January 25: Trip from helllll

Picture from the worst seat ever

Remember how I told you Henry and I got the last two seats on the bus? Well, that means we got the two WORST seats on the bus. This was our first bus that was completely full. Not a surprise though since it was the weekend and most schools are getting out for Chinese New Year.

Our seats were in the very last row of the bus, which is a bench of 5 seats. I was the middle seat, which really isn’t a seat; they just put a “cushion” on it and make it look like a seat. Next to me on my left were 3 people in TWO seats: Two parents and a child. This child wasn’t a baby or a toddler that could sit in a lap… this child was GROWN. He had to be at least 8. 3 people, 2 seats= squished for 7 hours. And then on my right were Henry and some other guy. In front of us was a baby and if he had not been adorable I would have been so annoyed. Needless to say, we had a true China bus ride experience. 

He's lucky he's cute

Once we arrived in Yuanyang we had to take another hour bus ride to the village we were going to, Pugaolaozhai. WORST BUS RIDE OF MY LIFE. Of course we got the last seats on this bus as well. Except they weren’t in the back row bench,  they were behind the little boy who had just thrown up on the floor. And the throwing up did not stop the entire ride. So the bus ride went a little like this… kid throwing up in a plastic bag, window open, I was freezing and read to distract myself. I put my music on as loud as it could go, wrapped my scarf around my head, put my hands over my ears and kept thinking, “these rice terraces better we worth it, these rice terraces better we worth it”.

And they were. We got off the bus and walked down this little hill and saw the sun setting over the rice terraces.  I immediately got the chills and knew the trip from hell was worth it.

Sunset from Jacky's

Pugaolaozhai Village

Jacky from Jacky’s Guest House where we are staying for the next two nights met us at this “parking lot” so he could direct us to his Guest House. Thank goodness he did because we would have never found it. Along the way we stepped over massive piles of what I am assuming was pig poop because we saw at least 5 pigs on our way.

His Guest House is gorgeous. It was newly renovated which is always a plus. He showed us the terrace where we are able to see the sunset in the morning and then showed us our room. We ended up being in a room with a German girl we met in Tiger Leaping Gorge. Small world. Not really though, I think everyone is doing the same trip.

Since we got in a bit late, Jacky’s mama was already resting so he made us dinner. We got a meat dish, 2 vegetable dishes, an egg and tomato dish and of course rice. The rice was amazing. It was pink and so fresh. Since we didn’t eat all day we ended up scarfing down the delicious meal.

Best rice ever

After dinner I went straight to the shower. I contemplated waiting until the morning but after the day of travel I couldn’t do it. The shower was the best shower I’ve had on the trip. I had my own PERSONAL bathroom and the water was SO warm. It was great.

Tomorrow we are waking up at 6:30 to see the sunrise. Jacky told us the sun rises around 7:20 but the past two days it has been too foggy to see it, so hopefully we luck out tomorrow!