Goooorrrgeous Yangshuo and a visit from DadAug 20, 2005
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The start of the hike
Father and daughter, at the top of the peak
On the phone with Mom
The three travelers
The train ride to Guilin was a much-needed rest... It started out as the worst 20 minutes of my life (suffice to say that I got really sick as we were walking on the train platform and the staff refused to unlock the toilet on the train for me, since we were stationary... a lot of frantic waving of the phrasebook and Lydia holding her crotch on my behalf finally convinced them it was to their benefit to open the door...), but once I had access to the toilet it got a lot better. Tim befriended every young child in our car (or they befriended him, rather) and we read and wrote and slept a lot.
As we walked out of the Guilin train station a few minutes before 6AM, a very familiar face greeted us: my dad! He was in the area (ie Asia) for business and had a free day, and decided to spend it seeing China from the view of a backpacker. We started him out in style: riding to Yangshuo on a bus with cages of chickens tied to the top.
Yangshuo is amazing. It's surrounded on every side by the limestone peaks that make this area famous: steep upcroppings of rock that are everywhere. It's the countryside ou always imagined China to have. Our hostel is wicked- thanks for the recommendation, Tom. We went there and chilled out for a bit, then headed to do this hike some people there suggested. It was a short but pretty challenging one: all uphill, often over steep steps along an overgrown trail. But the view from the top made it worth it, of course.
Back in the town, we had lunch and spent the afternoon walking along "West Street"- a very fitting name for a street lined with tourist shops intended for Westerners (we later found the street for all the Chinese tourists) and Western-style restaurants. It was insane. This city is super popular with backpackers, and obviously there are enough of us to make a lot of good money. I can't decide if that adds or detracts from Yangshuo...
I went with my dad to catch his bus back to Guilin, then met back up with Lyds and Tim for shopping. From there, we went back to our hostel for dinner. Wei, the owner, and his family are amazing hosts, and three meals a day are included in the price of the room. The dinner was wicked, and had the added benefit of letting us chat with a couple of other travelers.
