Mud Caves? Don’t Mind if I Do!

Day 2 in beautiful Yangshuo! :) It started off with Lou’s Bakery... of course! Then we went to the water and mud cave! The adventure started how every adventure in China begins- the bus ride! The bus that took us to the cave seriously had to be the most rickety bus known to man! You know the Jurassic Park virtual ride at Disney World where there’s a screen and the seats move... you’re supposed to feel like you’re in the ride, but really it’s like the most jerky, nauseating few minutes of your life? That was this bus ride! The left back tire was almost coming off and it sounded like an oversized lawn mower. It’s a miracle that we got up the mountain in that bus! I was almost certain it was just going to fall apart.

To get into the cave you had to go in these boats. They were as bad... or worse... then the bus. These boats had to be made by neanderthals and lasted through the ages. We had to duck down to get in the entrance.

Here we are in the infamous boats!

This is the group of us in the caves. It’s our “BEFORE" picture!

We had a tour of the cave. The last stop was this natural pool. We were swimming and from the rocks and playing games... it was awesome! :)

Just a bunch of us jumping off rocks into a natural lake in a cave in China. No big deal. :)

After swimming in water it was time to play in the MUD! It was a blast. You’d lay in the mud and just float.... it was so odd! We were completely covered. I got some in my eyes... not cool! But still fun! :)

Floating in the mud!

The “AFTER” picture!

Our group had a blast! But the fun wasn’t over! After the mud caves we cleaned off with the world’s coldest hose! It was ok though because after that we got to go to the natural hot pots! It was definitely a good time!

Even though we were super uncomfortable, wet, and dirty lunch took precedence over showering! We went to Ryley’s Cafe. This quickly became our favorite place in Yangshuo! It was the best! They had pizza, chicken cordon bleu, and this apple crumble stuff that was FABULOUS! I don’t know why more things taste like that in China! Simply delightful!

On the walk home something great happened. Let me preface this story. On the bus to Guilin I was talking to Anna about how I really wanted to see someone slip on a banana peel. Like, you always see it in movies and stuff, but I’d never seen it in real life! On the walk home Cierra slipped on a banana peel!!!! It was HILARIOUS!

I am so glad I witnessed this!

Getting all the mud off me was a nightmare! I’m pretty sure I was getting mud out of my ears days later! But it was so much fun and so worth it! It was definitely a great adventure in Yangshuo!

Welcome to Yangshuo!

From Guilin we took a Bamboo raft ride down the Li River to get to Yangshuo. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life. The scenery almost made me feel like a dinosaur should pop out at any second... it kind of has a Jurassic Park feel to it! I really don’t know how to describe it! We jut mozied on down the river on this raft amongst the beautiful scenery! It was so relaxing and enchanting!

This is how very relaxing the ride was! ha! :)

Yangshuo has to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world! There are no high rises- it’s all very quaint and cute. It’s surrounded by the massive Li River and the impressive “Dr. Suess Mountains”. We got to our hostel... we were on the 6th floor!

Imagine lugging your stuff up all these stairs. It was quite exhausting. I don’t know why China has SO MANY STAIRS!

That afternoon a group of us decided to see more of Yangshuo by way of bike. We rented bikes- 10 yuan each! That’s a mere $2.50 (or so...)! Now THAT’s experiencing China... riding around the city, ringing the little bell to tell people to get out of the way... all that! :) It was so fun! We didn’t really have a destination, we just decided to explore. We set out on a road and about a half hour (and a ton of beautiful countryside) later we came upon this little village. It amazes me that people still live in that way! It had very run down buildings, dirt roads, burning garbage piles, chickens and dogs in the road, and the happiest and friendliest people you’ll ever meet! It was actually quite a humbling experience.

Eventually we came to this trail that we couldn’t go on with our bikes. We ditched those and set off on foot. It led us further into the countryside toward gorgeous mountains. We found an old Chinese graveyard! It was pretty awesome!

This is the group of us that ventured into the village and mountains!

After exploring the mountains for a while we headed back to our bikes. We saw some more cool things on our way back to the city- another little village, water buffalos, the weirdest fruit ever.... things like that!

That night we hung out on West Street. It is a pedestrian only street with a ton of shopping and eating! :) That night we went to “Lucy’s Cafe”. Cierra and I got this grilled cheese sandwich thing. I’m pretty sure they have the same grilled cheese maker I had up at school. It made me... college sick? Haha! We had grilled cheese sandwiches from that little machine almost every day! Anyway... Later in the evening we met yet another ILP group! :) One girl looked SUPER familiar and she and I were trying to figure out how we might now each other. She’s related the the Salmond’s, went to Davis, and goes to Utah State... so it has to be one of those! Haha! It was fun to talk to them!

