Day Seven &ndash; Shivering cold, but still loving it

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Day Seven – Shivering cold, but still loving it

Note: I know this was already almost a month ago but I already had these posts ready to go and I wanted to get the rest of the trip posted- mostly because we just love looking at these amazing pictures :).

Thursday 21 January 2010

9:00am Bike ride in heavy rain through countryside (trying to make it to Dragon Bridge again)
10:30am Realization that our ponchos were not keeping us dry at all, and that we were still less than half way to Dragon Bridge
10:40am Ride back to Yangshuo in rain
12:00pm Eat lunch while shivering from being soaked wet
2:00pm Take a bus with friends Thomas and Jessica and Aaron and Courtney to nearby town of Fuli
2:30pm Walk around Fuli and buy hand-painted Chinese fan (our first souvenir)
4:30pm Travel back to Yanshuo
5:30pm Take a bus to small town of Xingping, where we would spend the night

Eric: Note to self—don’t try adventurous bike rides in cold rain with only a five kuai poncho to keep yourself warm, especially when you only brought one pair of pants with you. That morning ride was beautiful, but it sure left us shivering for the rest of the day. We knew it was probably going to rain our last couple of days in the area, but somehow we still thought that we were going to do everything the same as if it was dry. As can be seen from the itinerary above, though, that supposition did not last more than an hour and a half. We were therefore happy, then, when our friends from Nanjing walked into the same restaurant as we were finishing our lunch. After a few minutes of looking at the map, we decided we would take a bus to Fuli, where we could safely walk around with umbrellas and enjoy the beauty around us while still staying dry. We did not plan on buying a fan there, although Fuli is famous throughout China for its hand-painted fans. How could we say no, though, after we took a look around the shop of one gifted family and hear the amazing prices they were offering them for. We left with a fan, and we were very happy about it.

Kiersten: Although our little bike ride mostly backfired, that first half hour of it was amazing. I love rain- running in rain is my favorite way to run- and the first part of the bike ride felt like that. Then it got wet, very wet, and then very cold. I tried being toughing it out- when every single one of the flimsy buttons on my also very flimsy poncho broke, I just tied little knots all the way down the front in an attempt to keep it together. I know I looked awfully silly but hey, if it gave me at least 10 more minutes out there before giving up, it was worth it. The route we took for our bike ride was beautiful. Flat- not hilly like the day before (that was killer!) and we were surrounded by the majestic karst mountains on every side.