Holiday Diaries Part One: Guilin and Yangshou
Trip Start
Oct 05, 2008
1
8
12
Trip End
Ongoing
Yangshou,
China
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
With typical lack of organisation and preparation, I decided to simply go where everyone else in China goes and headed south to the backpacker ghettos of Guilin and Yangshou in south western Guangxi Province. You've probably seen these places on a TV travel show or emblazoned across some tourist brochure or poster in a travel agents front window. Think of hundreds of short, jagged, limestone mounds covered in thick green bushes, interspersed with rivers and lagoons.
Getting there seemed easy. Guilin is 16 hours by train from Quzhou and I booked my ticket the day before, thinking I'd only have to endure a quick overnight jaunt on a hard sleeper bunk and i'd be there
Cado about to fall in the drink
. Simple. This was the case until about 5 minutes before I was due to board when my Chinese friend Edison, who booked the ticket, politley informed me that my ticket was in fact for a seat, not a hard sleeper. Shit! What was supposed to be a comfortable overnight snooze, turned into a energy sapping ordeal as I sat for 16 hours in a carmped, smelly and dirty carriage. Many Chinese travellers cannot afford the luxury of a hard or soft sleeper bed, so opt for the cheaper and decidedly less comfortable sitting or standing tickets instead. At each stop, hoards of luggage laden travellers are herded aboard like cattle onto a truck and into conditions that are about as comfortable as those experienced by cows headed for the abattoirs. I hopped on at 10pm and by about 2am the crowded carriage looked like a living room the morning after a rowdy 21st. There were people lying under the seats and on top of each other trying to get to sleep, as rubbish and spit that had been carlessly tossed on the floor, built up around them. The air was thick with bad breath and body odour as I sat there bleary eyed, dreaming of airline economy class. At least on a plane they try and help you get to sleep, but in the sleeping carriages of an ovrnight train it's as though they intend to keep you awake. For some reason the lights are kept on all night, which along with the relentless clickety clack of the train, the screams of agitated babies and the repeated interruption from mobile phone ringtones, makes sleeping a hopless task
Cheers
. At 2.30pm the next day I unfolded myself from the contorted position i'd morphed into and staggered onto the platform at Guilin, relieved that the ordeal was over. I checked into the first of many hostels content that my holiday had finally begun. After a day and a half in Guilin it quickly became apparant that while it was a nice place and quite an attractive city in its own right, it was really nothing more than a gateway to the action packed tourist town of Yangshou, which is an hour and half to the south by bus. Everyone I met in Guilin was either on their way too or on their way back from Yangshou and so I decided to see what all the fuss was about a head there myself. Some travellers had lamented that fact that while Yangshou was a stunning place, the rampant commercialism and shameless courting of the tourist dollar had reduced its charm. This is partly true. The tacky tourism aspect of Yangshou does smack you in the face as soon as you arrive. A short walk from the bus station is the imaginatlively titled, West Street, where, you guessed it, all the western tourists hang out and all the western themed bars, resteraunts and cafe's are situated. By midday this long street becomes a river teaming with sunburnt backpackers, travelling retirees and Chinese tour groups clad in matching shirts and hats. You can buy fake watches, fake designer sunglasses and fake Calvin Klein undies
Moon Hill
. You can buy a boxed DVD set of that American TV show you really liked, but didn't want to stay up late to watch or you can buy a t-shirt with a picture of Osama Bin Laden on the front. And of course there's the plethora of Mao memorablia, which encompasses just about anything big enough to have the Chairman's chubby face plastered across it. While purchasing wallets and zippo lighters carrying his image, you can wonder what the man himself would think of such rampant capitalism occuring in a supposedly communist state. Oh the irony!But it wan't communist themed retail thereapy that i'd travelled to Yangshou for, rather a bit of good ol' fashioned outdoor fun in the sun.
