Say It Ain't So

Day 442

It was 7 am and someone was banging on the door. Butthead. Somehow I fell back asleep for a few hours. When I got up I took a too hot (didn't know this was possible) shower before heading out for breakfast.

I came to Yangshuo because it's pretty and not a typical western tourist site, not because there was a lot to do here. I wanted to see what old China looked like before I started to knock off the big cities.

Over breakfast I wrote another entry. It also also dawned on me that people were much more friendly here, even though they didn't speak much English. Yesterday the cab driver didn't even try to rip me off and tried to hand back the tip I gave him. Before I was in the Guangxi Province, now I'm in Hunan. I wonder if that has something to do with it.

I then went on a stroll. The river was a beautiful blue-green color and was framed by historic homes. China is amazingly clean, especially after India. There were even people floating around in boats picking pieces of garbage out of the water. To cross the river there were several different options. I happened to be next to some stepping stones and a wooden bridge with no railing. It had been raining and everything was really slick. I went with the wooden bridge. With two way traffic it was a bit scary.

Now I was in the real old town bit. I wandered along the pink colored city wall before picking a random alley. The one I picked seemed to be where the school was. All the kids were buying some type of drink that looked like it had chocolate in it. I bought one too. It wasn't chocolate, it was like jello, but grosser. I had to throw it out.

Next I found what appeared to be taffy pulling. It turned out to be sugar and sesame seeds and was pretty good. I wandered past butches with smashed pig faces and old apothecaries. It was just lovely. Getting lost on random streets was a lot of fun.

When my stomach began to grumble I found a restaurant that had its menu out front. Well, there were caged rabbits, turtles, snakes and then a bunch of veggies. I was able to show them that I liked eggplant. The meal was wonderful.

I then headed to the Internet cafe and did some work. I wanted to meet some other people to hang out with that night and tried a bar near my hostel. It was pretty empty but one of the bartenders spoke a bit of English. He then sang My Heart will go on to me. This was when I decided to leave. I was once again the first person back in the room at the hotel and I was soon asleep.