yangshuo, part three

after twenty minutes of haggling, ryan and i scooped up our scooters and beat feet for the hinterlands of southern china. naturally, ryan's scooter broke down after five minutes, but it was soon ready to roll. after half an hour of slicing through chinese traffic --- lanes are just an idea, not a reality, and anything with wheels, or feet, is welcome on the roads --- i was out in the countryside.

this was easily the highlight of the trip. i neglected to take pictures while i was driving --- far be it for me to try and be safe --- so some of the greatest things i saw i only captured in my mind: small duck farms, tomatoes drying in the sun, markets with unrefrigerated meat, the smell of burning tires, litter and waste. but, also, some of the most beautiful and unearthly scenery i've ever seen.

we road through empty villages, small neighborhoods of newly built brick buildings, either uninhabited or recently abandoned. the acres of trees covered with tarps were haunting.


we stopped over rivers for our best shots. as the sun was setting, we saw fit to return to town and begin our evening.

yangshuo, part two

we woke up four hours later, hardly rested but ready to take on the people's republic.  by night, yangshuo seemed like little more than a street with buildings and locals trying, desperately, to sell us a ride to our hostel.  by day, however, we saw that yangshuo was a bustling tourist town with local trying, desperately, to sell you anything they could.  

chinese plumbing.  i believe its also called "preserved water."

our walk through town was slow going, as we were stopped every few minutes for pictures, simply for being tall and white.  breakfast consisted of copy-pringles and dried plums, which were not pitted, of course.  around noon, we made it to the river and saw the scenery that we had come for.  really beautiful stuff, otherworldly, even, and ruined only by the constant requests for a bamboo raft ride.

those chinese, they are intrepid, unstoppable businessmen.  communists?  please.  

after taking in the view and a lunch, we wandered the tourists shops of yangshuo, stopping to look at fake antiques and knock off tshirts.  i purchased a small, painted duck from an old lady, simply because she did not pester me.  then i purchased a set of chinese playing cards from another lady, who, after we completed our transaction, let out a fierce and knowing "mwa ha ha ha!" cackle behind my back.

another stupid westerner, had out of, oh, a dollar maybe? 

we kept making friends!  she was practicing her english, and did a great job.  

at this point, with some afternoon left, ryan and i decided it would be best if we rented a pair of gas powered scooters and head to the countryside to get a taste of real china...

yanghsuo, part one

travel is over and i'm back in america.

a few weeks ago, however, i was in china.  the people's republic, not hong kong, which, i learned, is a very different animal.

my trip started in shenzhen, just across the border from hong kong.  though i saw very little, it was immediately clear that shenzhen was a very different place --- darker, dirtier, colder.  not a place i wanted to stay for long.  thankfully, the sleeper bus arrived quickly.  

not that the bus was much of an upgrade.  for the next ten hours --- the rest of the night --- i laid in a cramped, uncomfortable bed.  on a bus.  careening through the south of china.  

and i do mean careening.  our driver had some very clever ideas about when to pass on the "highway" --- curves, especially, and also in the face of obviously oncoming traffic.  highway is a misnomer, as well.  more like dirt road.  dirt road under construction.  not that that stopped our driver from trying to set a time-to-distance record that evening.

though i traveled by night, i was able to catch a glimpse of the countryside.  beyond the open space, in stark contrast to hong kong, and the miles of empty buildings, i was most struck by the slave labor camps near the highway.  i imagine the workers were receiving some small amount of yuan for their work, but i say, call a spade a spade.  in the cold night, they slept only in tents made out of thin acyrilic material, no fires, surely little clothes.

we passed through a few towns, and i could only capture the feeling of the ride with pretentious, blurry photography.  while i tried to fall asleep on the bus, i tried to come up with a suitable simile for china.  china is like cellophane --- it has some of the qualities of beauty, like gloss, clarity, lightness, but the whole is much lesser than the parts.  in fact, the whole is pretty icky when you get up close and touch it.

when ryan and i arrived in yangshuo, we stumbled around in the darkness until we finally found a hostel at which to crash.  within five minutes, a gentlemen who purported to be the manager of the hostel knocked on our door to give us a few tips about the yangshuo.  a few minutes later, it became clear that the tips were a sorry attempt to net a few round-eyes into paying far too much for a guided tour of the area.  it took a lot longer to finally chase him out of our room.

welcome to china.

rising sun

japan is incredible. i've been here for seven days now, and from the small pleasures of little thoughtful tricks, to the big surprises like partying with a local businessman at a dive bar, it's really been one hell of a trip.

yangshuo, prolouge

i'm afraid i won't be able to post about this last weekend's trip to inside the people's republic of china until... a while.  here's a taste of yangshuo.  beyond it's touristy middle, i was able to get a taste of real, undistilled china.

i like hong kong much better.  china is a dirty, ruthless place.

AF1s

and then i bought these sneakers. for hiking?

sai kung paradise

last tuesday i went on an absolutely beautiful hike in hong kong's sai kung area, right on the coast of the south china sea. after a short 90 minute journey from my apartment, by subway, then bus, then taxi, i found myself in a remote, solitary paradise. most of the time, i couldn't hear a single human-produced sound: no boats, no planes, no motors, no alarms. it was stunning.

the hike started near a reservoir filled with crystal-clear blue water.

we hiked through bamboo forests. the air was clear enough, the light was bright enough, that this photo practically looks like HDR.

the highlight: an amazing beach, nestled between two mountain ridges. massive waves rolling ashore. clean air and sand, and not another soul, save ryan, my comrade.

we had another very, very steep hike on the trail, up 1200ft... a never ending staircase.

the view, however, was more than worth it.

far, far more than worth it.

spectacular.

going down the other side of the mountain, we could see sharp peak in the distance. apt name.

unfortunately, the sun started to go down and we had to cut our hike a little short.

we tried to scuttle back via another trail, but the sun started to get dangerously, if not beautifully, low. then, we took a wrong turn and ended dropping down the mountain on a steep, overgrown trail. soon, the trail led to small, suspicious dam, and we turned around, afraid that snakes or vc might be lurking the trees.

really great hike. after returning from my two major excursions --- mainland china, beginning tomorrow, and then japan --- i plan to finish it before returning to america.

i will miss it here.