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  • Day 11

    Yangshou

    October 11, 2014 in China ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Blog continued (we're on Day 3 in case you forgot or fell asleep out of sheer boredom)...

    We ended up getting shafted on the price. Her maths didn't make sense but with the language barrier we ended up paying her what she wanted. We made it to the end to be reunited with our bikes. We didn't want to go straight back to the hostel so we decided to bike to Moon Hill. Again it was so nice to cycle through the gorgeous countryside with the sunsetting behind the green peeks.

    We made it to Moon Hill with an hour to go before the park closed and the light was fading quickly. We had to race up the many stairs to the viewing platform. The view was really underwhelming but Rich mentioned that there's a path you can take to get right to the top of the hill so being the gent that I am I let Jana lead the way. It wasn't a tough hike and the view was so much better than the official viewing platform. As we climbed down, the light had completely faded and it was getting really tough to see the stairs ahead of us. Luckily I had 2 torches on me. Jana decided to talk about horror movies whilst pitch black outside until we heard a rustle in the trees which freaked us out and quickly ended that topic.

    We had a 30 minute nerve racking journey home cycling on the side of the major road with hardly any light. But we got back and rewarded ourselves with a Snickers bar then another claypot for dinner with the other lads. Jana decided against the claypot and chose the spicy beef which in this place means slices of cooked beef with a million whole peppers thrown on the plate. Whilst eating there was a guy dressed as MJ walking around town with a giant speaker on wheels. I was curious to see his act and I got my chance on the way home where MJ was sitting down on his arse looking very bored with MJ songs blaring out of the speakers. Not even a hint of a moonwalk or a squeezed crotch.

    Day 4:
    So today was rock climbing day. I gave Sam and Rich enough opportunities to back out but they were quite looking forward to it. They took us to the Swiss Cheese wall as it was good for beginners. I had never climbed before and the lads advice was just to relax and climb. I was hoping for some technical help but they were right. You just climb and you naturally find somewhere to put your hands and feet. During the first climb whilst I was midway up they decided to tell me they learnt how to climb from a guy called Captain Catastrophe who got his name for always being accident prone. Not what I needed to hear halfway up the wall. I made it to the top and made it to the top of the 2nd climb. It was going quite well. So the lads decided to step it up and took us to a much higher, polished (new term I learnt, means smoothed wall from erosion, basically a bitch to hold onto). I gave myself the minimum target of getting at least halfway on each climb which I successfully did. But Jana beat me each time. She was a much better climber than me and could see more places to hold than I could. It was such a fun morning. I'd much rather do something active like climbing and cycling than going to see temples.

    My travel buddy Jana left that evening for Japan which was a shame. Travelling is so much better when you're with someone.

    So that evening I went out with the lads as they were allowing themselves for a big night. They normally don't drink too much so they can climb the next day. First we went to the claypot, standard, then to McDonald's for a coffee. I grabbed a patty from the vendor next door that has a sign saying they won't serve Japanese people. Racism is not subtle at this joint. We then headed to Monkey Jane's bar as they had a beer pong tournament and a chance to beat Monkey Jane and win t-shirt.

    First up was Sam. We were told by Aussie barman that it's best to go first as Monkey Jane takes a while to warm up. And you know what it's true. Although it was a close game, Sam came out victorious and got the t-shirt he really wanted. What made me laugh was Monkey Jane said she the doctor told her not to drink. That lasted all of 3 rounds!

    So it turns out Monkey Jane quite fancied Cam and wasn't shy about it. The whole night poor Cam was being hugged and groped by this large Chinese lady. She might of fancied him but she didn't let him win at beer pong. Rich lost too. Ah nuts, I'm up last and Monkey Jane is in full flow.

    I can't go into massive detail about my game because I can't remember a lot of it. But we had a close game. I used Cam as a distraction when Monkey Jane was up to put her off. And it worked. I won! I've got the t-shirt to prove it.

    We then played a few more rounds of doubles. Rich and a Chinese girl, Melinda, formed a formidable partnership. I think they won something like 5/6 rounds in a row. A lot of beer was consumed. Rich fell asleep on the sofa whilst the rest of us played poker with Monkey Jane, her Tibeten friend Tuko, and this odd English Guy that turned up really late. My luck ran out at the beer pong table and I was out pretty early.

    Melinda took a bit of a liking to her beer pong partner but he was sound asleep. She sat next to him for most of the night but she eventually got fed up of waiting. We all ended up joining Rich and fell asleep on the sofa. During this time Monkey Jane was trying her best to get Cam to go to bed with her. He literally did a runner when he got to the door. The rest of us decided to kip on the sofa for the night.

    As you can tell from my long post, I loved Yangshou. I met some great people, did some fun activities, partied and all of this was in a beautiful setting. This is why I decided to travel. For moments like these.

    Me and Sam agreed that China can be described as very weird but fun.
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