Day 43: YongShuo

We had another phenomenal day here in YongShuo. The rumors I heard prior to visiting here are true, this place is perfect. To start off the day right, I got up from one if the best night's sleep I've ever had, and headed to the lobby. The soft sound of rain hitting the rooftops outside, the large open windows, and French cafe music playing quietly in the background rendered such a serene atmosphere. I thought to myself that I would be content just hanging out in the lobby all day, it was beautiful and just so relaxed.

After the rain had settled a bit, our group headed down to book bamboo boat tours. At first, the agency we went to had said they weren't running them today because it had rained last night so the river was too high to go on. However, since this is a pretty well hit spot by tourists, there are several different agencies who book these touristy type things. So, we just walked next door and got all set up. They said it would be about a two-two and a half hour boat ride and we would make two stops on different islands along the way. For each person, this activity costed forty five yuan, which equals about $7.50 American dollars. I still cant get over how inexpensive things are here, it just allots for a much broader range of activities to do.

As our boat puttered along the river, I just sat in awe with what was surrounding us. These lush mountains were overwhelming in beauty and in size; they looked ever grander because we were smack dab in the middle, looking up at them. On our first stop off the boat, we got to walk around an island with many yaks, greens, and flowers. From a distance, a few of us saw our boat guides throwing rocks into these fenced trees, so we wandered over to see what all the buzz was about. The boys, probably around 20, didn't speak any English, but we understood by their pointed fingers, giggling, and large rocks in their hands that they were attempting to knock down a beehive. At first, I was terrified, bee stings hurt! However, they kept missing so I just found it quite comical. After they failed time and time again, Brent, another boy from our group, walked right up, threw a huge rock and nailed the hive dead on. The boys were so giddy, and just laughed and sprinted back towards the boat. We could see this blurry swarm around the tree, but then it began to scatter and fade. Thus, our group got back on the boat and headed for destination number two.

Upon our arrival to this second location, I was ecstatic to see that there were monkeys and camels to take photos with! We had seen some at the avatar mountains, but didn't have a great opportunity to take very good photos with them. As I got a closer look at them, I was highly disappointed to see how poorly they were being treated. The monkeys were chained up to a small pole, with hardly any room to move around, and the camel's nose was pierced with a rope going through it, assuming it was there to keep it from running away. It kind of killed me inside, so I didn't support their actions by taking pictures with them.

After our boat ride, Jenna and I decided to get to planning Ms. Lexi's birthday celebrations. Since we will be on a train for her birthday evening tomorrow, we chose to surprise her and celebrate it a night early. We had a rough plan to get her a cake with some sort of candles in it, and then take her out to dinner, so we went to one of the many bakery's and found this silly little anime cake that we thought would be just perfect for her. We also searched and searched for candles and found nothing, so we put strawberry pocky sticks in their place. ;)

When we got back to the hostile, Chloe and I were speaking with the hostile manager and told him that it was Lexi's birthday and we wanted to see if he knew of any good places to eat out at. He was more than excited that we were celebrating her special day and wanted so badly to be a part of it. He offered to throw Lexi a surprise party here at the hostile and let us make our own traditional Chinese dumplings from scratch. I immediately told him yes, and just decided for the group basically that's what we were doing for dinner. I mean, how often do you get an opportunity to make and embellish your own dumplings, with Chinese chefs, in China?

The dumplings turned our wonderfully, Lexi was surprised and thrilled, and the evening was successful. This place is seriously too good for words. Everyone should venture their way here at some point of their life, it's just too good to pass up.

Pictures:
1: On the boats with the ladies
2: Island #1
3: Poor monkey, and he is in a putrid outfit
4: Lex and her little cake
5: In the works of making dumplings
6: Filling
7: Mission accomplished