After sore swollen biker bums, ginger tea and a heavy sleep we find ourselves agreeing to a mountain walk with Anastasia.
The walk up to moon hill, involved over 800 marble stairs to one of the most spectacular views of the karst landscape across greater Guilin.
Sweaty Betty, peeling off layers of clothes, hair pulled back, sweat mustache, so worth it. The view at the top was beyond rewarding and warranted a sneaky roadside strawberry feast from the stall on route back to pack. The four of us then took the last bus at 6:50pm to Xing Ping, a small quaint village just up the Li River. After checking into "this old place youth hostel" (lovely old heritage looking style) we found ourselves stalking empty streets looking for dinner! Warm cafe gave a warming welcome and we were served several tasty treats. The egg plant specialty is our best meal in china to date... Wrapped in garlic and peppers, the tempura crisp had us going back for a lunch feast! The morning started with an early wake but a two hour wait for banana pancakes and coffeeless coffee. We followed the hostels advice in rafting up the river on bamboo boats and attempted to walk the four hour journey back! Unaccomplished due to the hostile people of the township which was to be our turning point, we all climbed back into a raft to return ripped off but still smiling in our flower crowns. The ride on the river is breathtaking, being surrounded by huge green gauges and banks of bamboo spilling over. Bussing back to Yangshou for our last night, we spent it at the roof top bar with the wild monkey Jane playing beer pong! The next morning We said our sincere goodbyes to our dearest Anastasia who had become family in just a few short days, we climbed into our airport transfer to guilin airport... Not long into the journey our eyes surface to the front of the vehicle where we were sounding our horn as a man on a scooter veered in front...there was a thump. The man disappeared and we all gasped. Screaming as we swerved, the brakes were slammed on. No one moved. We yelled "do something?" running out of the mini bus to find a china man sitting behind it with a bone surfacing through his skin, cars just continued and beeped for him to move, his scooter was no where to be seen. Two of us helped the man to the side of the road and grabbed him a stool, whilst the Chinese simply watched. It was awful. But he was ok, he was alive, and we can only thank our lucky stars it wasn't worse. Road rules simply don't apply in china. In a rush to catch our flight we were picked up by another mini van to complete the journey... Wide eyed and nervous it was a long hour. Flying into xian late and lost we were just happy to finally find our hostel after getting off the airport shuffle in the city. Chloe and I ended up at the bar drinking 20 yuen pints of carlesburg ($3) whilst Eric tried to sleep off her fever. Waking this morning still all feeling fluey we caught the bus to the train station to book our evening ticket to shanghai. Out of luck with no seats availabile we booked tomorrow eves sleeper at a steep 490 yuen each. Overwhelmed and exhausted already we were on our way to see the Terra Cotta soldiers, it was so impressive unlike anything we have ever seen before, the 8th wonder of the world really is mind blowing and really makes us appreciate how lucky we are to experience it. Topped with some dumplings and deep fried pita we were well over the haggling of replica sellers and took the one hour journey back to the hostel to book another night. Eric rested up stairs whilst Chloe and I decided to check our the city in the evening dusk, heading straight to the Muslim quarter for some busy markets and street food by the bell tower. Although rich in history and quite pretty at night xian just feels like a dusty city in a daze. In china it seems that staring is not rude, nor is it done subtlety...let's just say in an 3 hour excursion we are featured in about 60 photographs, 3 of which we were asked to be in, it's kind of flattering I suppose, as they don't stare because they judge us, it's more like they are intrigued. I must say we probably don't help the situation; two blondes walking through the Muslim market wearing sequin hats and making friends with who ever is nice enough to us. The markets have everything, like Aladdin's cave, trinkets and jewels, food and cigars... We exhausted it all and found ourselves dipping far to frequently into our money pockets. Again; back at the hostel bar with a beer, we can only sit and recount what a beautiful unique and captivating world we live in... Where all four corners are so very different.
Eric, craines and fanny xx
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