Woke up early in the morning as we had totally no prebooked transport nor hotel to YangShuo and we had to check out the hotel by 12.
Walked out onto the streets and we immediately became the target of the eager Chinese trying to make out business. We were stalked by a roughly 40 year old auntie for roughly 1km as we roamed the streets trying to find a transport that will take us to YangShuo. She pestered us all the way, lowering her price each time for a tour around YangShuo. However we didn’t gave in and at the end of it, she offered her name card to us and quoted her lowest price before she took her move. I must say such business tactics are rather irritating to tourists but it is a norm to experience this. None of the travel agencies we went to offered a single bus trip to YangShuo without bringing us for a tour. One of them even gave the pissed off face when we told her that we were only interested to get the bus ride to YangShuo.
Time was running out and we decided to have our breakfast first. Settled at a local shop for the famous Gui Lin Mi Fen. The pricing in the shop is rather interesting as the amount of noodles we order is usually by small, medium or large, just like in fast food restaurants. However, they go by the weight of the noodles here. ‘Yi liang, er liang or san liang’, the difference in each liang costs only 0.50 RMB. We ordered 3 San liang bowls of noodles each with an additional and it costs just 4RMB. Even cheaper than Vietnam and Cambodia! The noodles consists of a small amount of pork meat and you can have additional vegetables for free, a total of about 8 different kinds of vege you can add on to your bowl of noodles to make it more tasty. Certainly a bargain at just 4RMB and the taste is unique.
Booked a flight from Guilin to GuangZhou on Sunday night as we decided to forgo the bus journey of 10 hours compared to the 45 minutes flight. Time isn’t really on our side as we wanted to get to Macau faster in order to spend Song’s birthday there! The travel agency is helped us a lot and we managed to find a bus that costs just 17RMB each that will take us to YangShuo. This price is a far cry from the price of 280RMB offered by the travel agency that promised a day trip there.
Arrival at YangShuo was somewhat hostile as well. Again, we were approached by lots of eager Aunties trying to bring us to their hotels. Carrying the large backpacks on our back, we felt a lot like cash cows. For the second time of the day, one of them followed us all the way as we roamed the West street trying to look for an accommodation. Song was extremely irritated by her actions as she just wouldn’t walk away regardless of how many NOs we have said. Learnt a new tactic yet again as we walked into a café with internet service to have a coffee and lunch but most importantly, to get rid of her.
The noodles offered at the café was rather tasty. It tasted like Vermicelli soup and it tasted great!
Tried to find some hostels online but to no avail. In the end we decided to walk around and ended up at a rather reputable hotel, not hostel, for just 190RMB for a room though we found out later on that we could have found out more about the prices at other hotels before settling for one.
The biggest mistake of the day then happened as we booked the Liu San Jie show from the concierge in the hotel. Later on found out that we have wasted 40RMB each by doing so. I was rather pissed with myself for not learning from the lessons gather from previous trips especially in Vietnam when we were cheated more money by trying to book the train ticket from the hotel. This time round, we could speak the language of this city but we were still being conned! Bad mistake made.
Went around the Li River bank to take some pictures before the joke of the day happened. An innocent looking river turned dangerous as the clever song dropped his newly bought 200SGD Armani Exchange shades into the Li River!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOO.
Now it is winter, the river is flowing, the water is cold. How the hell are we gonna recover his 200SGD shades? Left with little or no choice, Song and I rolled up our jeans and jumped into the river where the water is slightly higher than knee level. The water is really icy cold as the temperatures at that moment was about 13 degrees celcius and it isn’t too wise to place your feet in the cold water. After sometime, Song finally managed to find the treasure… Lucky for him! His jeans and shoes were totally wet in the process and he totally look like a cock.
The Liu San Jie impression show that costs us 160RMB each was really an eye opener. Directed by the famous Zhang Yi Mo and is shown nightly in YangShuo, this musical is a combination of artificial lightings together with the natural landscape of the rivers and mountains in YangShuo. Imagine watching a show with the mountains as backdrop and the river as the stage, together with a clever use of lighting and costumes, the cultural sight of YangShuo was pleasing to the eye. A once in a lifetime experience of a Chinese musical with nature as its theme. A beautiful sight indeed and definitely a must see if ou are going to YangShuo!
As we returned, we tried some black smelly toufu. The crust of the tofu is totally black and then deep fried. And this tastes even better than the one we had tried in HongKong. Crispy, tasty and spicy.
The 3 of us then had a 5 course meal dinner as the restaurants here were rather cheap and we had bigger spending power due to the strength of Singapore’s currency. Beer Fish is the famous local dish here. If im not wrong, the sauce is a mixture of Hua Diao Jiu with tomatoes and garlic which made it so unique. Tried Gui Hua Lian Zi Geng and it is quite an amazing dessert. Lots of different ingredients were added in its preparation before water was added at the end. And the end product wasn’t something watery but was thick and gluey! Tasted something like black sesame but somehow it still lacks something.. not too nice in my opinion but Song finished it nonetheless.
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