On our last day in Yangshuo, we woke up early and went to go see the Reed Flute Cave. The enormous cave is spectacularly lit up to showcase different formations. Our tour guide, Summer, explained what the different stalagmites and stalactites represented. For example, one part of the cave looked like a sun rising up over a lion. We were all in awe of the caves vastness and natural beauty. After visiting the cave, we went to Fubo Hill, named for General Fubo. As we walked through, we saw hundreds of Buddhas engraved in the side of the hill. There were many different renditions which depicted how the image of the Buddha changed over time. Then, we climbed up to the top of the hill to get a nice view of the whole city.
After lunch at a local restaurant, we went to the airport to catch our flight to Kunming! Mrs. Li and her husband were quite excited to go to Kunming because that's where his family is from. Unfortunately, we arrived quite late and didn't have time to go visit the place where the family's old shop was. However, we will be returning to Kunming in a couple of days and will have some free time so hopefully we can see it then. The next morning, we started our long drive to Yuanyang. On the way, we stopped at the Stone Forest. The Stone Forest is exactly what it sounds like. It's a huge gathering of tall stones, eroded by wind and water. There are a couple of pavilions which we climbed to in order to get a panoramic, birds-eye view. The area around the Stone Forest is largely inhabited by the Sani people, a local ethnic group with very colorful costumes. Our new guide, Jackie, told us all about the stories behind the different stones and what their shapes and meanings represent to the Chinese culture. We also got to use what Jackie called, "a five star toilet." I can assure you it was not. A majority of the toilets here in China are just literal holes in the ground. Not even worthy of being labeled a one star toilet.
After lunch at a local Sani restaurant, we continued on our way to Yuanyang. As we drove, we saw beautiful hills, valleys and mountains with rice terraces. Although the landscape is beautiful, the drive ended up being far longer than we had originally assumed. In total we drove for about seven hours before we made it to our hotel. At some point, midway through the trip, I begin to feel like I was about to keel over. Perhaps it was the lunch, the altitude, or the driving. Although Abby has already mentioned manic driving in her blog post, I shall expand. These people are crazy and need to take some TDA classes. The roads have no lines, no lights, no intersections, etc. They are filled with mopeds, bikes, cars, vans, trucks, stray children running around, local pedestrians, and the occasional water buffalo. Whichever vehicle is larger and can honk louder gets to veer into the other lane at a breakneck speed and bypass others. These people don't pay attention to hills or sharp turns; they just hop right on to the other side of the street. As a result, I felt that I was going to yak.
After lunch at a local restaurant, we went to the airport to catch our flight to Kunming! Mrs. Li and her husband were quite excited to go to Kunming because that's where his family is from. Unfortunately, we arrived quite late and didn't have time to go visit the place where the family's old shop was. However, we will be returning to Kunming in a couple of days and will have some free time so hopefully we can see it then. The next morning, we started our long drive to Yuanyang. On the way, we stopped at the Stone Forest. The Stone Forest is exactly what it sounds like. It's a huge gathering of tall stones, eroded by wind and water. There are a couple of pavilions which we climbed to in order to get a panoramic, birds-eye view. The area around the Stone Forest is largely inhabited by the Sani people, a local ethnic group with very colorful costumes. Our new guide, Jackie, told us all about the stories behind the different stones and what their shapes and meanings represent to the Chinese culture. We also got to use what Jackie called, "a five star toilet." I can assure you it was not. A majority of the toilets here in China are just literal holes in the ground. Not even worthy of being labeled a one star toilet.
After lunch at a local Sani restaurant, we continued on our way to Yuanyang. As we drove, we saw beautiful hills, valleys and mountains with rice terraces. Although the landscape is beautiful, the drive ended up being far longer than we had originally assumed. In total we drove for about seven hours before we made it to our hotel. At some point, midway through the trip, I begin to feel like I was about to keel over. Perhaps it was the lunch, the altitude, or the driving. Although Abby has already mentioned manic driving in her blog post, I shall expand. These people are crazy and need to take some TDA classes. The roads have no lines, no lights, no intersections, etc. They are filled with mopeds, bikes, cars, vans, trucks, stray children running around, local pedestrians, and the occasional water buffalo. Whichever vehicle is larger and can honk louder gets to veer into the other lane at a breakneck speed and bypass others. These people don't pay attention to hills or sharp turns; they just hop right on to the other side of the street. As a result, I felt that I was going to yak.
And I did.
1 comment:
Ola,
I am loving your updates! So glad you're covering so much ground. However, I am similarly horrified by the lack of structure on the roads and am so sorry for your motion sickness experience!
Rachel
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