Cycling and Eating in Yangshuo (Asia trek pt23)

And so we came to one of my biggest disappointments of the whole trip; a flight. The tour required a flight from Kunming to Guilin in order to keep the travel time down, so after travelling ten of thousands of kilometers by land and sea o make it to China, I had to catch a domestic flight as part of the tour. My aspiration of at reaching Beijing or Europe by land was finally destroyed in practice.

But not one to dwell on these things, I settled myself down for the flight which included some of the worst Airline food I have eaten in a long time, but otherwise as
uneventful as flights tend to be. Arriving in Guilin we again hopped on a private bus for a three hour drive to Yangshuo, passing the immense crowds of dutch people that seemed to be everywhere! A mere kilometer from the airport we ascended onto a rough dirt road before reaching a proper road about ten minutes later. Something tells me it wasn't the main road to the airport. As night fell we could see the faint outlines of the limestone karsts that the region is famous for. However by the time we reached Yangshou there was little left to see but the street lights of 'foreigner street', where we stopped at a restaurant for a late night snack and beer.

After a good night sleep in my own room, we awoke for a days cycling around the region. The area has similarities to Halong bay, but instead of the water the area surrounding the karsts is flat farmland used principally for rice. the area is flat which makes cycling easy. Making your way through back roads and villages is charming, though you never feel like you can get away from the people (a more general problem in China, surprisingly!) as there are buildings everywhere. Along the way a guy was teasing a yabby with a stick, and people cruised down the Yulong river on a Bamboo raft complete with rainbow coloured umbrella. While it looked very appealing, not enough people in our group were interested enough to partake. We continued cycling through more rice fields before arriving at our final destination; Yueliang Shan - otherwise known as moon hill. Actualy a few hundred meters before we arrive a group of Chinese ladies passed us in the opposite direction, before they all stopped turned around a followed us. I thought they had just figured out the directions of where they wanted to go and changed direction. But no! the ladies followed us for business! Moon Hill is a limestone karst that has a spherical shaped hole right through it, making the shape of a moon from a distance and good viewing platform for the surrounding region. Walking to the top we were warned by our guide that ladies (who followed us), with eksy on the shoulder, would follow us all the way to the top of the hill, offering drinks all the way. The further up the hill you go the higher the price, though this can be bargained back down again. On the one hand you can view this as excellent personal service, however most tourists find them annoying. I assured the lady that tried to follow me that I would not buy anything as was promptly left alone. However another person in the group did not have as much conviction and was followed all the way to the top. Two people in the group decided to play a game with her and started walking up in a very fast tempo. She tried her best but could not keep up. but rather than give up she continued, and caught up with them near the summit.

At the top we rested as is was a sweltering hot day and the walk took it out of us. Unfortunately we saw another tourist give the lady that followed him a handsome tip without taking a drink. Hopefully not too many people do this otherwise they might get the impression tourists are a fountain of free money rather than just a fountain of money. We took in the views and walked around the summit area before descending. By this stage I sympathised with the lady who had walked up the mountain, and was thirsty so I bought a coke, negotiating the price back down to a reasonable price. The descent was much easier that the ascent and quickly we were back at the bottom for a quick lunch before cycling back to the city.

Back at the city we had registered to do a cooking course. Anton handed us over the the cooking lady and we negotiated the meals that we wanted to cook. After this we walked to the local market. This market was similar to many others I had been to in Asia, with food laid out on heshan carpets on the floor, and meat hanging in the wet markets, but to one of our group who was a first timer. this was a shock to him and he asked me if I had seen this kind of market before. I said that this was the standard manner of trading agricultural products in south east asia. this took him by surprise and needed a moment to deal with it. What was unique in this market was that you could purchase dog and cat and other animal which were hanging there and live animal could be seen in small cages against the wall. this was also and little confronting for me, but it is the way it is.

We picked up a few vegetable and headed back to the restaurant, to the rooftop kitchen to commence our cooking. the three meals included dumpling, Gong Bao chicken (chicken chilly and peanuts) and eggplant. we started with the dumplings and after mincing the chicken set ourselves to work with the folding of the dumpling with moderate success. Some clearly more talented than other. Mine were somewhere in the middle. Next the eggplant, which was the first time I had cooked eggplant successfully, under the watchful eye of our trainer, who was a mother and had never undertaken cooking training in her life. Still the food turned out very pleasing. Last of all we cooked the chicken, on of my favourite dishes in China which we consumed alongside the dumpling, which had subsequently been steamed by the Chef. By the end of the afternoon we were all fat and happy and dinner was not really on the cards as nothing more would fit.

That night we ended up in another night club with Anson, entertained by a good quality DJ. I spent most of the night rolling dice in a rather simple drinking game, while others in the group started dancing with another group of locals. They eventually got invited out to do some karaoke, but I was enjoying myself too much to go, so I passed. And luckily too because and hour later Anson got hungry as he does often in the middle of the night and invited the last two of us to go eat some seafood with him. So we came to this little streetside restaurant at 1 o'clock in the morning and Anson ordered some sublime BBQ oysters (I think?)for us, as well as some other food which was delicious. While we waited we got talking to a couple sitting on the table next to us. After a bit of cultural exchange they left offering their left over oysters (as above?) to us which we consumed with joy as they drove of in some brand of expensive car. Again well fed is was time for bed so we headed home satisfied.

The next day we awoke early checked out and went for a cruise on the Li river. While beautiful in itself it was similar to much I had seen so I spent the time recovering from the night before and catching up on sleep. In fact the more interesting part of the trip was the short walk through the village needed to get to the pier. There were a variety of small businesses particularly those specialising in making fans. Also many local people coming to and from the market from the surrounding villages gave the area a lively yet untouched feel, which I found particularly interesting. But the heat was too strong that I had to retire to the bus for some respite.

Back in Yangshou, where I was finally getting a feel for the layout we had a few hours to arrange things before we left. From there we caught the overnight train north to Yichang, leaving the southern part of China.