So many people
From Lets see how they do it in Guilin, China on Apr 29 '07
Not sure if its because he speaks fairly good English, or because we had just spent 9 hours on a bumpy bus, but we follow fast talking Robert back to his guesthouse and book in. This is were the fun begins, Robert leaves us to it while he goes and gets breakfast and crate size beers for all of us. The traditional noodles he brings back are delicious. I will go on a crazy mission to find them on our last day here. But he is already talking over us about what we need to do here, and that i need to drink more beer. By the time breakfast is finished, and half my beer, he is quoting stupid prices for tours, $95 u.s., and has informed us of how we will spend the next two days. After repetitively asking for our room key, and him ignoring us, repetitively, saying we just want to go look around town first, we get up, and are left with no other option but to leave him, still talking, in our room. Renting bikes, and booking into a different room for the next night, we head out of town in the direction that we think the river is.
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Starting to follow three Chinese guys, we realise we have no clue and I ask if they speak English. In perfectly clear English, we are answered. And told to follow them as this is were they are going. After our exhausting encounter with Robert, both me and Craig can't believe our luck in meeting these two. They take us off roading to some beautiful old stone bridge, then with a another beer in my hand we go bamboo rafting through the mountains of china, and when the rafting company forgets our bikes, they take us to a delicious lunch well their guide sorts it out. We then finish our meeting with them watching the sun set, as more bamboo rafters float under the bridge we stand on.
Yangshuo is a crazy little town, though we are told, and will fine out this is because of May week. A period when all Chinese get a week off and go holidaying, doubling the price of everything. From the small glimpse I get through the seas of people, I can actually see that it is a nice little rice field town, but right now and for the next week it's, noisy and crowded. Not quite want we were hoping for. The crowds did have some advantages, like in the bustling night market, with it's bowls of live fish, eels and lobsters in water, and it's dog, snake and rat on the menu. On the second night when I would eat there, the language barrier would stand up strongly again. Pointing at some stuffed eggplant and some green vegetables, I would indicate at what I wanted for dinner. It turned out by pointing at two different things I had just ordered two meals, which also came with a massive plate of rice. Looking gob smacked, the five Chinese girls standing beside me thought it was hilarious.
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By this stage I had noticed a couple of things, the first was that it's pretty hard here to use the Internet, as everything's in Chinese. So there's alot of guess work in were you want to go, and getting back out again. The second and most culture shocking thing so far, is their toilet habits. I won't go much into this, but lets just say I feel like a preppy shore girl, with the look of sour lemon on my face, whenever I need to piss.
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