Traveling the World

Richard hadn’t been feeling quite right from the bus ride, so we left him in the hostel to rest while we got food at the Havana Bar & Cafe. They have fraudulent advertising, as they were only good at Chinese food amongst their already sparse menu. Their 18rmb milkshakes were bad, my 8rmb french toast was good because I haven’t had it since before I moved to China and yet could still have done better if they added more cinnamon (if it was even on there at all). Lily’s green peppers, mushrooms, chicken and white rice for 22rmb was really good. Enough about food.

Balloon 1

Balloon 2

For dinner we ate at Chez Kelly (also known as Kelly’s Place). We had a few different dishes and they were good! The best part of this place is their milkshakes, and Lonely Planet was right to recommend them because it’s hard to get good milkshakes in China! For a bargain at 12rmb, you too can be the proud owner of an orgasmic double thick chocolate milkshake in an glass.

Bike Ride

Bike Ride 2

If you’d like to stay at Monkey Jane’s Guesthouse, leave the bus station and turn left. When you see a wide cobble stone street to your left, turn there (it’s called West Street, or Xi Da Jie). Walk through the pedestrian street and make a right into a tiny alley when you hit Xian Qian Lu. Monkey Jane’s will be on your right!. Their number is 0773-8820585 and their address is 24 Lian feng zhong xiang 莲峰中xiang24号.

Note: 4 Dutch tourists died on October 16th, 2009 in Yangshuo as a result of a hot-air balloon crash. RIP.

Train to Guilin = 212rmb (paid for Lily) ($30.9)
Hostel in Guilin = 70rmb (paid for Lily) ($10.2)
Food in Guilin = 35.5rmb ($5.10)
Transportation in Guilin = 6rmb (buses/paid for Lily) ($0.80)
Activities in Guilin = 40rmb (die cai shan, paid for lily) ($5.80)
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Total for Guilin = 363.5rmb ($52.80)

Bus to Yangshuo = 30rmb (paid for Lily) ($4.37)
Hostel in Yangshuo = 70rmb (paid for Lily) ($10.2)
Food in Yangshuo = 55rmb ($8.02)
Transportation in Yangshuo = 5rmb ($0.72)
Activities in Yangshuo = 0rmb
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Total for Yangshuo = 160rmb ($23.31)

Train to Chengdu = 104rmb ($15.1)
Hostel in Chengdu = 60rmb (Melba paid for my first night) ($8.75)
Food in Chengdu = 62rmb ($9.05)
Activities in Chengdu = 100rmb ($14.59)
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Total for Chengdu = 326rmb ($47.49)

Bus to Emei Shan from Chengdu = 46rmb ($6.71)
Monastery in Emei Shan = 50rmb ($7.29)
Food in Emei Shan = 50rmb ($7.29)
Donation to Monastery = 30rmb ($4.37)
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Total for Emei Shan = 176rmb ($25.66)

Private Car to Leshan from Emei Shan = 30rmb ($4.37)
Activities in Leshan = 90rmb ($13.13)
Bus back to Chengdu = 45rmb ($6.56)
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Total for Leshan = 165rmb ($24.06)

Train to Xi’an = 209rmb ($30.51)
Hostel in Xi’an = 50rmb ($7.29)
Food in Xi’an = 101rmb ($14.74)
Activities in Xi’an = 155rmb ($22.62)
Transportation in Xi’an = 15rmb ($2.18)
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Total for Xi’an = 530rmb ($77.34)

Train to Beijing = 311rmb ($45.40)
Hostel in Beijing = 140rmb ($20.43)
Food in Beijing = 242rmb ($35.32)
Activities in Beijing = 100rmb ($14.59)
Transport in Beijing = 139rmb ($20.29)
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Total for Beijing = 932rmb ($136.03)

Train to Wuhan = 287 ($41.89)
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Total spent = 2939.5rmb ($428.58), My budget was 4500rmb ($656.93)

In the end, my friends paid for these things for me (thanks Alfred, Richard, and Melba!):

Hot Air Balloon = 480×2 (paid for Lily)
Black and White Panda = 1000
Red Panda (really a raccoon) = 100

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Look for my upcoming posts about Guilin, Yangshuo, Emei Shan, Leshan, Chengdu, Xi’an, and Beijing!

Imagine one minute having your feet firmly on the ground, and the next feeling like you’re floating in mid-air. The air trapped in the balloon above your head is heated, and at once you leave the safety of the ground. The heater reminds you of a flame thrower, and the heat is so intense you begin to sweat. You slowly rise to 20m…30m…100m. You can see people on the ground quickly becoming smaller and more distant. They look like ants for a brief moment, and then fade away. The sky lights up in brilliant colors as the sun begins to set over the mountains. The only sound you can hear is that of the flamethrower ensuring your safety.

The man controlling the behemoth constantly speaks gibberish into his walkie-talkie. You continue to snap as many pictures as you can before your brief stint with the sky ends at an alarmingly fast rate. You reach 500m..600m..700m (2,300ft). You are now literally hanging in the sky without a lifeline, floating aimlessly over the jagged mountains dotting the surface below. What seems like a lifetime dancing in the sky from within your balloon in reality is only about 30 minutes, but by the time you descend back to earth, you are glad to be back.

Next we struggled through a 25 hour train journey to Chengdu in which we had to sit the entire way. In Chengdu, we experienced a minority performance and were treated like royalty by the staff at the theater. We played with pandas and raccoons and ate spicy hot pot food. We hiked to the Fuhu Monastery and slept with the monks for a night and got to see their prayer service in the morning. We went to the world’s largest known Buddha at Leshan.

From Chengdu we went to Xi’an, a city filled with terrible pollution much worse than what I experience in Wuhan. It’s so bad that the 5 of us couldn’t breathe after riding rented bikes on top of the old fortress walls (Xi’an is 1 of two cities in China that has a wall still completely intact). In Xi’an, we also saw the Terracotta Warriors, which turned out to be quite boring for me. In Beijing, we went to the Forbidden City (another boring tourist trap) and took a bus three hours north of Beijing to hike up to a little-known and rarely-visited section of the Great Wall called Simatai.

After 16 grueling days of travel, I’m glad to be back in my new apartment. I went to my school and got my schedule and met my students and co-teachers. I’ll be teaching 2nd grade, which means my kids are 7 years old! My school is 3 metro stations south of my apartment, and the metro station is an 8 minute walk from my building. My other option is to ride the public bikes about 25 minutes, which I think is a much better option for my health! I’m excited to be teaching at a public school because it means I can be a real teacher and not just another white face being paid ridiculous amounts of money for no reason. Stay tuned to see what happens next!