The Swede

From the great day in Guilin, led me to an early busride for 1,5 hours to a small town called Yangshuo. A.ka. “The most beautiful place on earth”, as some bloggers claimed.
I have not been everywhere, but yes, this could might as well be the most beautiful place I have ever seen.
I am so blessed to have done this trip, these 2,5 months, and to have seen so much of the world as some never will see and experience.
The weird thing for me is that I still have more than half the trip left…

In Yangshuo I calm alone, looked at a few hostels. I bargained pretty hard and got some places down to 10kuai a night, but the problem was that noone was sleeping in the dorms. Some think thats a good thing, not me. I love company, especially as I travel alone.
So I went to the International Youth-hostel where I knew I’d find human existence.
Checked in the 9-bed dormroom and dont you know it, there’s the canadian guy I met in Shanghai a couple o weeks ago. Aint travelling fun

I started scouering the streets of this lovely villages almost. The center felt more like a large village than a city. Really nice shoppingstreet and friendly, happy people. A reocurring thing in China.
I had some bad luck with the weather the first day so lets jump to day 2.
I woke up really early, took a shower, had an english breakfast at a cafe nearby the hostel, and then I rented a bike the whole day for 10kuai.
At first it doesnt seem that great, but when you get further out the countryside you wish you were born here!!!

I climbed the extreme Moon Hill-steps. The rain had not dried up so the climbing was a life/death-experience
I made it though…this time.
Beautiful scenery, really stunning. I sat at the top, talking to an Israeli-couple who also travelled around China. We were three groups at the top and every group were accompanied(either you wanted to or not) by one lovely local woman trying to sell us some beverage.
I bought nothing, but I did share my sweet Pomelo with them, and everyone else at the top

We slipped down the hill and I countinued peddling away on the countryside.
I had some fried rice at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, and then I headed back to town.
A really great day. I will post as many pictures as possible, because Yangshuo is a place everyone should see!

On the same night I talked to a group of people in my dormroom. One really funny brittishguy who claimed he was from Hong Kong. An american, two chineseguys who could have been brothers. And then there was one more. A chinese girl who introduced herself as Yu Si. I had no idea of what was gonna happen later on…

Yu Si went on a rivershow I had no idea that it even existed. We decided to meet in a movie-cafe later on to watch a flick.
I had not seen a movie since sometime in Shanghai, so I ran from place to place to find the correct cafe.
I couldnt find Yu Si, so I sat down and began watching Mr.Bean 2 in one place I thought was the one.
After about 1 hour she entered the cafe and took a place next to me in the sofa, and by some reason we started talking about the movie Dumb & Dumber, and that’s when a rastarafi chinese started laughing when I tried to do Jim Carrey in that movie.
He introduced himself as A boo, living in Guilin and Yangshuo, working as a tattoo-artist from time to time to get enough for the rent.
We talked all night long and had the best of times, getting to know each other.
Before we left we decided to meet up t he next morning and have a bicycle-picknick outside of the town.
Unfortunately we were quite unlucky with the rain that bursted down, and we made a quick decision to watch a movie instead.

This is gonna be too long to read I’m afraid…

Yu Si had already made plans to leave Yangshuo and A boo was going to follow her to Beihai, a rather newcoming city along the southern coast.
After heavy thinking I recalled my already paid dormfee and we headed of for warmer climate.

After almost getting lost from eachother at the busstation we had to wait 45 minutes before the damn busdriver left Yangshuo.
Because of that we missed the connecting bus to Beihai, and we had to take a train to Nanning, where we connected to our final destination instead.
This didnt bother me much because I’ve allways wanted to try the “hard seater” on the chinese trains. You can definately feel and see the difference in classes. But I loved it. Felt more home than in the ‘rich apartment’.

Me and Yu Si came to Beihai a day earlier than A boo since he had to finish of a tattoo before leaving.
We walked down to the harbour, sat down and just talked about the meaning of life
Later on we stumbled across a restaurant(not yet opened). We started talking to the managers, which led us to having 5-6 pots of tea for free. We were the tea-testers

We checked into a much to expensive hotel(60kuai for both) and at 5.30am A boo woke us up by ringing on the room-phone

We took a day off and explored the city, bought some tickets for a ferry that was going to take us to a place called Weizhou Island the next day.

The last day of the year:

We woke up and checked out of our hotel really early, to be able to catch our ferry that left at 8am.

A two hour ride led us to a pretty big fishingisland.
We had apparently paid for a 6hour tour, because that’s what we got
After that a happy lady picked us up down by the fishmarket. She drove us with a “3-wheel-1″(not tuktuk or rickshaw) to a house on the other side of the Island.
I was stunned when we got there because we had a whole beach to ourselves.
Cristal clear water, newyears eve(not chinese) and two already good friends. What else could I ask for.

