The Trip started great!!! We left on a bus from Wuchang to the train station! We left in plenty of time...we thought:-) We were very excited...we had an overnight train from Wuhan to Guilin.
This is us! when we were waiting at the bus stop...we had to wait quite a long time for a bus...and when we finally made it to the train station we had to run to the train:-) It was quite the adventure before we even left Wuhan! But we made it!! from left to right...Beau, Paul, Chelsie, Jacqueline and me!!
This was our little cubby in the train! We had tickets all together and it was fun to talk and visit about our adventures ahead:-)
When we got to Guilin, we took a bus to Yangshuo. We never really decided on a place to stay until we arrived in each city! We tried to travel at night if we could so we could sleep on the train and save money and time! But we found this hotel when we arrived in Yangshuo! Maybe this looks a little different for you, but it was quite a nice place for us! The people there were very kind and we all stayed in one room! It was great!
The first day we were all pretty tired and it was raining outside so We took full advantage of the hotel:-) Jacq taught me how to Knit! It was so much fun...we sat on the bed and Knitted for hours. YAY for fun times together!
The last day were were in Yangshuo it had stopped raining and we decided to take a 16 mi. bike ride. We rode all through villages and mountains. It was beautiful!!!
I really loved being with nature and riding my pink bike:-) It was soooo cold:-) I had on about 4 shirts and long johns and 2 pants. The hat and gloves were a must...even thought we were riding for hours.
About half way through the bike ride we arrived at the cave where we were going to stop and enjoy:-) This was a mad cave/hot spring:-) We brought our bathing suits and all covered ourselves in the freezing cold mud...then we had to wash off in the even colder waterfall before they would let us get int he hot springs!!! It was soooooo cold!!! But it was incredibly fun!
After the caves we rode our bike to Moon Mountain. This was a beautiful mountain with the shape of the moon cut out at the top. We hike up the mountain and had a beautiful view of the countryside! It was pretty foggy so you can see as much in the picture:-(
This is "Peter":-) Is was our amazing travel guide on the bike ride. He was the sweetest man! His English was pretty good and I was able to share quite a bit with him!! It was so wonderful to hear how he already knew about the Father from some other bike riders he had taken around the villages in the past. We were able to talk about the book they had given him and about the Creator of all the beautiful nature we were around!! It was so much fun!
We found this cool restaurant and enjoyed the good food twice while there! It was a really amazing place:-)
After 4 days in Yangshuo we took the bus back to Guilin and then another night train to Nanning. This train experience was not quite as enjoyable....we had seats instead of beds. It was MUCH Cheaper but quite miserable:-( LOL It made for a good story to laugh about 2 weeks later...but we arrived in Nanning at 5am and had to walk around the city in the rain to find a place to stay. It was quite the adventure. Nanning is in a province made up of primarily minority groups. We live in Wuhan, a place made of of mostly "Han" people. Han people are the majority in China. We didn't know what a difference it would be to stay in a place like Nanning. When we tried to speak Pu tong hua, "Mandarin Chinese", the people were very hostile towards us. Many of the people only spoke the minority dialect and didn't even know Mandarin. So needless to say, our time in Nanning was very interesting. We even met some other foreigners in this city that were very closed off towards us. We had to travel here to get our visas to enter Vietnam so we had to stay for 4 days. But we tried our best to make the most of it!!
There are many things in China that I have come to grow VERY used to...one of them is "little oranges". We eat these all the time. This is a man who sells little oranges. Many people sell their goods from their cart on wheels:-) Chelsie and I went out one day while here in Nanning to see the recent movie made in China, "Flowers of War". It is the story of the Nanjing massacre. It was sooooo sad and very eye opening. Although there are many people who believe this story is propaganda. It was our first Chinese movie to see in the theater here and we were both in tears by the end. If you are not familiar with it I encourage you to look it up. It played in a few cities in America. The reviews were not very good but I think you have to be Chinese to fully understand the depth of the movie. We were both very effected by it. We had given our passports to a man who knew the lady who worked at our hotel. He said he knew a good place to get visas and could get them for cheap. We were a little nervous about this but, we handed them over and after the allotted time he brought them back and we headed to Vietnam. We took a buss there:-) It was quite a ride! Look for the Vietnam story in the next blog!
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