The Yellow Ones are Good for Eating 3/26/11

Woke up to a good breakfast and headed to another boat trip! We weren’t going to go with the group but we read the destination was worth the hassle. Hour bus ride then a 4 fucking hour boat trip down the Li River. The ride was beautiful but I was at my limit with rivers and having to use pop art to make everything look greener. The ride wasn’t completely boring as we tried snake wine (tasted like vodka) and >>> (very smooth but too sweet). We arrived in Yangshuo

and it was beautiful with lots of hawkers. They aren’t an issue with us, but the people we are with are retarded so we waited for them while they paid ridiculous amounts for junk that they think are quality.

We were ready to run out on our own but the group was getting into another bus. I was told we were going to Yangshuo so we got in the bus not sure what was going on. We quickly realized we had been duped when they took us to the Chinese’s government building for “health care”- translation: bring foreigners here so we can get them to spend a retarded amount of money of “stones” and we can tell them it will cure them. Haha stupid foreigners! Andy almost lost his shit so we told them we’re not going inside but going to walk around. There wasn’t much to see but it was better than sitting inside listening to bullshit. We came back after our walk and Andy told the tour guide we are not sitting through more of this shit and we’re leaving. We took off and it was awesome. The town is beautiful- what I thought (hoping) China would be like. Little shops, beautiful mountains in the background, and hawkers everywhere. We thought it was time for a little R&R after walking around for a bit so we grabbed some beers and pizza from an upstairs restaurant looking out onto the market. Earlier our tour guide told us the yellow dogs are bred to eat and the other dogs are pets. We though she was half joking until we saw a rotisserie with little puppy looking meat on it- and we thought she was joking...

We wanted to catch the earlier bus back to Guilin so we could do another walkthrough for dumplings. We “knew” where we were going but had to run to make sure we were left behind. It’s not a trip unless you run for at least once for transportation. We had to use the bathroom so bad, I was contemplating how I could pee standing up and get away with it. We made it in time, bought some more beers for the ride home.

After a couple hour bus ride we made it to the market streets of Guilin. We hadn’t eaten or seen many places with dumplings so we were on a mission from the Lonely Planet book. We must have walked in circles for 40 min and then we realized the place must no longer be there, or we were just too dumb to figure it out. We ended up in an awesome little restaurant upstairs had some dumplings and beer. The menu said 1.8Yuan for 1 piece for the dumplings. Andy told the waiter we would have 2 because we were confused, we knew that was too much for 1 dumpling. He shook his head no so we got just one- good thing since because the “one” was 20 pieces and they were delicious. The bill was only 31Yuan ($5) for the food and two large beers!! So amazing, I just wish we would have been eating out on our own this whole time. Oh well, we have another week ahead of us on our own. Back to bed for a 445 wake up call.