Overnight Journeyings

This weekend is our first vacation where we get to go out into other parts of China, so we chose to go to Yangshou where there are mud caves, bamboo boat river tours, scooter rentals, and amazing mountains everywhere. I don't know if I have picture on my phone because I finally decided to bring out my camera to get good pictures.

But it is currently 9am on our first day, and already so much has happened! We took an overnight "sleeper bus" as our coordinators called it. We were expecting beds because it was a sleeper...but it was definitely just an overnight bus with seats that leaned back really far. It was reminiscent of Italy when I went to the Amalfi coast with friends. It was an overnight bus that got us to our destinations at oddly early hours, before anything was open.

Except this time it was worse because the oddly early time was...3 am. 10 hours on a bus, and then disorientedly walking around a town where we can't read signs, we don't have wifi, and there aren't many English speakers makes for a slightly grumpy Clara. I think it was mostly lack of sleep. So we wandered, and asked directions every 50 feet for an hour and a half before we found a nice looking hotel and slept in the lobby for a few hours.

I think that was the funniest part: we went into the lobby to see if the front desk could help us, but he was asleep behind the desk, so we sat down...well, I laid down on the couches and promptly fell asleep. When it finally started to get light out, and Meagan had figured out landmarks and general directions where to go, we started our quest for our hostel again, even though online it said check in is at 1pm.

We ran into a drunk British man carrying his last bottle home, who saw we were lost and wanted to help us. Everyone else was really hesitant to let him help--he was a drunk guy at 6 in the morning. But I was still a little out of it, and the last drunk UK man I ran into was rather helpful, so I chatted with him as he pointed us in the right direction, and then proceeded to walk us there. And therefore we ended up finding our hostel rather quickly.

But the adventure wasn't over yet! The overnight receptionist spoke no English and couldn't check us in early or anything, so we napped in the lobby again. He showed me the roof, with the most amazing view, but I only took pictures with my camera so they are all going up when we get back and loaded.

And now, after checking in, rinsing off, and deciding what we are going to do today: we go on the hunt for breakfast--real, American breakfast! I can't wait :)