One Mountain - Moon Hill

Trip Start Jun 10, 2008

Trip End Jan 25, 2009

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Flag of China Yangshuo, China
Friday, August 29, 2008

So here's a little bit on one mountain of especially large note. Moon hill gets its name because at the top of this relatively large hill has a huge like 30-ish m high, moon-shaped hole in the top. Plus you can get to the very top pretty easily, an the view is spectacular. So naturally, we formed a biker gang to go see it. By we, here, I mean myself and Chris and Aaron, the first other Marylanders I've met. When removed entirely from their natural environment, Marylanders really do stand out, we have a special quality to our attitude and a surprising number of little accent habits that boggle the unfamiliar. It was fantastic to be in like company. Also, we really do get a bit louder on a regular basis than the other people around. They're both from College Park, and of course we were able to BS a good bit about the sort of people Maryland breeds, and how happy we were that most of them weren't here. I heard some very interesting comparisons between southerners (Aaron went to school in Athens, GA and is still living in the south)

Moon Hill 1

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The bike ride there would be a bit of a, well, ride, so we embraced our laziness and hired 3 electric scooters to make the trip. First we ate some cheap grub in Yangshuo, mostly except the "beer duck." Beer fish is a local delicacy which is basically a whole local fish from the river fried up with lots of beer. Sounds like a hit, right? Its is. Beer duck, though, is apparently just a big wok full of beer with a whole bunch of left over duck parts thrown in. When deep-fried, the head, feet, and wings are pretty tasty, but it wasn't even possible to get the meat off the beer duck parts. And It all just tasted kind of like hot, sour beer. O well, a dollar better spent next time.

So then we headed down to the main toruism drag to rent some scooters. This was an EXCELLENT idea. Aside from a near-miss trying to pull out of the alley we rented them from thatdefinitely scared the owner to death, they were easy to ride and a lot of fun. Naturally, I felt like a badass in aviators on a motor scooter flying (sort of) through the most beautiful landscape in the world.

We almost missed the turn in to the bottom of the trail but were helped by some nice old ladies

Moon Hill 10

. Of course, it's their job to be nice, they latch onto foreigners, sell them drinks, etc. all day and help them do their toruisty stuff. But no mind, they were really nice and really did help us. They hiked up with us chatted with me and taught Chris and Aaron a bit of Chinese. Good fun. The view from the top was excellent. I mean, unbelievable, breathtaking, etc. I think a trip to China would be worth it just for that. Also, there was a metal pole at the top with little climbing rungs that I think had no other purpose than for climbing even higher than the mountain. At the top, I bought a drinkfrom one of the ladies and ran into one of my first snafus from learning Chinese in the north and applying it in the south. In the north 10 and 4 are, quite sensibly, pronounced differently. However, in the south they use the word 4 for both. So when I asked how much the water was, she told me 4 kuai, not the best price, but not exactly the most opportune place for bargaining. So I handed her 4 and she said no, and gestured 10 kuai with her hands. Damnit. I'll have to keep that in mind in the future. We also, met some Brazilians who have been travelling Asia for something like a year now. They were quite nice and tipped me off to the way to find cheap airfare around Asia. This should cut my planned Thailand trip down from $1200 to a little under $400. Thanks!

After descending and having a bit of a ..

Moon Hill 11

. falling out... with our saleswomen, we headed back to the Yulong, about 25 minutes away as the scooter flies, for some backflips and unwinding. The back to Buckland for a send-off/ job fair barbecue at Buckland. And then of course the bar. All-in-all, one of the best days I've had in China. Yangshuo, I will miss you too. And I'll say to anyone coming to China, Yangshuo is a spot you cannot miss.

O and a point of interest. While we were talking about some books (Hunter Thompson, Kerouac, Tom Wolfe, Burroughs, etc.) Aaron made a very interesting comment. Most of these authors that we put so much stock in really appeal primarily one demographic - young people, mostly men, who aren't so keen about the idea that there's anything we're SUPPOSED to be doing. Think about that for a bit.