Note: This is the second installation of “Dog Meat and Old Ladies“.   Previously, we took a Li River Cruise on a bamboo raft into Yangshuo and visited the Fido meat market…

On a more pleasant note, we rented bikes in Yangshuo and had a great time riding out of the city and into the more rural areas. We ended up going to a park called Moon Hill. As we rode up to the front of the park, we were approached by a group of older Chinese women who spoke decent, but broken English. They were offering us “admission” into the park for 5 Kwai instead of the 15 Kwai that the park would charge us. Seemed like a good deal, so we took them up on their offer. We started walking up the road and following the lady, thinking “okay, this seems legit”, until the woman disappeared into a hole in the wall and motioned for us to follow. “What the hell” seemed to be the thought consensus at that point in time as we looked at each other and could only laugh. We followed her into the forest on a tiny path. Jason slipped, the lady kept telling us to be quiet, and the only thing running through my mind was whether or not the jail cell that this path leads to has a free egg breakfast. We finally come up onto the legit path up to Moon Hill (you know, the real path that would have cost us 15 Kwai) and we thank the smugglers for their help and then head up the steps.

The oldest lady of the group (she is 70+ years old) ended up following us up the entire 800 steps up Moon Hill and kept up with our 26 year old pace. In her prime I bet she would have killed me in a walk-off. She also fanned us the entire way up with a shabby Mickey Mouse fan. At the top, she was so excited to show us a journal that had been given to her by a traveler- it had been inscribed by hundreds of tourists who left messages for future tourists who encounter this awesome woman. She then proceeded to sell us ridiculously expensive soda.

Our last active day in Yangshuo included an awesome cooking class! This was SO much fun. There ended up being three other people in the class, and we chose to cook Braised Eggplant in chili and garlic sauce, Beer Fish (it is a local specialty and we actually used a ton of beer to cook it) and pork dumplings. They took us to the market, bought the food for dinner, and then we cooked it while enjoying some tasty beer and good company. It was a great and relaxing way to complete our last night in Yangshuo.

Random Thought of the Day: Getting used to the crazy streets in China took a little while, but I think we adapted fairly easily. That being said, we were NOT prepared for the even crazier streets of Vietnam. Crazier in the sense that there are MANY more motorbikes on the roads here than in China and the smaller intersections have absolutely no traffic signs. It’s basically a free-for-all. You learn that the only way across the street is to find a tiny break in between the motorbikes, hold your breath, walk slowly forward whilst dodging the bikes, and pray that the Vietnamese guy speeding towards you isn’t having a bad day. It was not until a fellow American traveler saw us crossing the street yesterday that we realized that we had become experienced street crossers. His words were “You guys have big balls”. It was such a touching moment.

Filed under: Travel: China