The end of vacation

So my blog sort of fell of the face of the earth during my second week of vacation. After my backpacking trip I was pretty dead. I did a lot of relaxing, caught up on Greys, watched movies, ate delicious food, oh and learned how to knit.  Well, if you ask my mom I "learned" how to knit. She ended up knitting through my first roll of yarn.

The Friday before I left we went to Va Bene for dinner. It was probably the most amazing meal I have had there. I'm sure I have said that a million times before but it was seriously delicious. I got truffle pasta. That's all that I can say about Va Bene because it's making me way too hungry now that I'm back in China living a mainlanders life on a teachers salary.

The boat

The Sunday before I left we went on my dad's bosses boat. It was AMAZING. I'm not sure calling it a boat isn't even correct. Maybe a yacht? Or a cruise? Haha kidding.. probably a yacht. Either way, we had a great day. We took the boat out to an island where we had a great seafood lunch and then took a "hike". It was more of a walk/stroll. Along our walk we passed a bunch of bulls. Of course we had to step into the bushes since they took over the path. I would tell you about all the people that were with us, but I am still unclear of their connections. The main thing I got out of the day is, I probably went into the wrong field if I want to live a sweet life like that. I think my dad secretly planned this day so he could sway me to go into business. And you know... I just may!

My parents on the boat

So as you all know I had pretty much a month in Hong Kong before I left to go back to Ma'anshan. When did I decide to buy all the food I wanted and run all the errands I needed to run? That's right... the two days before. Typical. Every time we were in a grocery store my mom would say, "We're here Rachel, lets just pick it up now." I always said, "next time, I'm here for so long". Yeah, well I regretted that quickly.

Packing..... until the night before I left to go back to Ma'anshan I have never successfully packed without having a breakdown. This time, I did it. I have no idea how because I had to bring back stuff for Henry that his mom sent him, all my winter clothes, all my spring/summer clothes, all my christmas presents and of course all the food. So, to make things easier I took an extra suitcase. I'm pretty sure I had as much stuff going back to Ma'anshan as I did going the first time. I may start giving my clothes away as prizes in class. I really don't understand how I accumulate so much stuff.

The Year of the Snake

Chinese New Year in Hong Kong.... FULL OF MAINLANDERS. My mom and I went out shopping the Wednesday before CNY and I couldn't handle it. I couldn't wait to get home.

Parade

February 10th was the first night of CNY which was the parade. I met up with Caroline and Ami (two girls I met at training in Beijing) and their friends at Deck n' Beer. We all had a glass of wine and then left to find a spot to watch the parade. The parade was okay, nothing exciting.

Fireworks

February 11th is the night of the fireworks. Caroline, Ami, Michael and Lindsay all came over to the apartment to celebrate the 2nd night of CNY. We planned on going out after watching the fireworks but we ended up drinking with my parents till 3am. Everyone ended up sleeping over. If you have been to the HK apartment or seen it on skype or pictures, you know that it can't fit 7 people comfortably at all. But we made it work. The next morning my parents cooked us a great breakfast and then I slept all day. We all had a great time. I'll end it with that. 

January Backpacking Blog

Many of you have been asking when my blog is going to be up and the answer is... Today! 

I left for my trip on January 10th and returned on January 28th. After this post you will find 18 journal entries from my trip. I journaled after every day of my trip, which I then turned into these blog posts. 

Below is a list of the stops I took and a map.  Under the map is a link you can click on that will allow you to view the map from the website. 

Click the following link to be able to zoom into each stop on my trip!

January Travel Map

This backpacking trip is a trip that I will never forget. It was an experience of a life time.  I learned so much more about Chinese culture. I slept in hostels with smelly boys. I showered maybe 6 times in 18 days. I learned how to eat (tolerate) spicy food. I met people from all over the world. I did things I will never do again.  I stepped outside of my comfort zone.

I hope you enjoy reading my "Travel Journal"!  

Make sure you scroll down to January 10th and read on up to January 28th. Or you can click on January in the "archives" section on the right and click on each post. 

January 28: SHOWER TIME

Everything ran smoothly at the airport. Apparently I am only delayed when I am on my own.

We flew into Shenzhen, China and then took the bus to the Elements in Hong Kong. We got to the apartment around 2, I changed, “freshened up” and we headed straight for lunch at the Waterfront. We were both wayyy too hungry to shower first.

For lunch we got: bread, nachos, our own pizza and a side of fries. IT WAS GREAT.

After lunch Henry wanted to get his glasses fixed which turned into him buying 2 pairs of glasses and me buying one pair.

When we got back to the apartment I unpacked. Right after I threw all my clothes in the hamper my dad sprayed it with Febreze; well it was more like drenched it with Febreze.

Since I’m nice I let Henry shower first and showed my parents the pictures from the trip. My dad didn’t want to sit next to me on the couch until I had showered, but he got over it. I mean really, I wasn’t THAT gross. I had showered two days ago.

