Yangshou China-Where Miracles Happen

     And by miracles I'm obviously referring to fish eating my feet, but we'll get back to that later.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire. At least that's what it feels like when you jump from trip to another back to back. We came back from Beijing and almost immediately left for Yangshou.  It doesn't help that we left at 5 am.  The only times I'm up at 5 am are when I accidentally stay up that late reading.  Ugh. This picture is just a view from the train on our way.  When we finally arrived I couldn't believe the fairy tale place we found ourselves in.  I mean look at this site! What kind of town is this? The mountains are all around and look super cool early in the morning when it's misty out.  The river runs right along the town and the streets are full of vendors and goods.

While we waited for the fishing plans for tonight we made more fishing related plans for the afternoon. Those plans mainly included going to this fish foot spa.  It was a little intimidating to put our feet into these tanks (as you can see us hesitating in this first picture) and even once we put our feet in I could barely keep them under the water. While I may have been hesitant, once I put my feet in I was laughing so hard I was crying.  Then I somehow grew accustomed to the sensation of fish eating the dead skin off my feet.  All of the sudden my hour was up and I didn't want to take my feet out.  It's kind of weird how that happens.  How did I grow accustomed to and even start to enjoy having fish eat my feet?

     Ok so once we checked into our hotel our first objective was to finalize our agenda for the 3 days and 2 nights we were going to be here. While we ate lunch at Cafe China (so original) we figured everything out-beginning with Wild China episode 1.  (For real, watch Wild China episode 1 on Netflix and that pretty much describes my experience here. At least the part with the birds.)  Our first night there we went out onto the river to observe cormorant fishing.  It was seemingly legit and then all of the sudden the boat people were yelling 'get off the boat!'

 So then we all crowded on shore again while they said something about it being easier to see the fishing process once dusk fell.  (Psht, ya right. I'm sure it conveniently had nothing to do with the fact that they just saw some police boats. But for the life of me I can't figure out what part of this process is sketchy or illegal.)







Anyway, pretty much the whole situation was funny and quite memorable. This is the old man steering his boat, and I even got a picture of me with the birds.  Don't I look so natural with my straw hat on my head and bird on my arm? I was born for this life.

The next morning dawned bright and foggy and full of mountains.  We got up extra early to find these delicious buns that our professor had told us about.  Not only were they 50 cents but they were some kind of fantastic combination of savory and sweet. Plus what doesn't taste delicious when you eat it looking at this view? Can you believe that the people who live here get to see this every day? I couldn't even believe it was my real life for these few days. Hooray for traveling!

Anyway, after breakfast the morning started with a float on a bamboo raft down the YuLong River.  How cool is that? This is my roommate and I waiting to take off and the other is my roommate and I floating into shore at the end.  I'm not sure exactly why that is our pose, but what a great picture.


After we got off our boats we saw all of these random things-like these adorable monkeys you could take pictures with. They're like the pet Abu I've always wanted! What a dream.  Except I wasn't willing to actually pay for a picture with them so here's some random Asian child with the monkeys of my dreams. There was also a camel there that you could ride, but, again, I resisted the temptation.  (I'm not really sure how China-esque a camel really is.)


After the float we went to moon hill and hiked all the way to the top.  Somehow it doesn't look as impressive as it actually was in this photo, but let me tell you. If we had known how intense the hike was going to be before we started I'm not sure how many of us would actually have gone through with it.  But we did.  We're so healthy.

After the hike we had lunch and then went to these rainbow caves.  They were pretty cool, but any cave lacking bat guano is lacking authenticity as well.  But still, they look pretty cool, right?



We crossed this crazy bridge and then got to go down this cool slide where you controlled your speed with your hands. We had to wear these weird bum protector things for the slide and gloves for our hands, but I think we're looking pretty good, right?  I mean, just look at us. How could anyone resist us?  Not that we're trying to make people not resist us, but I'm just saying. So anyway, once the slide was done we left Butterfly Springs and headed to our last destination for the day.

Say hello to the mud caves and hot springs!  We had a guide who showed us the way to the springs, but on the way he was randomly like "there's a hole here where you can crawl through."  So we were all gathered around looking at it.  Then it kind of seemed like he was expecting someone to want to give it a shot, and who am I to disappoint?  So I crawled through this hole into a tiny blue cave room where I had just enough space to sit up without having to hunch. Then I decided that 30 seconds was plenty of time so I was going to crawl out and he's like "now you just keep crawling through" and I was like "no, I'm pretty sure I don't." But he was pretty insistent that there was another hole you could crawl through on your belly.  Now I'm not saying that I'm opposed to spontaneous spelunking in my swimsuit, but I am slightly opposed to spontaneous spelunking in my swimsuit into tiny holes that are black and I can't even see an exit to.  Yet the guide was pretty emphatic that you could crawl through to the other side.  And then there wasn't really much of a chance to retreat anyway because another guy from the group was like "I'm coming in after you."

"You are?" was my slightly hesitant and alarmed response as I struggled to make room for him in the tiny blue room by army crawlinig across the uneven cave floor. Anyway, it was slightly comforting having another person going through this weird experience with me even if he was a stranger, but not as comforting as having my head pop out the other side where all my friends were waiting. They named this photo "Laura's rebirth."  Once that mini adventure was over we made it to the mud pool.  This is exactly what it sounds like. I couldn't get a decent photo of us so I grabbed one off the internet so you can get an idea of what it was like.

Even this I managed to mess up.  There was a mud slide off to the side which I decided to give a try.  Yet somehow I tripped over my foot at the bottom of the slide turning it into a graceful tumble (you know me) which I ended with a 10 out of 10 faceplant into the mud.
Upside: I think I got everyone with a good splash in a solid 5 foot radius of me.
Downside: I wasn't expecting to faceplant and I didn't close my mouth, which is, unfortunately, part of my face.
Upside: there really wasn't getting any dirtier than I was at that moment so I no longer had any reservations in the mud pool.
Downside: Rinsing off was a real beast.
Once we finally did rinse off enough we all sat around and relaxed in the hot springs.  Did I ever picture myself chilling in a hot springs in a cave in China? No.  Did I like it? Yes. Immensely so.
We were home by 4 that day but everyone was so exhausted we just kind of crashed until dinner at 6.  We went to get Indian food.

Dinner is a whole different story.  During our day we kept running into another tour group of Asians who befriended us.  We saw these girls we had met yesterday and talked to them again.  Then this boy (a friend of those girls?) came up and talked to me and was like "Hey. I didn't think I would be seeing you again."
"I didn't think I had seen you before."
Ok that was what I wanted to say, but I didn't want to be mean so obviously I said something else.
Anyway he invited me (us?) to lunch and even asked for my number.  Luckily I didn't have a number for him so it was pretty easy to respond to that at least.  I felt bad for the fact that we had just eaten so I let him know we were going to get Indian for dinner if him and his friends wanted to join us.  Yet when dinner rolled around I was equally surprised that 1) he showed up and 2) he didn't bring a bunch of his friends with him-just 1. Dinner was awkward because most of my friends kind of abandoned me because "I invited him" (so much for just being nice.)  Clearly this kind of blew up in my face because he asked his friend to switch seats so he could sit by me, told me he was nervous to eat with a girl, and tried to pay for my food.  The worst part is-with my luck he's probably in high school.  Can anyone hate their baby face more than I do?  (So much for my face coming together.)
Anyway, it was a really funny story but still, why??
The last day in Yangshou was pretty uneventful because we made no plans.  So it was full of wandering, teeter totters, and the train ride back home.  And with that I say sayonara to traveling for a while (at least for another 3 weeks-which is all I really have until I go home.)