On the way back to the hostel we made a discovery that would endear Yangshuo to us even more- Lou’s Bakery. It was a legit bakery! In China! There was banana bread, almond bread, all sorts of little cakes... it was amazing! :) We frequented that little shop while we were in Yangshuo!

This is from our last day in Yangshuo when we were saying goodbye to our friend at Lou’s Bakery!

We’d only been in Yangshuo for a few hours, but we knew we were going to love it there! :) And this was only the beginning of our adventures there!

Xi'an adventures!

The first stop on our vacation was Xi’an. We got on the bus on Friday. This is where we learned the first lesson that would haunt us the rest of our travels: All sleeper busses are not created equal. Our sleeper to and from Beijing was very clean, comfortable, and just an all around good experience. This sleeper was not. It was cramped, smelly, and there were Asians sleeping in the aisles. There was a little girl who ended up with Cierra almost the entire ride!

The bus ride was supposed to be 21 hours... it ended up being 23 and a half! This is where we learned the second lesson that would haunt us the rest of our travels: EVERYONE travels on National Day in China! The roads, busses, restaurants, tourist sites... EVERYTHING is packed! Here in China practically everyone gets the first week in October off. It’s madness.

We arrived in Xi’an on Saturday sore, hungry, tired, and smelly. We finally got to our hostel. We only cleaned up. We didn’t have time to sleep because we had a very limited amount of time there. I hurried and used one of the shared computers so I could let my family know I was safe. I got the best news that put me in a great mood for the rest of the day: USU had slaughtered BYU in football!!! YES!!!!!!!! Go Aggies! :) Cierra, Samantha, and I did a little celebratory dance. :) With my newly heightened mood I set out to see the sights. That day we saw the sights around the main part of Xi’an including the Drum and Bell towers and the local night market.

Our second day in Xi’an was one of the craziest days of my life. Literally. We opted not to do a tour of the Terra Cotta warriors because we felt like we had paid too much for our tour on the Great Wall. Maybe it would have been better to do a tour... We got up early to get to the bus that would take us to the Warriors. It was PACKED!! Note: National Day is not the time to visit the Terra Cotta Warriors! What makes it worse is that China can’t seem to master the concept of standing in line. At first we were in a semi orderly line and then suddenly and for no apparent reason the line just turned into an insane mosh pit of chaos and terror. It was a mad dash to get to the front.

This is me with Anna and Kayla trying to make our way through the crowd!

After quite the struggle we FINALLY got on the bus! It took us nearly an hour, but we all got through and ended up on the same bus! The hour long bus ride ended up being a little over 2 hours because of traffic. But after a few rounds of the alphabet game (yes, you can play it in China!) and other various things to entertain us we were finally there! We got in line to buy our tickets. This line wasn’t TOO bad… until we got to the front and found out that it was the wrong one!! So we had to go stand in another one. Dang it! But that line gave half price to students, so it was ok! Now we were really in!

Seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors was INCREDIBLE! I was amazed, in awe, enthralled, and all other synonyms! It’s quite the sight to see! There are thousands of them and each one is different!

The Terra Cotta Warriors were discovered in 1974 by accident. They are still uncovering more and rebuilding and restoring them. We watched people at work! Leah Wood, I think I found the perfect job for you!

We spent a lot of time in there and exploring all the other exhibits. It was honestly one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. Even though it was a fight to get there it was totally worth it! We left and headed toward the bus stop to get home. Remember the chaotic mosh pit from the morning? Times that by 10 and that will give you an idea of what was awaiting us! I honestly don’t have words to express the situation we were in! After over an hour of holding onto each other and trying to hold our own in the massive crowd we got to a bus. I took a video of what we had emerged from. I tried to upload it, but it’s too long to send... that’s how insane it was!

We got on the bus. It was completely over crowded, so only a few of our group got seats. Kayla, Samantha and I snagged the stairs, so it was kind of like we had seats. We rode like that for a while and then the bus pulled over. They made all of us get off… apparently you can’t get gas with passengers on the bus. While we were waiting there a bunch of other people snuck in line. When they said we could get back on the bus everyone ran toward the bus so they could get their seats back and not get ousted by the people who snuck in line. In the madness Kayla and Lauren had the most epic fall I’ve ever seen!!! It delayed us and we didn’t end up getting our spots back… but it was hilarious! Kayla, Cierra, and I ended up just sitting in the middle of the aisle surrounded by many Asians.

This is our makeshift bandage for Kayla’s leg! This poor girl is the most injury prone person I’ve ever met!

The bus ride ended up being over 3 hours!! It was so hot, crowded, and uncomfortable! We hadn’t eaten dinner, so we were all starving. We were all rummaging through our bags to find any snacks we might have. Between all of us we found a few cookies, some dried pineapple, and some chip crumbs! Pathetic, I know! This older lady sitting by Kayla saw that and she shared her dinner with Cierra, Kayla, and me! I have no idea what I ate, but it was the sweetest gesture! During that bus ride we went off roading, hit a car, and I think my butt melted to the ground. Ha! Apparently the delay was caused by construction. Good planning, China! Way to have construction on the road to one of the most famous places in the world during the heaviest traveling time of the year! Getting off that bus was the most glorious feeling in the world!

