learning – The Places We Live

The Journey of a Lifetime – Li River Cruise Part Two

The trip I have been dying to take for years continues.

When we last left off, Josh and I were three hours in to our Li River Cruise Tour. We were blindly following a group of Chinese people wearing matching lanyards through the Dong Village Museum until our meetup time of 12:30. We merged and unmerged with the group multiple times, but everywhere we went, we were able to find someone else with the same color lanyard as we had. This made us feel comfortable, since we couldn’t actually remember which bus the man in the blue jacket said was ours. We planned to just follow the group and see where we ended up.

♥ Catch up with “The Journey of a Lifetime – Li River Cruise Part One ♥

12:30PM – The Big Bus

At the exit of the Dong village was a bucket to recycle the lanyards. The Chinese people we were following, and thought were part of our group, scattered to their various cars and buses, leaving us in the parking lot a little concerned and questioning our next move. Thankfully, one of the members of My Six was wearing a bright orange jacket. We spotted the jacket down the block, met up with her, and got on what we hoped was the correct bus.

We sat down, and were immediately shouted at by the bus driver. I didn’t catch everything he said, but the bit I did catch was “foreigners to the back”. I did not like being told I had to sit at the back of the bus because I was different, but the back looked just as comfortable, so we did as we were told. As more people piled onto the bus, and more of My Six got individually yelled at by other riders to move farther back, we came to understand that the Chinese group we were with had previously been riding the bus and had already picked out their seats.

The Big Bus was much more spacious, but equally as dirty as the mini bus.

The bus ride went smoothly enough, but the man who gave us the lanyards at the Dong village spent the entire ride standing at the front of the bus selling his wares (apparently he was going to be our tour guide for the day). He spent about 20 minutes talking over the loud speaker, then passed through handing out free samples. The samples were varied and strange, and of course labeled only in Chinese, leading us to eat something we probably shouldn’t have. Thankfully, the perfume he sprayed the entire length of the bus smelled quite nice, and no one had an allergic reaction. Then he walked up and down the aisle, taking orders. To our surprise, almost everyone on that bus bought at least one of his things, some people calling him back to buy more. It was very bizarre.

♥ Read Josh’s funny story about the “food” we ate on the bus ♥

After an hour of non-stop sales pitches, we finally stopped… in the middle of nowhere, at a group of three nearly abandoned buildings. Now what?!

1:30PM – Lunch

We stopped in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere and were told to get off the bus. The Chinese tourists pushed their way off the bus in a frenzy of excitement. My Six calmly waited their turns, got off, then stood on the derelict sidewalk with a “for God’s sake” look on our faces. The tour guide, not finding us among the mob of excited Chinese, came back to us and told us we were to have lunch now. He showed us a menu and pushed us to the back of a run-down building.

The menu had no pictures on it and was written in Chinese, so we could only recognize a few of the options, and the prices were outrageous. Fried rice that we eat nearly every day for between ¥8 and ¥12 was being offered for ¥45. Again, the Chinese in our group were on cloud nine. They ordered food and beers, toasted each other, sang and joked, took selfies and pictures of their food. We, on the other hand, walked down the block to see if there was anything cheaper to eat, joined by our new German friends. We found another place just down the way with still-inflated, but significantly better prices. We ordered a dish of green beans, pork with green onions, rice, and a beer. We expected the price to be around ¥80, so we were surprised when it came out to ¥100! Looking over the bill, there were a few charges we didn’t recognize. Josh asked our waitress to explain. “It’s two apiece for the rice, two for the dishes, and two for the napkins.” The four of us looked at her in astonishment. We managed to argue our way out of paying for the napkins, since we hadn’t used them, but we ended up paying the rest. So lunch was a bit of a bust.

An hour later, we were ushered back onto the bus.

2:30PM – Nap Time

It was time for Chinese siesta, so the remainder of the bus ride went on without any sales pitches or interruptions. It was a beautiful drive with breathtaking views at every turn. As my window had a rather large gob of dried phlegm on it, I put on my mask and pretended like it wasn’t there and just enjoyed the scenery.

We drove past Yangshuo, over the river, then back North through some small farming villages. I got more and more excited with every turn. We were heading to Yangdi, passing the lovely village of Xingping along the way. Me eyes were glued to the window trying to catch a glimpse of Xingping. Then, way sooner than I was expecting, we stopped again.

4:00PM – “We Boat Now”

Again, the Chinese tourists were nearly bursting with excitement. The pure joy on their face was the only thing keeping me from hailing a cab to our next hotel. It was nice to take a step back and watch my fellow passengers have their adventure of a lifetime. They were tourists, too; they knew what to expect out of the trip they had booked, and were having the time of their lives.

