Yangshuo and the great culture shock!
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2007
1
47
58
Trip End
Oct 22, 2007
Yangshuo,
China
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
We had read and heard that it was a very busy Western-tourist town with shops and restaurants catering for them BUT we had no idea what we were in for...
We checked into our hotel which was another "bigger is better" style hotel but there were a few redeeming features - the rooms were big, built in small groups around central green areas with trees, ponds and views of some of the amazing Karst Mountains, and there was free Internet access :-)
Our first task was to go with Rosa and find a travel agent where we could book a ride on a small boat on the Li River
Yangshuo Karst Mountain Sunset
. The Chinese Government prefers tourists to take this trip on one of its horrible smelly, noisy ferries that go from Guilin to Yangshuo every morning but, having seen this on Paul Merton's TV program before we left the UK, we knew it was not for us.Mission accomplished we were let loose on the town by ourselves to discover what "they" meant about Yangshuo being the rip-off capital of China and a well Westernised one at that. WELL!!! The shops along the main pedestrian street sold every brand name of bag, watch, suitcase, sock or anything else you may need or want. There is lots of offering of looking and cheap prices and, for a short moment we were enticed into this madness of looking and even tried on a poorly cut, terribly fitting North Face jacket, looking at a couple of watches that were being offered at similar prices to London and staring at bags of all the names but not knowing which we would buy for who. Fortunately for us we noticed the sun was starting to set in a surreal white-orange ball of fire over a Karst Mountain so we did a quick about-turn and hot-footed it back towards our hotel where there was a quiet place to view this beautiful spectacle from.
We, along with a few other non-shopper types watched and photographed this until the sun had completely disappeared, definitely beats the crowds and shops hands down
Yangshuo Sundowners
! We noticed a restaurant just behind us that had chairs and tables outside and, thankfully, was not a typical Yangshuo restaurant (you'll understand soon) but rather just a quiet hotel restaurant. We sat and drank a couple of local beers while being offered camera memory cards, cut-outs in the shape of our heads and various other essentials by passing street vendors.Supper and shock time. We started walking along a few of the restaurant streets where each one had a menu and a "caller" trying to entice the passing tourists in to eat. Bearing in mind that we had just spent the past 47 days trying to immerse ourselves in local Chinese culture, society and food, I am sure you will be able to imagine how we felt. All we wanted was a simple bowl of noodles and vegetables or something like what we have so enjoyed eating. Instead it was all hamburgers, pasta and pizza with the occasional noodle for authenticity. AAARG, why do Westerners want to eat their own food in a country so rich with tastes, smells and sounds of fresh food???!!!
We were close to giving up when we looked again at a Tibetan menu at the Yak Café but thankfully we were greeted with a "how are you?" from Canadian owner Andrew Lay. He got the unexpected but not unfamiliar "terrible thanks" from us as he has had from other travellers facing the same culture shock. After talking about the pros and cons of Yangshuo, Chinese Tour Guides and a variety of other topics he showed us to a quiet table upstairs and served us a delicious plate of spicy vegetable noodles. This was likely to be our favourite food place in Yangshuo much as the Petit Book Café was in Lijiang. We also met Andrew's delightful Tibetan wife Sula (Su Xin Hui) and said we would definitely be back for a taste if Andrew's famous carrot cake
Yangshuo Karst Mountain Sunset
.I will add that there was one benefit that came out of all of the aimless restaurant wanderings; we found Dr Lily Li's Massage Parlour, renowned to be the best massage place in town and where we had intended looking for and trying.
A sad tale we had heard from Andrew was that, in Yangshuo, there are groups of young men who will follow you around, even for hours, some in front of you, some behind, constantly communicating by mobile, until the opportunity arises that they can relieve you of some valuable possessions. In case we took this as urban legend he also quoted a couple of real life cases and also said how Sula had become so good at recognising these men when they tried to follow her and Andrew around. We made our way back to our hotel treating every Chinese male under the age of about 60 with a great deal of suspicion and made it back in one piece with all of our possessions in tact.
