VACATION: DAY ONE

Wowza. A week long vacation calls for lots of stories and many photos to share. I don't really know where to start honestly. (I am sorry in advance for a long post of rambling)

Our adventure started off Sunday morning... nobody woke up. It was 6:30am and our train was leaving at 8am. It takes about an hour and a half to get to the train station via public buses so you can imagine how frantic it became. After lugging our bags to the bus station our bus never came. We were waving down a taxi when it finally drove by and 7 American girls began speed racing down the street with huge suitcases trying to catch the bus.

Anywho... we finally arrived at the train station and boarded our train. It was literally like the choo choo trains you think of when you think train. It was old and rusty and could probably break apart at any second.  We were lucky enough to have gotten beds for the lovely 24 HOUR TRAIN RIDE. You read that right folks, twenty four hours. two four. twenty four. These were our lovely homes for the 24 hours of H E double hockey sticks....

The train had the famous squatters for bathrooms. You could see and hear the tracks below because your business just fell straight out of the train. Lovely I know.... We spent hours playing Go Fish, taste testing different candies, playing the question game, getting to know each other, watched You Again (my all time favorite movie in the entire universe), and spent a lot of time staring at the walls. No words will ever truly describe how uncomfortable that train ride was. You will never truly understand the pain or agony of that ride until you experience it for yourself.

A full day later we arrived in Guilin and had to catch another bus to Yangshuo. We were immediately greeted by many many people trying to give us rides. We found a guy who told us he was the bus driver and led us to his bus. He helped us load our bags under the bus, helped us get on the bus, all that jazz a kind gentlemen would do. He told us the bus costed 40 RMB and after we had paid him he slyly disappeared. We were hustled. He stole our money and we didn't even realize it until the real bus driver came around asking for money. It really only costed 10 RMB, but the sly dog took more than that. We tried to stay positive because in American money it wasn't that big of a deal, it was just frustrating we had let that happen.

That little fiasco started our two hour bus ride off on the right note, but the Chinese like to keep things interesting! We were gawking at the beautiful mountains when all of a sudden the entire bus swerves and BARELY misses hitting a car in front of us and then swerves back before we were hit by cars coming in the opposite direction. I swear to you I thought the bus was going to tip. A guy was flung out of his seat and landed on the floor and everyone was freaking out and it was beyond exhilarating. The bad driver stereotype is so true, so if the Chinese are freaking out about the driving you know something is wrong. Guys, it was terrifying and I am glad I can be here to share the near death experience with you today.

We finally arrived in Yangshuo and fell in love with the city immediately. It was exactly what I had imagined China to be like. Chinese flags hanging everywhere, little shops lining the streets, music playing, happy people everywhere! I LOVED IT. We got to our hostel and showered the stench of the train off and left to explore the city.

 

 I am kind of technology deficient and really could use Darci's/Slate's help with writing next to my pictures buuuuuut.... the first picture is the view from our hostel roof and minus the shack looking buildings it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The mountains were so cool because they were round on top rather than pointy. The next picture is with Jennie and I on West Street aka the coolest street in China. I was in heaven there. The next two pictures are of the Li River which was right outside our hostel. Goodness I just loved it so much. We found towering ice cream cones which were such a nice relief from the humidity. Later that night we found the famous place where fish nibble at your feet and eat the dead skin. It was the craziest feeling and it was really hard to get over the fact fish were eating me, but I did it! I started with the tiny fish and then moved up to the medium fish and finally ended with the huge fish. The big fish felt like humans were sucking on my feet and I'm surprised I didn't leave with fish hickies! And finally we ended the night with delicious dumplings!

Day one was the longest day ever, but I definitely loved it. Annnnnd theres day one, sorry for the overload!