We got off the bus and the tour guide said, “We boat now.” I asked the driver to get my backpack out of the trunk for me, but I got shooed away and beckoned to stick with the group. Well, that is why I keep my passport and valuables in my Go Bag. Who knows if I will get to see my backpack ever again. Who needs clothes anyway?

We walked through a hole in a metal fence, surrounded by garbage and what I’m pretending wasn’t sewage. Then, along a “sidewalk” lined with shopping stalls filled with craft items. Again, they were alarmingly over priced and the touts were fairly aggressive. We bee-lined for the nearest bathroom to relieve ourselves of the unintentional free sample ingestion, lost our group, and once again just kept going straight in hopes that we would know where we were going once we saw it. We didn’t find the group, but I did spot an amazing view.

Besides for the heavy smell of gasoline and sewage, it was one of the most beautiful scenes I had ever seen. The river was shallow enough that I could see the bottom, the boats were rusted and in great need of repair, but beautiful in their own way. The mountains… the mountains… I wish I were a better writer and could explain how almost alarmingly stunning they were. I’m not sure every thesaurus in the world could help explain the beauty before me. I kept catching myself forgetting to breathe.

The tour guide wakened me from my trance, beckoning us to come join the group a little farther ahead. He spoke to the group of Chinese who, again, ran off with school girl excitement to the boat. Then he collected My Six and told us “You, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6” looked please with himself and walked away. Thank you? We followed the others down the pier to our waiting boat and, once again, hoped everything would make sense soon.

TO BE CONTINUED…

The Journey of a Lifetime – Part 2

The trip I have been dying to take for years continues.

When we last left off, Josh and I were blindly following a group of Chinese people wearing matching lanyards through the Dong village until our meetup time of 12:30. We merged and unmerged with the group multiple times, but everywhere we went, we were able to find someone else with the same color lanyard as we had. This made us feel comfortable, since we couldn’t actually remember which bus the man in the blue jacket said was ours. We planned to just follow the group and see where we ended up.

The Big Bus

At the end of the village tour was a bucket to recycle the lanyards. The Chinese people we were following, and thought were part of our group, scattered to their various cars and buses, leaving us in the parking lot a little concerned and questioning our next move. Thankfully, one of the members of My Six was wearing a bright orange jacket. We spotted the jacket down the block, met up with her, and got on what we hoped was the correct bus.

20180122_123204 — The Big Bus was much more spacious, but equally as dirty as the mini bus.

After an hour of non-stop sales pitches, we finally stopped… in the middle of nowhere, at a group of three nearly abandoned buildings. Now what?!

Lunch

It was now 1:30 and we were told to get off the bus. The Chinese tourists pushed their way off the bus in a frenzy of excitement. My Six calmly waited their turns, got off, then stood on the derelict sidewalk with a “for God’s sake” look on our faces. The tour guide, not finding us among the mob of excited Chinese, came back to us and told us we were to have lunch now. He showed us a menu and pushed us to the back of a run down building.

The menu had no pictures on it, so we could only read a few of the options, and the prices were outrageous. Fried rice that we eat nearly every day for between ¥8 and ¥12 was being offered for ¥45. Again, the Chinese in our group were on cloud nine. They ordered food and beers, toasted each other, sang and joked, took selfies and pictures of their food. We, on the other hand, walked down the block to see if there was anything cheaper to eat, joined by our new German friends. We found another place just down the way with still-inflated, but significantly better prices. We ordered a dish of green beans, pork with green onions, rice, and a beer. We expected the price to be around ¥80, so we were surprised when it came out to ¥100! Looking over the bill, there were a few charges we didn’t recognize. Josh asked our waitress to explain. “It’s two apiece for the rice, two for the dishes, and two for the napkins.” The four of us looked at her in astonishment. We managed to argue our way out of paying for the napkins, since we hadn’t used them, but we ended up paying the rest. So lunch was a total success.

At 2:30, we were ushered back onto the bus.

Nap Time

The Chinese siesta, so the remainder of the bus ride went on without any sales pitches or interruptions. It was a beautiful drive with breathtaking views at every turn. As my window had a rather large gob of dried phlegm on it, I put on my mask and pretended like it wasn’t there and just enjoyed the scenery.

We drove past Yangshuo, over the river, then back North through some small farming villages. I got more and more excited with every turn. We were heading to Yangdi, passing the lovely village of Xingping along the way. I was glued to the window trying to catch a glimpse of Xingping. Then, way sooner than I was expecting, we stopped again.

“We Boat Now?”

