Yangshuo

Bad news: In China the Internet sucks because it blocks all the websites that Americans love, so I wasn't able to blog in real-time while I was there. 

Good news: It's super boring in America and since I am currently bored in America I can now blog about China. Wooo. 

So here are some photos from our first vacation in Yangshuo. It was deathly hot and humid, and I saw rain there like I've never seen anywhere. 

We took an 8 hour sleeper bus ride to and from Yangshuo. Sleeper buses are probably one of the most questionable modes of transportation in the universe and if I hadn't been so tired, the thought of possible lice infestation would have kept me wide awake. We were dropped off just before 6 am in the middle of the road and had no idea what to do. We ended up taking the sketchiest taxi ride ever to our hostel but all went well and we got there relatively easily.

The little yellow building is our hostel. It was in the middle of a village valley and very cute. The girls who worked there were adorable and so nice to us, and the cafe had the best fried dumplings in history. 

Wandering dogs run rampant in Yangshuo.

Here's me standing on the roof in the rain. The roof was peaceful and full of laundry like all roofs in China. (Definitely not safe)

The view across the valley.

And then it rained.

Our hostel was far away from West Street which is the main touristy attraction in Yangshuo aside from the mud caves. We had to walk about 1.5 miles and past the Li River port. 

West Street. The greatest shopping ever second only to the pearl market in Beijing.

Home to the BEST SMOOTHIES in the world no joke. The whole wall of the shop is full of sleeves hammered on from people all over the world. We went twice a day every day we were there. 

On our last day we went bamboo rafting down the Yulong River for 90 minutes and it was legitimately the most peaceful thing that has ever happened in my entire existence. The rowers splashed the people riding by and laughed at us when we freaked out (I had an $800 camera in my lap thank you very much).  

While we were riding, we saw 6 couples taking their wedding photos on the river which I think is insanely awesome and very bridally brave.

My favorite thing about Yangshuo was how much it felt like home. The mountains and sun were so much easier to deal with than the dark cement and sky-skraper world we had just moved into two weeks earlier.