Its National Day in China, a celebration of the founding of the peoples republic. I how ever, had no Idea of this the night before when I booked an over priced hostel and boarded an over night bus.
Yangshuo is probably one of the more touristy destinations in China but this weekend it was ridiculous, a lot of shall we say bonding (heavy elbow pushing) went down this weekend but it was definitely worth it!
We arrived about 5pm, went to check in, the lady of reception said they didn't think we would show up, I was pretty confused by this, it was basically a shitty excuse to over booking which resulted in us sleeping across the road in the older part of the hostel but not even in a room, no, on filthy arm chairs in the public hallway, I thought the only way to survive that night was to get so drunk I passed out.
So thats exactly what I did, there were tons of bars to choose from, we opted to stay away from the loud booming pole dancing bars that seemed to dominate the main strip and found a side bar, dimly lit but full of punters. After bonding with a group of middle aged Chinese men our shot game was strong, the last round they wanted to try something English.....GIN! before the shots arrived though the guys left and we were stuck with 7 shots of Gin to pay for, we sent them back but the bar man wasn't too happy about that, it ended in us standing in the street at 5am with a group of scary guys holding glass bottles above us, we all talked it out and then swiftly removed ourselves and stumbled into bed (armchairs)
Blurry eyed the next morning, we got up to explore, we rented bikes and headed to the river. The incredibly stunning scenery is unlike anything I have seen, monstrous green camel humps protruding up from the earth as far as the eye can see, golden fields and rich crops spread over the land. It was a beautiful warm day, fluffy clouds and a cool breeze, everyone wanted a bamboo boat ride down the river.
Yangshuo is probably one of the more touristy destinations in China but this weekend it was ridiculous, a lot of shall we say bonding (heavy elbow pushing) went down this weekend but it was definitely worth it!
We arrived about 5pm, went to check in, the lady of reception said they didn't think we would show up, I was pretty confused by this, it was basically a shitty excuse to over booking which resulted in us sleeping across the road in the older part of the hostel but not even in a room, no, on filthy arm chairs in the public hallway, I thought the only way to survive that night was to get so drunk I passed out.
So thats exactly what I did, there were tons of bars to choose from, we opted to stay away from the loud booming pole dancing bars that seemed to dominate the main strip and found a side bar, dimly lit but full of punters. After bonding with a group of middle aged Chinese men our shot game was strong, the last round they wanted to try something English.....GIN! before the shots arrived though the guys left and we were stuck with 7 shots of Gin to pay for, we sent them back but the bar man wasn't too happy about that, it ended in us standing in the street at 5am with a group of scary guys holding glass bottles above us, we all talked it out and then swiftly removed ourselves and stumbled into bed (armchairs)
Blurry eyed the next morning, we got up to explore, we rented bikes and headed to the river. The incredibly stunning scenery is unlike anything I have seen, monstrous green camel humps protruding up from the earth as far as the eye can see, golden fields and rich crops spread over the land. It was a beautiful warm day, fluffy clouds and a cool breeze, everyone wanted a bamboo boat ride down the river.
On the way back from our bike ride we decided to take on the masses and stroll up the main shopping strip. I actually really enjoyed this, lots of little novelty toy shops and vibrant cafes, street performers and ice cream vendors, it was a full street of smiles and entertainment.
We finally moved into a dorm, I was super excited about a fully horizontal night of sleep this night!
We headed up the roof top bar for some beers. Beers turned into buckets, buckets turned in snake infused whisky, and that turned into snake blood shots, a few hours passed and we ended up winning the beer pong championships (much to the disagreement of the American team who took it way too seriously) I still have the tee-shirt to prove it! Success!!
So as a summery, Yangshuo has everything you're looking for in a good weekend away, plenty of shops, bars, restaurants and wild nights of beer pong....but not much culture.
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