First, bad news: my telephone is broken. Must have been broken in the backpack in the raft while loading. So from now on you can reach me only by email. I have no idea how much it is going to cost to change the screen for my Nokia. I am thinking maybe to buy a new phone here, just to be connected and also sometimes need to book hostels in advance, so useful to be able to call.
I wanted to tell you more about yesterdays trip, when we went off with a bamboo raft to Yangshuo. They took us with a van for one hour to the river. They also put 8 people in each raft, though it seems it should be only 4 in there. Well, I guess there is no point arguing when we are in the middle of nowhere and the money are paid already.
2 h in the raft, adoring amazing views. I took so many photos and even some videos. We were passing impressive hills and I was listening to the musing meanwhile. As I mention before Enigma and Enya. I even felt asleep for a short as it was so relaxing.
Once we got out to the shore, local women ran to us carrying the crates of fruits, fried fish and etc. Making business of course.
We had to wait for our bus. Well I wouldn’t call it a bus, as it almost had no windows. More like a Safari Jeep. I sat in the back, which was the biggest mistake. It was shaking so much that I was unable to film anything! Later on we transferred to more normal bus, though we were quite squeezed in as well. We spent 2 hours in between getting off from the raft and getting to Yangshuo station. Next time I will make sure I have enough water!
In the station we hired taxi like motorcycle. It had a trailer behind with seats. He took us in so small streets, which didn’t even look like streets and even got stuck in one of the holes in the road. We had to get off and push him! We were scared that he might go away with all our backpacks in it! So we hold on to it firmly, just in case.
Finally, we reached a big pit and he told us that we can walk further. We thought that once again they tricked us, but it turned out that Monkey Jane hostel was very close. Me and American girl got a twin room for 40 RMB each, which was a good deal compared to Shanghai where I paid 60 RMB.
After checking in, we went to eat something. We accidentally bumped into american guy Joshua, who was volunteering in this town for a month. He took us for fried dumplings. I even tried a chicken soup with a black chicken. Yes black chicken! The skin was blackish, same like a black pig. Taste the same, just a bit weird to eat it.
Furthermore, I had to buy new clothes as my old ones were not drying out because of humidity and air conditioners in the rooms and they started really to smell. So for the new Hugo Boss shorts and polo I merely paid 20Lt (£5). I had to bargain a lot with the polo and the guy even got upset because of that, but his mother was much more pleasant and in the end made a good discount. That guy didn’t even want to give me a plastic bag ha ha ha. Kind of you got already a good price. In those moments you feel that you actually bargain to the good price and not got ripped off.
We had a dinner in the hostel and it was delicious!
In the end we were playing cards and drinking Banja (local drink like vodka with a strange aftertaste) and Lithuanian vodka that I took with me. Later on we moved to the roof top terrace, because they had happy hour there. They also played pool and beer ping pong with looked like a great fun together with a very cool owner of the Monkey Jane’s hostel.
Today I am terribly hangover and about to go to rent a motorcycle to go for sight seeing.