Shang Danged Vacation, Part One

Presenting my trip down south of China with Diana and Mendel. Stops included Guilin, Yangshuo, Nanning, Kunming and Dali. One word to describe the experience? Expensive. The summary, please:

Aug. 30: Didn’t sleep. Figured I’d catch up on it on the 26-hour train ride to Guilin. Murphy’s Law moments included taxi driver dropping us at the wrong side to the train station, and our hard-sleeper beds not being in the same nook. And it’s only 9AM.

Aug. 31: Woke up at 6:45 AM. Backache from bad bed made for bad sleep. Dreamed that a bunch of comics I sent to the US got sent back to me. Chatted with a Guilin girl named Zho Wen Juan. She offered me part of her breakfast of egg and hotdog (instant noodle additives, apparently).
Upon arriving in Guilin (and an expensive lunch, a first of several seemingly “shang dang” moments we’d be experiencing) we got on an express bus to our main destination, Yangshuo. The place was incredible. West Street was embraced by hills and mountains, seemingly enveloping the town. I’m guessing the street was named as such to cater to the mostly Western clientele, as the cafes and shops would seem to indicate. Lots of cool DVDs, but a bit pricey. We stayed at Lisa’s Guesthouse in a quadruple-bedroom. Lisa herself reminded me of Mary “Rosebud” Ong, sans bizarre lifestyle.
Dinner was at the Stone Roses Café. The free internet service (offered by many of the eating establishments) barely made up for my sub-par sirloin steak and D’s shepherd’s pie. After dinner, cheap gelato (cheaper than Beijing’s, anyway) and an evening constitution I went back to Lisa’s while D and Mens had a massage.

Sept. 1: Breakfast at Lisa’s. Shang danged again. We had yet to experience a good meal. Afterwards we biked with our tour guide Sofia to Moon Hill. I rode solo while D and Mens got a tandem bike. D, for the most part, was scared silent since she didn’t know how to ride a bike. After switching to (and enduring) a scorching 2-hour raft ride (plus some more biking afterwards) I regretting not putting on sunblock.
Lunch was at Sophia’s “family friend’s” restaurant. Methinks the family business has more than just tour guiding involved. Afterwards we detoured to cave for a guided spelunking trip. The brochure said we’d get to experience swimming in clear water (as opposed to the mud holes they also featured), but didn’t say (and should have) we had to pay the whole 160RMB (we only paid half) to reach it. After the cave “tourist trap” we still had some energy left to climb up Moon Hill. The view from the top (and subsequent photo shoots) was worth the 10RMB, and, unlike the hill, much more satisfying.
It was getting late so we hastily biked back to Lisa’s. At night. With bikes that neither had bells nor reflector strips. Couldn’t talk much during the experience since I had to concentrate on the road and avoid accidentally swallowing bugs.
Speaking of dinner, we (as suggested by the 2002 edition of Lonely Planet) went and had beer fish (a popular West Street menu item) and taro balls at Susanna’s. Former bad, latter okay.

Sept. 2: Lunch at the Pizzeria finally broke our shang dang food cycle. Almost. We ordered too much food this time, thus shang danging ourselves. The whole morning was downtime ‘til the 3PM boat ride on Li River. It was great. Feet in the water, wind and too much sunblock on my face, giving me that Kabuki-foundation-make-up look. It kinda made up for the bumpy tricycle ride to and from the boat. You think horse riding hurts the nuts? Try their tricycles if having children isn’t an option for you.
Our final dinner in Yangshuo consisted of roast chicken at Café China. Good stuff. Afterwards we went pasalubong shopping. Cakes and candies galore.