From Lijiang I took an overnight sleeper bus to Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan Province, and from there a 22-hour train ride to Guilin. Never again will I endure such a long, spine-jarring trip.
Seriously, this place is like summer camp for backpackers. It is so beautiful that the karst landscape graces the 20 Yuan notes; it is the place of every Chinese person's dreams. These magnificient mountains were carved by the Li River's slightly acidic waters. Thousands of years of flowing water whittled away the mountains until only their rocky cores remained.
I stayed at Monkey Jane's Guesthouse and met dozens of other travelers during the week I stayed there. There was my Israeli roommate just out of the military, the Dutch couple who are on a three-month vacation from work, the Canadian who ran out of room in her passport and doesn't know how she's going to get out of the country, and the American who quit his accounting job in Kentucky and has been traveling with his best friend from college for the last seventeen months. Every day was better than the last.
I hung out with a guy from England and girl from Scotland. We hiked for two days. In this photo, we ended up on the wrong side of a river and forded the small rapids to get to the other side.
I met dozens of Chinese college students studying English. They invited me to a Fruit and Beer party - they provided free lychees, bananas, and booze to lure English-speaking foreigners to their school and help them practice my native tongue. I was convinced to go on stage to sing and dance for a bit.
On Thursday a Sweedish guy, British guy, and I bussed to the Dragon Backbone Rice Terraces and hiked among the watery, reflective, mosquito-ridden, beautiful terraces. Nothing can capture the high of standing on top of a small mountain and looking down onto rolling hills of ride terraces.
Though Yangshuo's super touristy crowds can scare off any backpacker, it was so mesmerizing that I spent six days there.
Seriously, this place is like summer camp for backpackers. It is so beautiful that the karst landscape graces the 20 Yuan notes; it is the place of every Chinese person's dreams. These magnificient mountains were carved by the Li River's slightly acidic waters. Thousands of years of flowing water whittled away the mountains until only their rocky cores remained.
I stayed at Monkey Jane's Guesthouse and met dozens of other travelers during the week I stayed there. There was my Israeli roommate just out of the military, the Dutch couple who are on a three-month vacation from work, the Canadian who ran out of room in her passport and doesn't know how she's going to get out of the country, and the American who quit his accounting job in Kentucky and has been traveling with his best friend from college for the last seventeen months. Every day was better than the last.
I took a ride on a bamboo raft down the Li River.
Though Yangshuo's super touristy crowds can scare off any backpacker, it was so mesmerizing that I spent six days there.
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