Suzy who were doing the same trek but in the opposite direction.

Surprisingly, the two other ferry crossings went off without a hitch save for being slightly overcharged.

In the late afternoon, we finally arrived in Xingping, a 1000-year-old village whose karst mountains are pictured on the back of a 20 Yuan note.

We then went to This Old Place to have a tea and meet up with Andy and Suzy who would be joining us shortly.

It is quite a shame that during the week we were in Yangshuo, we only had one rainless day, considering the many outdoor activities available in the area, but the parties and people we met more than made up for it.

From here, Josh and I would be splitting up. I would be going southwest to Yunnan province to explore some of China's most attractive and ethnically diverse cities, and Josh would be headed back to Hong Kong to meet his former work colleague as well as our awesome Hong Kong host, Mike.

A 10-day vacation from Josh? He couldn't have been happier (Hahahaha)!

Lost on the Dragon's Back

Nov 1st-4th

After a longer than expected night train, we arrived to Guilin after dark. Luckily, our hostel, Green Forest Hostel, was only a 10-minute walk away.

Following our 29-hour train-ride, we decided to grab a few beers to unwind. After one or two, I was content, but Josh had the urge to go out on the town. A guy that works at the reception desk agreed to accompany Josh, while I went to bed early.

Josh only got back at around 4 or 5 in the morning and was struck with a stinging hangover that left him incapacitated for the following day.

While Josh was bedridden, I took the opportunity to explore Guilin and its beautiful karst landscape.

A short distance away, I passed Elephant Trunk Hill: a supposed elephant-shaped limestone hill that charges an unreasonable admission charge considering it is just a hill. I took its picture from the Li river and was content with that.

From there I walked to Shan lake, home to the beautiful moon and sun pagodas.

After getting my fill of pagodas, I continued north on Zhongshan Zhonglu to Folded Brokade Hill.

Folded Brokade Hill is a multi-peaked karst hill that provides beautiful views of Guilin and the Li river landscape.

It was unfortunate that it was pretty overcast, but still beautiful none-the-less. I explored its many peaks, reconstructed pavilions and admired the view of Mulong lake Park and its lovely pagoda (what can I say, I love pagodas!).

I then walked along the Li river, briefly scoping out the prospect of visiting Seven Stars Park, but I ultimately decided to skip it.

Just as I was nearing our hostel, it started pouring rain until the point where the side-walks were flooded. I sought shelter and waited for it to pass.

When I got back to Green Forest, Josh was still in a semi-comatose state, so I ate dinner and went back to visit the sun and moon pagodas at night. They are illuminated and quite stunning by moonlight.

I later discussed the possibility of visiting the Longji Rice Terraces or Dragon's Backbone with the hostel staff. They said it would not be possible as a day trip, but I took that as a challenge rather than a warning. Josh had decided to sit this excursion out, so I would be doing it solo.

I left the hostel before 7am and took a city bus to the bus station, where I caught another bus going towards Longsheng.

It took nearly 2 hours through fog-obstructed mountains to reach the junction at Heping. From Heping, I boarded a local bus headed towards Dazhai, my starting point for the trek.

Once reaching Dazhai, I started my ascent to the first scenic point (creatively called No 1 viewing spot), providing incredible views over the golden-and-green terraced rice fields. Since I was virtually alone on the mountain, I set up my camera to snap a self-portrait.

The signage up to this point had been rather helpful until I started looking for the No 2 viewing spot. At a certain point, the signs just stopped and I asked a local boy who spoke incredible English where to go from there. He pointed me in the right direction and I was on my way.

One of the biggest problems with the rice terraces is that there are literally hundreds of farmers' paths on the route and no real way to distinguish them from the hiking path.

I tried to follow the boy's directions but continually went the wrong way: slipping on loose earth, walking through painful thorn-bushes cutting up my legs and reaching countless dead-ends.

When I finally reached a proper sign directing me to scenic spot 2, I had taken wrong turns totaling nearly an hour. I started my ascent and was climbing for around 45 minutes before I reached a little rest area, but no lookout in sight.

The path continued so I decided to follow it. After descending for another 45 minutes, I felt like I wasn't going the right way. There was a construction site nearby so I asked if they knew where Ping'an was, the village that I was hiking towards. They looked at me with a bewildered look and laughed at my predicament. One nice lady tried to help, but it was obvious she didn't know either.

My last and only logical option was to climb back up the stairs and try to find another path. After nearly an hour of continuous climbing, I was back to the original sign which pointed me in the wrong direction.

I had only stopped once to admire the solitary peaks at the rest point. I had only brought 1.5L of water and 2 snickers bars to sustain me for the whole day and my hydration and hunger levels were fleeting.

As opposed to other sights in China, I was hoping to see someone, anyone to assure me I was going in the right direction. But alas, I was alone.

With some searching, I finally found a sign that pointed towards Ping'an. I followed it and was soon face to face with something I hadn't seen in hours: civilization! There were a few hotels, a handful of tourists, and lo and behold, scenic spot No 2!!!

After a brief pause, I saw a sign that directed me to Ping'an, leading to a fork in the road. I asked a man with a donkey and he pointed the way.

I was now a man on a mission: I would make it to Ping'an, even if I had to sleep in the rice terraces.

Around an hour later, I crossed paths with a couple from eastern Europe who assured me I was headed in the right general direction but they too had been lost a few times. They said it was still another 4 hours until Ping'an, but they looked out of shape (i.e. fat) so I was hoping I could half their time.

I picked up my pace and crossed paths with a group of backpackers who told me it would only take 1.5 hours to reach Ping'an. There was no stopping me!

I eventually reached the village of Tiantouzhai and literally asked 20 villagers if I was on the right path at every fork in the road (and there were many!)

At one point the path ended and I arrived at what looked like an abandoned dam and the only people around were a chicken farmer and a man chain-sawing some trees. In desperation I yelped Ping'an at the men and they nodded yes.

I followed a gravel road until I saw a house. A man was asleep and I woke him and asked him where I was. He pointed to some bushes. When I went through those bushes, I saw it: the Ping'an Rice Terraces weaving below me!

I then walked to the lookouts more creatively named "Seven Stars Accompanying the Moon" and "Nine Dragons and Five Tigers". I was so tired and dehydrated I swore I could have seen those dragons and tigers. I took a brief pause to admire the landscape.

The sun had already started to set and the golden light swept across the rice terraces. I knew that my arduous, painstakingly confusing and frustrating trek was coming to an end.

As I walked down the steps towards the parking lot, I was prepared to stay a night in Ping'an, realizing that buses may no longer be going back to Guilin, but I was happy that I had made it and wouldn't have to sleep on the mountain.

With sweat caked on my face and clothes, dirt covering my arms, and cuts all over my legs and ankles, I triumphantly stepped onto a surprisingly convenient bus right back to Guilin. It didn't matter that I would spend half of the ride on a tiny bench in the aisle or that I smelled like a hockey equipment bag after a season's use, because I had proved to myself and the Green Forest Hostel that the Longji Rice Terraces could be done in a day, even if you're too stupid or directionally challenged to navigate the supposed 4-5 hour trek (it took me 7-8 hours with no stopping or breaks).

So looking back, I don't regret my decision to go to the Dragon's Backbone Rice terraces, with its incredible beauty and amazing farm engineering, but next time I would probably spend the extra 10 dollars to hire a fricken guide!