Day 42: Couldn't have asked for a more perfect day

The bus ride that I originally wrote about turned out to be quite a different adventure than I had assumed it to be. First off, I found out that our dear friend Johnny, was not in fact named Johnny. I tried talking to him in English, while he solely spoke Chinese, for quite some time, when a Chinese woman named Ingrid piped in. She spoke English and translated what he was saying. Basically, she told us that he understood no English and that his Chinese name sounded like Johnny, so that's where I got the name. I asked him if I could give him the English name and name him Johnny. He loved it and excitedly accepted it. I was pretty excited to finally give a Chinese person an English name as well, I can now cross that off my bucket list.

Johnny and I tried to communicate further, but it was next to impossible. I then remembered that I had an app on my iPad with Chinese and English flash cards. Ingrid translated to me that he would teach me the Chinese word if I would teach him how to say it in English. We sat and looked at picture after picture, and mostly I was just teaching him English. He was so eager to learn and was hilarious with his responses; he was a spunky one to say the least. Then, some of the girls were asking Johnny when, or if, the bus was going to stop to take a potty break. He didn't have slightest idea of what they were saying, and then I remembered how many pictures of toilets I had in my iPad, who knew all those potty references on my blog would come in handy one day ;) Johnny assured us we would stop in the next five to ten minutes for a restroom break, so all was well.

For some odd reason, I expected that we would just pull up to a gas station, run in and use the toilets, and grab a snack on our way out. I mean, this was a given for any road trip we would take back home. When we pulled up to the "restroom", I realized we couldn't be any further from a gas station than we were. We walked into what looked somewhat like a haunted house, complete with a series of chain smokers out front, mysterious people serving less than appetizing food, if it can even be called that, remains of animal bones and bowls of cauterized blood in the back yard, large butcher knives laying out, and all this led to the glorious bathroom, or troughs you might call it.

We walked in and only saw a series of holes in a straight line, dug into the ground, with each separated by a small cement slab. There were about five squatters, so the furthest one from the front could see all in front of them. Fortunately, I was second from the back, so only one was behind me. I just thought this was so comical, I couldn't even be grossed out by any of it; I just wished that I had a camera to document it all.

When we got back on the bus, we all felt much more comfortable, for our bladders were empty and it was almost time for lights out and sleepy time. As Jenna and Lexi, who were on the bottom back bunk, nestled into bed, they realized that they had a few friends join them. On the wall were several little cockroaches just hangin out. Everyone had a bit of a scare, but mostly some (Lexi and Amanda) made killing the roaches into a game. I was so disgusted, but thats what was happening and there was little I could do about it, so I just plugged in my iPod, closed my eyes,and pretended I didn't see anything.

After a good night's sleep, we finally arrived in YongShuo. We wandered around for a while, found our hostile (which is incredible by the way, it's brand new and so modern), and just admired this beautiful place. I feel as if I'm living in a dream; this is how I envisioned china to be like before I got here: big, green rolling hills, cute little markets, people everywhere, clogging the streets, etc. We found out that this weekend is especially crazy because it is a Chinese national holiday called "grave sweeping day". I don't exactly know what that entails, but I love the markets, people, and festivities it brings along with it.

Our group decided to rent bikes today, tour the country side, and ride to the mud caves and hot springs. Words honestly don't even describe how happy this made me; I've never seen anything like what we saw today. I was originally just stoked to be back on a bike, even though it was a crappy mountain bike, it was a bike. I loved every second of it and would've been content just riding around all day. Also, it was quite a treat to ride though local China and not just along the main roads. We got to see the locals houses, gardens, beautiful alleyways, kids running around in the streets, etc. I really enjoyed jt, because it gave me a stronger feeling of us living here, and not just visiting, if that makes any sense. Also, we were riding our bikes on this path that reminded me of the river trail I ride with my family so frequently, it felt like home away from home. It was simply perfect, period.

After about an hour of riding, photo taking, camel viewing, mountain admiring, trying to run away from the vendors, etc., we arrived at the mud caves. Here, we went on a little tour before hand and saw many stalagmites and different cave formations. It was neat because they lit the rocks up with neon lights, which almost gave them the effect of looking metallic, or just colored; they kind of looked like play dough, it was bizarre.

At the end of our tour, we reached the "mud bath" where literally it feels and looks like a pool full of pudding. We all hopped in and played in the mud with a bunch of skinny, teenage Asian boys forever. The coolest thing about this mud bath was that you float in it, without any effort whatsoever. I leaned back, as if I was sitting in a lawn chair, and I just floated there. It was the craziest phenomenon; it was thick enough for us to float in, but also thin enough to move around in. Being here was one of the craziest experiences I've had in my life, I could've stayed there for hours on hours.

After we rinsed most of the mud off in the freezing death cold showers, we walked a little further and found the hot springs. I was so eager to soak my body in this pool if steamy water and just bask in it. I jumped in and was instantly at peace. Although this wasn't a natural hot spring, it was incredible anyways. The Chinese somehow found a way to fill these large rock holes with water, and heat them, all inside a cave. I almost think that's more impressive than a natural hot spring, anyways.

After the mud caves experience, we decided to ride out bikes to Moon Hill, a really famous mountain in YongShuo, as well as a heavily hit tourist attraction. When we arrived, we figured that it would just be a painless walk to the top. However, I feel as though this "walk" was strikingly similar to that of the "Y" in Utah. It looks easy and everyone does it, yet, it's a brutal and breathtaking (literally, not figuratively) hike. I also think I really struggled as much as I did because I had just been soaking in a pool of hot water and was about ready for a nap. But instead, decided to climb up a mountain.

When I reached the top, I couldn't believe my eyes. I feel as though I say this about everything here, but it's so true. I am in awe with each different sight we see here, and they are all so different. The beautiful arch in the mountain rendered the most amazing view of the city; everything was just in a birds eye view from here. I loved seeing the rolling Dr. Seuss mountains off in the distance, because the fog that had rolled in game the, a rather cartoon-y feel, it was so great.

I know that I could go on and on with how incredibly perfect this day was, but I think I will leave it at this. I am warn out and now off to bed to rest up for another dreamy adventure that's in store for me tomorrow!

Pictures:
1: Sneak peak of our hostile room, dreamy
2: Cutie little Amanda and Preston on our bikes
3: We got tiaras, after being pestered for like twenty minutes, but still fun
4: Our bike ride
5: Moon Hill
6: This view...
7: Pose
8: Oh China...
9: Cute little strawberry treat we found
10: Raining cotton candy