This was our infamous bus ride!

Even though it was crazy the experience was worth it! We accomplished what we traveled to Xi’an for! The next day was a traveling day to Guilin. We decided to splurge and get breakfast at our hostel. It was the first real breakfast I’ve had in ages and it was DELICIOUS. We wanted a good breakfast before getting on our sleeper bus all day. This sleeper bus had to have been designed by someone in the 70’s! It had brown leather beds and orange and yellow blankets. Sweet. Cierra, Samantha, and I ended up in this little cove made for three people in the back.

Yep. We were surrounded by Asians!

The ride wasn’t too bad! It just was a lot of sleeping, eating, and talking. It was another 23 hour bus ride. Waiting for us were more great experiences in Guilin! Stay tuned to hear about those! Love you all!

On a side note, the 4th was one of my very best friends in the world’s birthday! I was sad I couldn’t be there, but now it’s on the wall of our hostel in Xi’an forever! Love you, S!

A Not So Typical Teaching Day

I think I’ll start out a little before our vacation! Cierra and I had a hardcore cleaning day. I think we’re fighting a losing battle. We try so hard to keep our apartment clean, but I don’t know if it’s actually possible. I undertook the task of cleaning the bathroom. After only a few minutes into it this is what the water looked like:

We had already cleaned our bathroom that week too... I just don’t understand!

The day before we left for Xi’an CIerra and I had to teach. To preface this story I must tell you a little bit about where I live. We are on the 5th floor. The stairs are steep and there are no elevators or anything. Our apartment building is in the farthest corner of campus. Our school is built on a hill... a steep one. There are hundreds of stairs just to get to our building... and then up five more floors! Anyway... So we left to teach. We meet at the gate at 7:10 and there’s supposed to be a van to pick us up. Once again there was no van. We asked the security guard to use his phone and he wouldn’t let us. We walked all the way back up to the teaching building to look for Kelly (our foreign coordinator). She wasn’t in her office, so we walked all the way up to our apartment building to find her. On the way we met Amanda (our head teacher) and she told us Kelly was supposed to be in the teaching building. So we went back down there. Not there. So we went back to the gate to make sure the van hadn’t come... it hadn’t! The nice guard was there, so we used the phone to call Kelly. No answer! So we walked all the way back up to Kelly’s room (which is also on the 5th floor). Kelly called some people and they sent a van to come get us. We walked all the way back down to the gate. Hundreds of stairs later we were finally in the van!

We thought our journey to teach was over. We were wrong!! The driver was not our normal one and she was SCARY! About 15 minutes into the commute (the scariest one of my life) the lady just pulled over on the side of the freeway. We had no idea what was going on. She started driving again and like 2 minutes later pulled. We were thoroughly confused. She kept calling someone on her cell phone, but obviously we couldn’t understand what was going on. We started driving again and then she pulled over next to our usual van. We had to switch vans... slightly scary on the roads in China! We transferred vans and FINALLY got on our way!

Teaching that day went really well! 3 out of 4 of my classes are consistently good! :) That’s not bad odds, right? Anyway... the faculty at our school loves us! It’s so awesome! The chefs especially love us.... apparently feeding blonde Americans is fun to them! Earlier we had mentioned that we liked dumplings. That day the chefs made dumplings especially for us! It was so sweet and they kept offering us more and more! Our school is seriously so cool! I love it!

After lunch Miss Tao invited us to play ping pong. Welcome to China, right?! Ha! Miss Tao was way into it! She was ready to play! They take their ping pong seriously here in China! I’m not very good... I think I disappointed the Asians! What better place to work on my ping pong skills than in China?!

This is Cierra and Miss Tao playing ping pong! :)

The day started out a little hectic, but it ended up being great!!

Next up: Xi’an! :)

Hello there everybody!

I'm finally back to Weihai safe and sound! Our trip was AWESOME! Seriously... so much fun! I have SO many stories! Here's the thing though.... there's no way I'm writing them to everyone! That would consume my whole life! So I'm going to slowly but surely start blogging them and you can hear them that way! :) Haha! Sorry. Just the way it has to be! Good thing I kept a good journal otherwise I'd have no idea even where to begin! Holy cow! It was a ton of fun and quite the adventure!!! We went to Xi'an, Guilin, and Yangshuo... then we had an unexpected trip to Shanghai! Now I'm back in Weihai and we're all jumping right back into teaching! I want to hear what's been going on for all of you though, so email me! Love you all!!

Jenni