Yangshuo!

Here it is: Yangshuo! So beautiful! It's so much prettier in real life. You just have to go there. Now. Anyways, it was so awesome! Can you believe we've only been teaching for like 2 weeks and we already got a vactaion?! I'm a lucky girl. So lucky.

Okay so, around 6:30 pm we hopped on a sleeper bus, which in itself was a crazy experience! I didn't really know what to expect, I never do here in China anyways haha. So we get on the bus and there's crazy asian techno music and the bus driver is trying to ask or tell us something and of course we have no idea what's going on so I just be a goof and start dancing. You have to take your shoes off when you get on the bus and put them in little red bags. I got one of the beds on top in the middle. Bad choice. Kind of. It was okay for like the first hour or two but they had the ac blasting which was totally awesome when we first got on because it's 85 outside and like 100% humidity, but then I started freezing, especially because all the vents were pointed straight at me. Ugh, so cold. And 12 hours is a long time. I slept most of the time but Chinese drivers are really scary so I kept waking up thinking that I was going to fall off! But I felt bad for the pople on the bottom because we kept picking up random people on the side of the road and they had to just sit in the isles. Stuff that would never happen in America is totally normal here, it's crazy. But we somehow made it to Yangshuo at around 6:30 the next morning.
This is the hostel we stayed at. It was so cute and nice and inexpensive. And only 3 months old.

Nana, the cute hostel dog.

View from the rooftop.

West Street. There were all kinds of little shops and stands with cool chinese stuff, and lots of handmade things. We spent many hours on this street.

Baby.

So pretty, I want to go back already.

Esther! Look at that face! So happy! We met Esther on West Street the first day we got to Yangshuo. She found us wandering around and wanted to take us on an adventure. And she sure did take us on one crazy awesome adventure. She's amazing, we love her.

First, Esther took us on a boat ride. We got to ride the sweet yellow dragon boat.

Lovely view. It was a nice leisurely boat ride on the Li River.

We stopped at a little villiage like place on the bank of the river where there was random touristy stuff like pony rides, these cool birds, and monkeys in wierd outfits.

Creepy monkeys.

Esther took us on an intense 15 mile bike ride the next morning. It was so fun. And pretty exhausting, but it was so worth it.

We went through the city and then off into the countryside. We even did a little off-roading on our cute pink bikes with baskets and bells.

This one's just for you mom. (I guess I don't have enough pictures of myself.) I almost crashed trying to take this picture. Not really. But I did have a few close calls haha.

We biked to the Buddha Water Caves next. It was pretty sweet. There was a natural mud pool, some mud slides, underground river and waterfall, and hot springs. I think I was looking forward to the mud the most. Seriously, when do you ever get to roll around in a pool of mud?!

We biked to Moon Hill next. And then we hiked all the way to the top. So exhausting.

839 stairs later, we made it to the top.

The view was so worth it. Look familiar? These are called the Dr. Suess Mountains. People say this is where Dr. Suess got his inspiration for the mountains in his books.

After our crazy awesome day we wnet out and met the local crazy asians. We stuffed our faces with delicious American food that we miss so much. Brushcetta, pizza, and apple crumble. Yummm.

The owner of the hostel took us to a bar/dance club thing. Haha asian people are so funny. When we walked in the dj announced that we were there and started playing some Lady Gaga. Awesome!

The next morning I went rock climbing with two other girls and two cool rock climbing guides. This is Wine Bottle Cliff. I climbed this! It was so hard but way fun. I'm totally going to take a class or something when I get home.

My arms and hands were so sore.

Ah, so awesome!

Oh, and then we cruised around on mopeds! And almost crashed like 12 times haha.

I bought a flower crown from this sweet old lady. She's so cute. I love wrinkly old chinese people. I'm seriously going to have a whole album of them when I come home.
Such a great trip! But I'm glad to be back with my students! I love China!