Again, the Chinese tourists were nearly bursting with excitement. The pure joy on their face was the only thing keeping me from hailing a cab back to the hotel. It was nice to take a step back and watch these people have their adventure of a lifetime. They were tourists, too; they knew what to expect out of the trip they had booked, and were having the time of their lives.

Besides for the heavy smell of gasoline and sewage, it was one of the most beautiful scenes I had ever seen. The river was shallow enough that I could see the bottom, the boats were rusted and in great need of repair, but beautiful in their own way. The mountains… the mountains… I wish I were a better writer and could explain how almost alarmingly stunning they are. I’m not sure every thesaurus in the world could help explain the beauty before me. I kept catching myself forgetting to breathe.

TO BE CONTINUED…

The Journey of a Lifetime – Li River Cruise Part One

My trip of a lifetime was nothing like what I expected.

I went on a Li River cruise today. This is something I have been looking forward to for years. The majesty of the karst topography is featured on the ¥20 bill and the landscape is renowned for being some of the most beautiful in the world. I did a lot of research. I knew how much it should cost and what to expect. It is China, after all, so there will be people spitting and nothing will be clean, but I was ready for that. I was ready for my Journey of a Lifetime.

Booking a Li River Cruise

I booked the cruise through a travel agent one week in advance. I didn’t understand everything she said, but it was clear that a car would pick us up at our hotel at 7:00AM. We would then take a bus South to Yangshuo, with a couple of stops along the way at “parks(?)”. Once in Yangshuo, we’d be given time to grab some lunch. After lunch, the bus would take us back North up the other side of the river to Yangdi. From there, we would catch a large and beautiful boat, featuring a dining room, complete with large round tables covered in white tablecloths. Once on the boat, we would be treated to a 1.5 hour cruise down the river to the beautiful town of Xingping. Finally, a bus would take us from Xingping to Yangshuo, where we could walk to our hotel and enjoy some dinner. All of this for only $25 each!!! It seemed too good to be true…

InkedGoogle Maps_LI — The travel agent drew a picture like this to help me understand the details.

9:15AM – The Pick-Up

At 7:30AM (half an hour late), our travel agent appeared at our hotel lobby door. In broken English, we heard “No bus. 9:00. Maybe 9:30 be bus.” China strikes again! But, we were in a great mood. We told her not to worry and went for a nice early morning walk around the lake in Guilin. At 9:15AM, the “bus” arrived.

My view from the back seat of the mini bus. I have Josh on my right, a Chinese man on my left, and my bags on my lap. Delightful…

I know I specifically confirmed that we would be riding in a “da ba” (big bus), but perhaps she didn’t think I knew the difference between a big bus and a mini bus. This was a mini bus, which is really just a van. We spent about 45 minutes driving all over town picking up two other groups of people… all foreign… and all way too tall to fit in a mini bus.

♥ Read: “What Not to Do in China” ♥

I went out of my way to introduce myself to everyone in the car (Josh and I are in desperate need of some outside conversation). We were joined by a German man who has been begrudgingly living in Shanghai for almost a year for work, and his girlfriend who was visiting China for the first time. There was also a young man from Nigeria, who was studying as a medical student in China, that was traveling with a Chinese friend. Even though none of us knew each other before that van ride, we ended up being grouped together for the rest of the day. For the remainder of this story, we will be known collectively as “My Six.”

10:00AM – Cornwall

After only barely leaving town, the van driver pulled over and asked us to get out. We stood on the sidewalk for quite some time while the driver looked confused and frustrated that he couldn’t speak Chinese to all of his foreign captives and even more frustrated when he found out that the Chinese friend of the Nigerian didn’t speak English. That said, he was very helpful to have around, as he would use his phone to translate the driver’s instructions for us. We were also a little frustrated, as we didn’t know where we were or where we were going next, and had our hundred-pound backpacks with us.

Josh and I called the stop Cornwall after seeing that the only landmark at this stop was the tall wall made of dried corn.

Turns out we had arrived a little early, and had to wait for the rest of the group to get there. We were eventually told to take our bags and “walk down the block. Just there. Yes, there.” My Six walked and hoped we would know where we were going when we saw it.

10:30AM – Dong Village

Thankfully, we were able to work it out. We didn’t know what this place was, but it was different than everything else in the area. Also, it helped that there was a Chinese man in a blue jacket impatiently waving for us to hurry up. He haphazardly gave us a lanyard; then, as a large group of lanyard-wearing Chinese people started walking away from us, he told us to go with them and to be back by 12:30.

