HIT THE ROAD

Mom and Dad, I promise I will never do this again, yes it was stupid, but my friends and I just wanted to blend in with the local folks.... riding motorbikes in China, not such a good idea, but the two days that i spent cruising around the island, where some of the greatest times I have had in China thus far.

I know this picture is a bit blurred but in the bottom right hand corner is a small red wire... so the best thing about these bikes was the fact that that wire once tapped to the handle bar was the horn. It was hilarious! only in china

Brake down number one.... thank goodness we were still in town, so it only took a few minutes to switch and get a new motorcycle.

Break down number two... not so lucky. We were about an hour and half or so out of the town, in a local village, it took about an hour to find someone to change the flat tire. Here we are stranded...

When stranded on a foreign island, best thing to do is take a walk

The kid in the background came to pick up his Dad, 

who fixed our flat tire. I dont even want to know how young he was riding the cycle!

Dalton attempting to bargain, did not work too well

Back up and running, thank goodness 

we made it home right as the sun set!

ChaoPing what a wonderful thing...

During our stay on the island my friend introduced us all to by far one of the best foods I have had in all of China. Its called ChaoPing. Everyday and every night we would go get some, from a local fruit stand in front of the hostel my friends were staying at.

For 10 k ($1.43) you get to pick three types of fresh fruit. The lady then cuts the fruit up and puts it in a blender with some coconut milk. After that the liquid is poured 

into a frozen bowl and pushed around until frozen, better then any ice cream or frozen yogurt known to man.

 

Seriously, I need to get the rights to ChaoPing in the US, I'll make bank down at the beach in the summer time. Oh and to top it all off, the lady serves it in a Baby Hello Kitty Cup, watch out Pink Berry, lookout Golden Spoon!

Here is a quick video of the process and the place...

LYCHEE LOVE

In Sanya, I had my first Lychee fruit, I'm sure some of you who view this blog have had them, but for those of you who haven't, I present my love for the lychee...

The owner of our favorite market, gave us a bunch one night for free. They come in a bundle and you pull one off. They are a vibrant orange, yellow,and pink color, with a soft prickly exterior. 

You have to pull the skin off, and inside is a squishy ball that you eat. It is mildly sweat, and so much fun to eat, just make sure you do not choke on the large seed in the center. I hope I can find them in the US easily. 

Sanya Please!

Next stop on the trip was the island of Hainan, which over here we call the "Hawaii of China". Its about the one place where you see Chinese people actually relaxing. It was such a great end to a wonderful trip. 

Our hotel was situated in Sanya Bay, a strip of shore lined with big hotels. One of the oddest things about Hainan, is that it is an extremely popular destination for Russian tourists. So much so, things were first written in Chinese,then Russian, and then English. We met a Russian man at the pool with his family one day, he asked why Americans don't have British accents?!! I just laughed.

Then I asked how the ocean was, he said he wont go in because of the Medusa's (aka: Jelly Fish). I only saw one dead one on the beach, but it sure was the biggest Jelly Fish I had ever seen! 

I've realized that Chinese people think they will melt in the sun, so as a result the pool was never crowded, which was a good thing, because the guys who worked at the pool let me play my ipod all day over the load speaker, as we would watch them climb up the palm trees to knock coconuts down to drink, it was very entertaining. 

Mom, I asked for a pina colada... 

they had no idea what that was, such a shame

If you walked past the pool you would hit the beach,

 oh how it made me miss home

One day I was laying out and I noticed a few workers staring at me, then a few more came, then a few more, it was so funny, they kinda just stood by my chair either staring at 

me or watching the ocean with me. 

Guilin and Longsheng

Sorry I have been slow with the posts, but let me continue on my spring break adventures...

After Yongshuo, we went back to Guilin, which well... other then the two pictures below, was a bit odd, and the bad weather didn't help either, but we made the most of it and found a great candy shop we went to each day.

From Guilin we also took a VERY LONG day trip to Longsheng, "The Rice Terraces" which were absolutely stunning. When we got off the bus the local women from the village come and try to sell you all sorts of silly souvenirs.

Here is Amanda with one of the ladies from the village, Amanda bought a hand-made skirt from her. Something to note is the odd way the woman's hair is put up, traditional women from the region never cut their hair, they have an extremely complex way in which to put their hair up, it was so amazing.

More stairs..... will it ever end

View from the top, mite I also add that to get to the rice terraces you take an hour Chinese bus ride up the scariest road I have ever been on, Mom you would have had a heart attack with the height, when we drove around the curves,(no barriers like going to Big Bear on the sides) eeeeeeeeeeeeek!

Adventures in Yangshuo

I began my spring break in the southern province of Guangxi, which borders Vietnam. We first flew into Guilin and took a horribly long bus ride(we were scammed) to Yangshuo. Once, in Youngshuo we stayed in a family run hotel more like a B&B outside of the town in a little village. You can see the hotel, its the white building in the right hand corner of the next picture.

The family was extremely nice, this was the owner's daughter, she loved to take pictures and hang out with us.

The first day we got there, we took a personal tour of a cave right up the hill from the hotel. I laughed when the lady gave us helmets, yet about five minutes into our hike, I realized US and Chinese safety regulations were much different, I hit my head about 10 times on stalagmites. They will tell us to climb down these ravines holding onto old ropes, it was quite exciting, and a bit nerve racking at the same time.

The famous local dish for the area is Beer Fish, if your thinking that's the head of the fish in the picture, you are correct. After eating for a bit Amanda says "I didn't just eat the eye ball did I", we still don't know if she did.

The backyard to the hotel just opened up into nature, it was absolutely amazing to wake up and drink some coffee while Hot Air Balloons floated bye, it seemed unreal.

Yangshuo is known for its "Moon Hill" a crescent shaped opening in the mountain, all the Chinese tourists take this picture below, so we tried our own attempts too. Amanda's turned out pretty nice.

I on the other hand can not keep a straight

 face if my life depended on it.

The next day we took a boat cruise for an 1 1/2 hours by some of the locals. It ended up being one of the best things I have done in China, it was so peaceful and relaxing, and the best way to see the countryside.

Once again, Chinese safety regulations are a bit different, no one told us we were going white water rafting on bamboo boats, their explanation was to hold on and put your feet up!

After the boat ride they dropped us off in the middle of a farming village, it took a bit of time to track through the mud,

 pretty cool though.

After the boat ride, we decided it was time to conquer the "Moon Hill" little did I know that a 45 minute hike up the steepest hill with four old Chinese women was what I was in store for. The women were amazing, I thought I was going to have a heart attack with the altitude and humidity, and they all carried drink coolers!

I was wearing my boots, which where terrible for hiking, and I kept slipping so my favorite lady held my hand the whole way down the mountain and kept fanning me as we went, I was cracking up trying to tell her that she didn't need to fan me, 

no use though, she wouldn't stop.

View from the top, I cant believe I made it up, I'm pretty sure I set a new "step" record for myself. It totally had to beat the Duomo in Italy and the Cathedral in London.