Yangshou

Well, it’s Thursday night and we’ve been in Yangshou for the entire week. It’s a great place to veg and the surrounding landscape is absolutely beautiful!

On Monday we went cycling around the countryside. We peddled 3.5hrs in total and went along highway (at 9km, we thought we may have been lost until a kind Chinese man stopped in his car and confirmed that we were heading in the right direction – we had a map thankfully), through rice fields and small villages. Arriving at the only river crossing we were told that we couldn’t use the bridge (not convinced!) and would have to cross by bamboo raft. After some negotiation we managed to secure passage to the other side even though the raftsman tried very hard to convince us that the trail wasn’t wide enough for bikes (we found out later that he was sort-of right). We spent the next 2hrs cycling back to Yangshou through rice fields and the most amazing limestone formations. Jen even fell ankle-deep in mud whilst single track riding through a rice paddy – hard core! We’ll have to get Jen on a bike when we’re back in Canada now that she’s an expert .

The next day we decided to try our hand at some Chinese cooking and were joined by 2 other couples, one Dutch and another American at the Cloud 9 Restaurant. Our menu included:

Menu
Gung Bao Chicken (Kung Pow – to us Westerners)
Beer Fish
Vegetable Dumplings

We started the course by taking a trip to the local food market to pick up some of our ingredients (we skipped the dog section; slightly disturbed by the ones being bled out and skinned). Our facilities included 7 workstations, one for the teacher and the rest for us. We had some initial prep, learning how to properly chop veggies with a cleaver and then got down to business. The instructor reminded us of the Chinese takeaway woman in Dude, Where’s My Car?, for those of you who know the film (those of you who don’t, rent it, it’s a good laugh). She kept saying “…and theeeen…”; tempting us to respond “…No And Then!” We cooked for the better part of 3 hours and learned how to fold dumplings properly. If we remember by the time we get home, it’ll be a miracle! We got all of the recipes and I’m sure we’ll be posting them in the future.

That afternoon was spent by the river giving impromptu English lessons to a few Chinese students. They teach themselves English using books and the China Daily newspaper as the 2000 Yuan per person cost for a one-month course is just too expensive for some of them.

On Wednesday (happy birthday to Jen’s dad!) we went from Yangshou to Longsheng to see the rice terraces North of Guilin. Our tour included a gem of a bus which included no aircon (well, not really), blinds on one side of the bus and a tour guide who was hell bent on filling it to the rafters. 3 hours later we were more than happy to make the 15 minute climb uphill to our lunch destination. Our lunch included bamboo rice and bamboo chicken, it was rice with veg and chicken cooked over a fire in a piece of bamboo with cobs of corn to keep both the heat and food inside; they were split in 1/2 lengthwise to eat from – very tasty. We spent the next couple of hours wandering around the terraces with a Belgian family of 4; it was absolutely beautiful and well worth the trip. The way back was much nicer as fewer people came back with us, until 15 minutes down the road we picked up some women from a broken-down bus. I had the pleasure of providing my shoulder for a woman to sleep on – grumpy!

Today we took it easy and pampered ourselves with a haircut & shave from the local barber who looks a lot like my dad, just Chinese. He managed to shave just about every bit of my head including ears and other orifices. Later I had a massage and Jen had a trim foot (slough all of the skin off of one’s feet) which involved torches (flashlights), tubs of tea-coloured murkey water and lots of tools that you’d likely find in the tray of a Morrocan street dentist.

Tomorrow, off to Vietnam…