Everything was in Chinese, so we had no idea what was going on. At first, it looked like we were being ushered to bathrooms and lunch. Then, what we thought was a restaurant turned out to be a museum. After nearly half an hour, we put all of the pieces together. We were in a replicated village of the Dong minority group… and stuck here for two hours.

The Chinese group we were with were having the time of their lives. The village gave off an Epcot vibe, with people dressed in traditional Dong garb taking pictures with tourists and giving demonstrations. All of the little village buildings had rows of what looked like classrooms, with other tourists sitting down for the lectures (at least, we think that’s what was going on). We wandered around and took in as much as we could. I am sure it was all very interesting, but without any context, it was mostly just weird.

♥ Learn more about the Dong minority group ♥

And of course, at the end of the village, a maze of gift shops selling silver trinkets, rock art, and other bits and bobs. The Chinese tourists were going nuts, with a line at nearly every cash register. In that confined space, it was super loud, with all the tourists yelling at each other, and the salespeople yelling at the tourists. In all the chaos we sort of lost My Six.

After later research, I think I would have found the museum to be very interesting. The Dong people are a minority group of nearly 3 million that live in the area. I wish I would have known that this was going to be a stop on our trip and what it included, so I could have prepared and been able to really appreciate it when we arrived.

I also wish that this wasn’t our only surprise of the day.

TO BE CONTINUED…

The Journey of a Lifetime – Part One

My trip of a lifetime was nothing like what I expected.

I have been looking forward to this day for years. There is little that I have wanted more in my adult life than to take a cruise down the Li River. The majesty of the karst topography is featured on the ¥20 bill and the landscape is renowned for being some of the most beautiful in the world. I did a lot of research. I knew how much it should cost and what to expect. It is China, after all, so there will be people spitting and nothing will be clean, but I was ready for that. I was ready for my Trip of a Lifetime.

The Booking

I booked the cruise through a travel agent one week in advance. I didn’t understand everything she said, but it was clear that a bus would pick us up at our hotel at 7:00AM. We would then take a different bus to Yangshuo, with a couple of stops along the way at “parks.” Once at Yangshuo, we’d be given time to grab some lunch. The plan was to stay in Yangshuo for a few days, rather than return to Guilin, so I hoped we would also have time to drop our bags off at the hotel. After lunch, the bus would take us north up the other side of the river, where we would catch a large and beautiful boat, featuring a large dining room, complete with large round tables covered in white tablecloths. From there, we would be treated to a 1.5 hour cruise down the river to the beautiful town of Xingping. Finally, the bus would drop us back off in Yangshuo, where we could walk to our hotel. All of this for only $25 each!!! It seemed too good to be true…

The Pick-Up

At 7:30AM (half an hour late), our travel agent appeared at our hotel lobby door. In broken English, we heard “No bus. 9:00. Maybe 9:30 be bus.” China strikes again! But we were in a great mood. We told her not to worry and went for a nice early morning walk around the lake in Guilin. At 9:15AM, the “bus” arrived.

20180122_100431 — My view from the back seat of the mini bus. I have Josh on my right, a Chinese man on my left, and my bags on my lap. Delightful…

Cornwall

After only barely leaving town, the van pulled over and asked us to get out. We stood on the sidewalk for quite some time while the driver looked confused and frustrated that he couldn’t speak Chinese to all of his foreign captives and even more frustrated when he found out that the Chinese friend of the Nigerian also didn’t speak English. That said, he was very helpful to have around, as he would use his phone to translate the driver’s instructions for us. We were also a little frustrated, as we didn’t know where we were or where we were going next, and had our hundred-pound backpacks with us.

20180122_102752 — Josh and I called the stop Cornwall after seeing that the only landmark at this stop was the tall wall made of dried corn.

Dong Village (hehe)

I also wish that this wasn’t our only surprise of the day.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanksgiving Weekend 2017

We heard some great stories, improved our chess game, ate delicious food, made connections, and bonded with friends and family.

Oh my. Where do I even begin?

The day before Thanksgiving, we made the “quick” drive down to Miami, Florida. After being told not to use our GPS, we were treated to the longest 1.5 hour drive of my life (the GPS later confirmed my suspicions that it was, in fact, a four hour drive). We did eventually make it and spent the next two nights with friends of the family and 19 other dinner guests.

I had the pleasure of witnessing all of the pre-dinner fun. I ate my first Cuban meal, watched my first turkey deep-fry, played with the cutest puppies in Miami, and helped Josh to invent a new cocktail (Crystal Light, pineapple juice, coconut rum, and spiced rum).

Dinner was amazing with all the traditional Thanksgiving dishes, including two deep-fried turkeys, home-made cranberry sauce, and whole artichokes. I particularly enjoyed my host’s rendition of stuffing which included mushrooms and nuts.

