One Night In Yangshuo

We spent a night in Yangshuo - the town itself - last night. Yangshuo is a town of great character as it is nestled in between the distinctive Karst peaks. So within the town you are surrounded by them. They're like giant rocks that have just been dropped from the sky. On one of the peaks there is a pagoda on the top.

Once again it is a touristic destination, and rightly so. The centrepoint of this is one main walking street lined with old buildings containing the obligatory travel souvenirs and other items. There are bargains to be had they, as Em and I both got ourselves some good outdoor jackets - real Northface ones from the factory and not fakes - for about $20NZ each. Not bad I reckon. Not really sure what they fetch in NZ, but wouldnt be surprised if it would top $200.

Also become short term locals at a bar/cafe called "Loove". I was attracted by the sign which read "F**king Good Food". There I met a guy who would turn out to be a drinking buddy for the evening, an Indian man who had moved to China a year and a half ago to retire - at the ripe old age of 39 - and was in Yangshuo for a few months for the hell of it. He described it as "his paradise". We chatted for some time at Loove, and decided to let it go from coffees to beers (Pijiu). From here the evening was extremely entertaining and included taking part in birthday celebrations for a local girl with her somewhat-drunk-but-keen-to-practice-their english pals; playing drums with a Chinese Pop Covers group (for the 2nd night in a row) - video evidence of the show will be posted later; sampling some damned fine late night street food; leading a pinkfloyd acoustic singsong circle - not knowing the songs or lyrics didnt prevent anyone from singing at the top of their lungs; being joined by possibly the funniest drunk I've ever witnessed, a middle aged Chinese man with excellent american english but who takes a liking to dancing and singing loudly to the jukebox, "if you dont know the words make them up" he yelled at us. So he would insert any obscenity he could think of here and there amoungst the proper lyrics. His dancing I cannot begin to describe.

So an extremely entertaining evening. The next day, after a well deserved sleep in we did some shop gazing, coffee sipping, tea sipping then jumped on a bus. Oh, we were walking along the street on our way to the bus depot, and the bus actually caught us. Woman was hanging out the door yelling "Guilin" at us, so we jumped on. Didnt need to find the bus station, they found us.


Yangshuo1 from tgoodwin on Vimeo.