This was amazing.

06.06.2014

Well. I did not expect to be as blown away as I was by this trip this weekend. In the guidebook, it says that for most people this was their most memorable experience of China, and for me, I think it was the second. Next to Zhangjiajie. But, no matter. It was very similar and almost as amazing.

So, I thought it would be a good idea to take the sleeper night train out to Guilin. I arrived at 4 a.m. and had lots of time to walk to the dock. It kind of reminded me of my trip to Heuksan Do, where I met that crazy Korean guy at the ferry dock early in the morning while we were both waiting for our boats.

This time though, I didn't meet anyone who wanted to practice their English, I fell asleep on a bench while eating FRESH lychees. Then, a man came up to me and asked if I wanted to go down the river. I said yes, I want to go to Yangshuo. He shook his head and then sent his friend to me. A woman showed me a map of some places I could go. One of them included down the river to Yangshuo.

It was a little expensive but cheaper than my ancient Lonely Planet so I agreed on the spot. She said she would come back at 7 a.m.

I went back to bed on the cement bench and this lovely little old lady promptly set up a freaking dance club with speakers right beside my head. Um... thanks.

But it was almost time to find my tour guide friend. I found her and she took me to buy the tickets. Then, she put me on a taxi to some random place, where they put me on a bus full of Chinese people. Then we drove down to the river and got on a little boat. There were only two other people on my boat, two cute Chinese girls, really really excited to be there and they always wanted to take my picture for me in front of things, so I let them.

You can see the awesomeness in the photos, I don't think I need to describe it really? They took a picture of me in front of the picture on a cigarette packet and then we saw the mountains that are on the back of the 20 yuan bill.

After that, I took a nap in the van and waited for everyone to finish shopping for crap. We went for lunch of noodles and then visited some famous Chinese places that I have no idea what they were.

The driver brought me to the train station on the way back and I was way too tired to do couchsurfing, so I just sent a text to my host I had lined up and told him I was too tired. It was true.

I bought my ticket but it wasn't leaving for a few hours, so I wandered around the street. Some weird touchy feely Chinese guy started following me and creeping me out, trying to hold my hand and touch my shoulder, so I started just yelling DONT YOU FUCKING CHINESE ASSHOLE at him and eventually he went away. I don't know if anyone noticed in the street or not. It was quite a strange scene.

Then, I caught a night train back home, which would arrive at 3 a.m. I would have to walk home but at least I could sleep. Turns out no, it's a bad idea to take the "hard" sleeper car, this is the cheaper ticket and all you get are a bunch of drunks, laughing and talking in a foreign language all night. Quite a few times, I was woken up by people literally falling on my head as they tried to walk through the train while they were drunk. Crazy.

I got home at 3 a.m. and then walked home. It only takes an hour so it's not a big deal. Then I had some sweet sleep in my bed.

The dock