After a few days in Miami, we traveled back up north to Boynton Beach, Florida to stay with another family friend. She has a beautiful home on the river, a slew of delightful friends, charming birds, and dogs I fell deeply in love with.

I was particularly fond of her large, secret garden-like back yard, which had a quiet dock on a slow-moving river. It was the perfect place to spend each morning drinking coffee and watching the wildlife. I spotted two new ducks, a bald eagle, and several large iguanas.

Although the town offers plenty of entertainment, Josh and I opted for quieter mini-adventures, like a short hike through what I can only assume was a spider sanctuary, and a 2-stop pub crawl. Back at the house, we were provided with delicious meals, great conversation, and games of chess filled with advice for both the game and for life.

We met so many interesting new people over the holiday weekend. Being introverts, this was a little stressful for us, but it was a nice reminder of why we are out here. We heard some great stories, improved our chess game, ate delicious food, made connections, and bonded with friends and family.

Brew Collections

I don’t like to collect physical things, but I do enjoy collecting moments. That is why, with each new place, I will post a wrap up of the new beers I tried.

It drives Josh crazy when I play video games because I am a collector. I rarely pay attention to the progression of the game. I just run around breaking and collecting as many things as I can. I find that I live my life in much the same way (without the destruction, of course). I don’t like to collect physical things, but I do enjoy collecting moments. That is why, with each new place, I will post a wrap up with not only my Birding Update, but also my Brew Update. And, who knows, I might start more collections later 😉

First off, a quick story about my relationship with beer:

It was a long time ago in a state far-far away. I was attending my first party in Eugene, Oregon (consistently rated the top hippy town in the USA) after moving there from Eastern Washington. Martini bars were the hot thing and I was disappointed to find that it had not caught on in Eugene. People in Eugene drank beer. That is why, at my first party, I brought the only “beer” I actually liked, Mike’s Hard Lemonade – black cherry flavor. The gift I had so thoughtfully procured was immediately and discreetly confiscated and hidden under the sink. This party was filled with locals and they weren’t going to be caught dead drinking my bitch beer. So began my journey to try and become a beer snob.

About the rating system:

My bestie and I enjoy the finer things in life, but are ourselves maybe slightly less fine than we expect the world around us to be. So we have adopted a way of living I like to call (excuse my language) Classy as Fuck. Upon participating in our first classy tasting adventure, we needed a way to look as snooty as the people around us: “Yes… hints of dirt and cardboard… yes… quite.” We had a difficult time remembering the rating scale as well (is 5 the highest or is 1 the highest?) and therefore created the simplest, classiest, and funnest rating system: Smiley Faces.

And finally, the app… because there is an app for everything.

The only thing better than collecting things is to also collect badges as a reward for all of my collecting. So, please join me (and help me get friend badges) on the Untappd App.

Beer Life List: 51

I’m a Travel Blogger

I got my first “job” today!

Sunday Shower Thoughts:

“What would life be like if humans had a mating season?”
“I wonder if sweet potatoes would be good on pizza.”
“I love vacation rentals. How fun would it be to review vacation rentals? OMG, I’m going to review vacation rentals.”

I got out of the shower, threw on some clothes, and immediately set to work. I emailed 10 different vacation rental owners and told them I wanted to look at their place, take some pictures, and do a small piece on my blog. Everyone who actually read my email, responded positively.

On Monday, Josh and I drove into town and met with a woman who owns a dozen properties in the area and was excited to get some professional photographs taken of a property she recently acquired. That made me nervous. “Is she going to be upset when Josh and I show up with our phones and the GoPro? Does she think my blog is being read by thousands of people?” I was so nervous, but I put on my work voice and just did it.

We had so much fun! The woman and her mother were really nice people with interesting stories. The two apartments she took us to were lovely and exactly the kind of places we stay at during our previous travels. Josh took video with the GoPro and I took photos with my phone.

Again, it was a little nerve racking taking photos on our cheap equipment with very little photography skill, but the photos weren’t the point. It was the story. The woman gave us the rundown of the area (similar to what she would share with her renters) and we visited many of the places she suggested. We imagined an entire week’s worth of amazing blog posts and stories we could tell if we had a week at her place. It would be the dream job I have always wanted.

Dream Job Checklist:

Quit my nine to five and hit the road. – CHECK
Start a blog. – CHECK
Make first contact as a travel marketer. – CHECK

Am I dreaming? Has this really happened? This blog has 30 posts, I doubled my followers on social media, and I got my first “job”. There are still a few steps to go before I’m Samantha Brown famous, but I’m on my way. I really am. How did I get so lucky?