Biking through the Countryside
Trip Start
Oct 07, 2008
1
10
15
Trip End
Oct 25, 2008
Moon Hill Village,
Guangxi Zhuang,
China
Friday, October 17, 2008
So today after I ate breakfast (a potato pancake that looked like a bird's nest and had a fried egg on top--greasy and yummy!), Wei Wei and I went on the bike ride through the country. I haven't ridden a bike in at least seven years, but luckily I got the hang of it. We biked for about 1 1/2 hours through the country, past homes, rolling hills and mountains, lots of farms, and a river. We saw corn fields, rice fields, dogs (for some reason every dog I saw in the area during my entire stay was yellow), roosters, and water buffalo. When Wei Wei pointed out a water buffalo that was actually in the water, being a city girl I got concerned and wondered why it was in the water and if anyone was going to help it get out! I thought it was drowning. Luckily I realized there's a reason they call it a water buffalo before I asked Wei Wei those questions.
We biked to what's called the Old Village. There were some abandoned homes there that were preserved so you could see how people lived in the past as well as current homes in which people live. A man was cutting wheat with a tractor and it was an attraction! People walking by would stop to watch him work. He attracted quite a crowd.
We then biked to the riverbank and I took a ride down the river on a man-powered log raft. They place your bike on the raft under the seats. It was not as relaxing as I thought it would be because it was hot and I was wearing black pants. The river water was pretty low (there had not been enough rain) so the men working the boats had to work really hard to get the rafts through some sections of the water. I saw more animals and noticed that people use the river to bathe and wash their clothes and food. Wei Wei met me at the dock. As we began to bike back, I biked up a ramp adjoining about three or four steps, and promptly fell off! Luckily I am skilled at falling off bikes, so I only got a few scrapes on my right knee. We biked for 10 minutes back to the hotel, this time on the main road. At the hotel, I ate some fried noodles with vegetables (which cost me $1.20 in US dollars).
Later that afternoon Wei Wei had to go to town to pick up her daughter from kindergarten and offered to give me a ride. On her motorbike! I couldn't resist. It was a scary ride, especially because of Chinese driving habits. But I always repeat to myself, though it may seem crazy to me, "They know what they're doing." At first I grabbed Wei Wei's shoulders, but then I saw that some people were holding on to the metal rack on the back of the scooters so I did the same.
After Wei Wei dropped me off on West Street, the main shopping street in Yangshuo, I walked down the street and took a couple of pictures. I went to a market to buy a bottle of water. When I tried to take another picture, I noticed that the button on my camera that you push to take a picture had fallen off! It wouldn't work without it. Believe me, I tried. It must have gotten damaged when I fell off that bike. I looked around for it for a little while with little hope for finding it. Once I gave up, I took it to a photo shop for it to be repaired.
After my camera was fixed, I walked around the area. Not there for shopping, I walked around to take everything in. One older woman, carrying a chubby-cheeked baby, asked me in English where I was from. I answered her in Mandarin (wo shi mei guo ren) because that's one of my best sentences. I don't always get the tone of "ren" right, but by then people know what I'm saying. She told me that my Chinese was very good! I was so proud.
At dusk, I walked past stands where the women yell out to you to come see their merchandise, but I wasn't in a buying mood. I have two more stops on my trip and didn't want to carry too much more stuff around. I was about to go back to the hotel when I saw a black woman! I was in shock. She was with a white man and they had already passed me. After I bought some more water I decided that I was going to find the black woman, just because. It was still early and I had nothing else to do. So I began walking around, knowing it was like finding a needle in a haystack.
Soon I after I resumed my walk, I passed by two young ladies. They smiled at me so I smiled back and said "ni hao." After seeing that I was friendly, they started talking to me in English. They said that they were 18 years old and had been studying English for two years and wanted to practice. They each took a picture with me and I took a picture of them. At first I was skeptical because I had heard of the many scams people try on foreigners. They say they want to practice their English, take you to a tea ceremony somewhere, and you end up getting charged a ridiculous amount for the tea. Even if you don't have enough money, they take whatever you have.
Keeping this in mind, I kept my guard up, but it turned out they were on the up and up. Their English names were Cherry and Susan. They each had a little notebook with sentences and phrases to use as conversation starters that their teacher had told them to use. Cherry had to leave but I stayed to talk to Susan for awhile. We sat on a bench by the river. I, still being vigilant, kept looking around to make sure there were still lots of people around and that we weren't isolated, because you never know! She told me that she really wanted to learn English and that she wants to be a teacher or work in a 5-star hotel. We had an interesting conversation about the English language. She was very excited about learning more English and very animated. She wanted to confirm that "I understand," "I see," and "I get it" mean the same thing. I got to learn a little more Mandarin like how to say Chicago in Chinese! I also got a Chinese name. I had gotten one back in Xi'an but I couldn't pronounce it!
After we finished our chat, she left and I walked around a little bit more, then I caught a cab back to the hotel. I never did find the black woman.