We had fun all night, BBQ’ed, drank champagne and shot the fireworks we bought the day before, high up in the sky.
A truly magic night! Thanks guys!

The day after was worse than the worst hangover. Not because of the liqour the day before, but the fact that this was the last day together for us three in a long time.

That night both Yu Si and A boo left me in the busstation. Yu Si headed back to Shanghai and A boo went to Guilin.

One sad moment, but one thousand happy ones!

I slept one more night in Beihai in a freeezing hotelroom, but cheap nontheless!
On the following morning I jumped on a 26 hour sleeperbus that led me to Chengdu, where I currently are. Waiting for my train going to Tibet and Lhasa…

Congratz to those who actually read this

Take care!

Hey folks!

On monday afternoon I took the train going from Shenzhen to Guilin, in hope to there catch a bus going against Yangshuo.
But, on the train I met two chinese men. One was 28 yrs old and the other was 60. Both were named ‘Lee’
The younger one translated for me when I talked to the older Lee, and so we continued until bedtime.

During the conversation I found out that both Lee’s had it pretty good financially. Jr.Lee had a good job in Shenzhen, working for an american company called Honeyware.
Sr.Lee had been working as a cook for a long time of his life. He moved to Canada, Edmonton, where he owned a restaurant, together with some other people.
Anyhow. He sold the restaurant, and started buying houses/apartments which he now rents to people all over the world. He has a very good life, with eraly retirement. But if you’d ask Sr.Lee himself, he would answer, “so so”, with a laugh

Before bedtime Sr.Lee invited me to his home in Guilin. He told me he at the moment had an empty apartment and that I could stay there for a day before I left for Yangshuo.
We arrived at the trainstation, and after a quick phonecall to my girl Cecilia, we left for Lee’s apartment located in an area with a gate at the entrance, controlled by 4 guards!!
He’s a rich man!
The apartment was very nice, extremely nice for being a chinese.

We left our bags and went out on Mr.Lee’s bicycles for a ride around town. He took me to all the great sites in Guilin, so as waters, mountains, towers, parks etc.
We had a great day and we both were exhausted when we got home.
I slept longer than expected and got to Yangshuo two hours later than planned.

I will never forget Mr.Lee’s hospitality and generosity!

Now I’m in Yangshuo. The plan for the day will probobly be to rent a bicycle and hit the ricepaddies…

Zaijian

Okay, long time since last posting. Here’s pretty much what’s happend…

We took a 2-daycruise on the yangtzi-river, choosing the chinese ship instead of the touristboats. A both good and poor decision I suppose.
We got the worst beds on the ship, sleaping next to cockroaches and snooring chinese men
Altough our chinese friends woke me up when running forth and back in the cabin, slamming the door as they passed. In most cases you’d be mad by that, but when I looked outside, the scenery was breathtaking. Mountainwalls wherever I looked.

At the second day we stopped at a town that looked like crap. We stopped there, probobly not because of the town, but the three gorges.
All the travellers but, ofcourse us, took small boats and went on to experience the gorges on a closer distance.
Instead, me and Gejke went on a hikingtrip trhough the probobly crappiest city so far on this trip. It didnt fit in, with the beautiful mountainsides surrounding it.

Later on we arrived at the final destination. Which ment taking 2 buses for one whole day to Wohan.
I dont have much, or feel like writing much about Wohan. It’s a big and widespread city with maybe the coldest hostel in China.

The next day we took a hardsleeper-train to Shanghai. Arriving in the morning as I remember it, we took a cab to the citybased Mingtown Youth Hostel. Like Wohan, I dont have much good to say about this hostel either. Well, it was good located though.

After spending a few days with G and Gejke we got company from friends all the way from Sweden. My girl Cecilia came then aswell, and I havent seen the others more than randomly ever since

The streetfood is great in the whole of China, but there’s one especially good here in Shanghai. It’s really cool to watch them cook the food infront of you. This morning we had a big bowl of rice with beef, a bowl of noodles w. eggs, and a bottle of water for the outrageous sum of 14kuai.(1,4euro)

A couple of days ago we went to the Chinese Sexual Museum It was worth the 20kuai to get in, but not much more. Not that interesting but some of the items were fun to read about

Unfortunately this is the last day with my girl. She’s leaving tomorrow after two weeks with me here. We’ve already decided that she’s gonna come and meet me in India aswell, but for the next one’n'a half months I’ll be alone…

I’ll try to write more often now that I dont have to be in the bedroom all day long

Adios for now…