Finally I showered and got ready for dinner. We headed to Posto Publico for an Italian meal and Henry’s last good meal before heading back to Ma’anshan. Of course dinner was great, I don’t think I need to go into any details.

After dinner we headed back to the apartment and ended up drinking and listening to music until 2 am. For those of you who have experienced the nights on the deck or on the sun porch in Westfield, it felt like one of those nights, just with a better view.

January 27: FOG

This morning we got up and had breakfast. Mama made us two plates of bread this time, which we definitely could not finish. The eating area was packed with people who arrived last night. Unfortunately for them, the weather was TERRIBLE. Not only could you not see a thing, it was raining. I have no idea what you do when there is a ton of fog and it’s raining and the only reason you’re in Yuanyang is to see the rice terraces… 

The van was supposed to pick us and 4 other guests up at 7:45 and by 8 he has still not showed up. I started to get nervous because the drive was supposed to take an hour and our bus to Kunming was leaving at 9:10. Plus everything sort of counted on us making this bus since we leave for Hong Kong tomorrow.

The driver finally got there around 8:15. The ride down was extremely nerve-racking… you could hardly see a foot in front of you. The driver must have the road memorized because he was zooming on down. Henry kept checking his watch and at one point he said, “Well we’ve either missed the bus or it’s waiting on us.”

The bus was waiting on us, thank God! The bus ride back to Kunming wasn’t eventful. We had good seats and no one was throwing up.

This time in Kunming we stayed at the “Hump Hostel”, which is apparently a famous chain hostel. I hated it. It was so westernized and made me feel like I wasn’t in China at all. However, they did have $5 draft beers. So we hung out and drank and then headed to dinner. Dinner was great and filling.

Tomorrow we leave at 6am and head back to HONG KONG! SHOWER TIME.

January 26- Lost in the rice terraces

Sunrise

Sunrise

The map Jacky drew us

We ended up lucking out with amazing weather. We got to see the sunrise, which was incredible. After the sunrise the mama made us breakfast. She made us each a fried egg, brought us 8 HUGE pieces of bread, honey and jam. I was stuffed after finishing my fried egg and 4 slices of bread. When the plate was empty she came back over and asked us in Chinese if we were full, “你吃饱了吗？”(Ni chi bao le ma) And we of course we said YESS. She really wanted us to eat more but thankfully she gave up.

During breakfast Jacky sat with us for a little and drew us a map that would take us to the rice terraces where we could trek in his village. He told us that the other villages had fog so trekking through his village would be our best option for the day and later on if we had time and there was no fog we could go to the other villages.

Casually smoking a bong.. 

After breakfast we headed out. Jacky told us after the tombs and this sign there would be a dirt path and we should turn down that. Well we didn’t see any tombs or a sign, but we did see a dirt path and we weren’t really paying attention before seeing the path so we decided to take it. There were people on it so it seemed promising. At the end of the path we were forced to either take a left or turn around. Jacky told us we would pass a school and well before getting to the trekking path so we figured we should turn left and keeping going. The house on the corner had a man smoking a bong, pigs and his wife yelling at us telling us we couldn’t go any further. Not right. So we turned around. We got back to the main road and there were a ton of mothers and daughters trying to sell us their eggs. And they would NOT leave us alone. It was super annoying.

Working on the rice terraces

We kept walking, seeing nothing but a bunch of pigs, some yak and wild chickens. Oh and a huge wedding party passed by us. At this point I thought we should just jump in one of the cars and go to the wedding.  Then we got to a sign that said, “scenic lookout”. So we headed in that direction and it was gorgeous.

We kept walking and eventually hit the tombs and the sign Jacky was talking about. And then there was a dirt path! Long story shortened, we got to the trekking path. We were in complete fog. Could not see anything in front of us. Jacky told us at the end of the trek you’ll get to the village and then you can follow the street and you’ll find my Guest House.

FOG LIFTED

Well, from the scenic overlook we were able to see that the rice terraces went on for forever. There was no way to know if we were on the right trekking path or if the trekking path we were on would ever end. After going back and forth over this river, Henry, using my compass, tried to figure out which direction we needed to go to get back to Jacky’s.  The map and the compass were doing nothing for me, so I made Henry call Jacky. He told him the path should lead us up to stairs to a village. Helpful, considering we couldn’t see anything. I started freaking out that we were going to get lost completely and stuck out in the middle of the rice terraces we could not see anything. Right after getting off the phone the fog lifted. It was a miracle. We could see everything. We figured out we had gone way too far and we needed to take the trekking path up. So we did. And eventually we hit the village that Jacky was talking about. Then we hit the road and walked back to Jacky’s Guest House.

It was only 1 but we decided to call it a day and just eat lunch, drink beer and read on the terrace. It was our last stop of the trip and we were both exhausted.

Afternoon reading on the terrace

The afternoon was fun, relaxing and just what I needed.

Tomorrow we have a van picking us up at 7:45 am to take us to the bus station for our 9:10 bus back to Kunming. 

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!