Yangshuo was not my favorite local in China. In fact, I hated it. It was crowded, tout filled, and screamed money-sucking-black-hole to me. Not that it was overly expensive, quite the contrary, but it was geared for tourists and shameless about vacuuming their wallets dry.
(It was the only place that I saw a rat in my entire journey thus far, that includes all of the reset of China, Hong Kong, Cairo, and Luxor).
The hotel room was written about earlier, the food was much more substandard than the rest of China. From what we were able to learn from Nic at DMZ bar was that the Yangshuo of old has been taken over by capitalism. Meaning, that the Chinese renters of commercial space from 20 years ago have become owners of the buildings and have leased them out to others while moving out into the country side into large McMansions. The new renters don't give a rat's ass about the structure and subsequently allow it to disintegrate into mold-filled hovels. There were a few western owner/leasors who were concerned about the state of things, but even then, my gut feeling was that behind the good humor and cheer that was espoused, there was a hint of can't wait until I have saved enough to get the hell out and live an easier life.
For restauranteurs life is particularly difficult. It seems that the way to deal with dirty dishes is to box them up in blue plastic crates and leave them at the curb where they eventually get picked up and washed and returned to the restaurant. Could explain the rats, as I could see many of the boxes were "rat chewed" thru.
I have to admit that the bike ride out into the country side was a high light. Once we got passed the tunnel of death and away from the huge trucks. We took a wrong turn and ended up leaving the road too quickly and should have continued to ride straight along the town road before turning off. The tunnel of death was exactly that. A 2 lane road, (narrow at that) with a narrow sidewalk on each side which for infrequent bike riders seemed to be only the width of the under inflated tires on the bike. One slip off of that sidewalk and your head was under the wheel of a truck, no kidding!
We both needed to relax after that. We had no idea that it would be like that...
Dubbed "Pink Thunder" by Bill. We went looking to rent bikes in town and were told they had to Junkers like these. We saw a woman on the road side renting bikes and she had these two and was shocked that we would rent them - 20 yuan each!
I was happy to go to Yangwhuo as it made Bill happy to revisit a place of fond memories from 1991. He did agree that it was not the idyllic place that he experienced. You can never go home again!
(It was the only place that I saw a rat in my entire journey thus far, that includes all of the reset of China, Hong Kong, Cairo, and Luxor).
The hotel room was written about earlier, the food was much more substandard than the rest of China. From what we were able to learn from Nic at DMZ bar was that the Yangshuo of old has been taken over by capitalism. Meaning, that the Chinese renters of commercial space from 20 years ago have become owners of the buildings and have leased them out to others while moving out into the country side into large McMansions. The new renters don't give a rat's ass about the structure and subsequently allow it to disintegrate into mold-filled hovels. There were a few western owner/leasors who were concerned about the state of things, but even then, my gut feeling was that behind the good humor and cheer that was espoused, there was a hint of can't wait until I have saved enough to get the hell out and live an easier life.
For restauranteurs life is particularly difficult. It seems that the way to deal with dirty dishes is to box them up in blue plastic crates and leave them at the curb where they eventually get picked up and washed and returned to the restaurant. Could explain the rats, as I could see many of the boxes were "rat chewed" thru.
I have to admit that the bike ride out into the country side was a high light. Once we got passed the tunnel of death and away from the huge trucks. We took a wrong turn and ended up leaving the road too quickly and should have continued to ride straight along the town road before turning off. The tunnel of death was exactly that. A 2 lane road, (narrow at that) with a narrow sidewalk on each side which for infrequent bike riders seemed to be only the width of the under inflated tires on the bike. One slip off of that sidewalk and your head was under the wheel of a truck, no kidding!
We both needed to relax after that. We had no idea that it would be like that...
I was happy to go to Yangwhuo as it made Bill happy to revisit a place of fond memories from 1991. He did agree that it was not the idyllic place that he experienced. You can never go home again!
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