Kevin's trip to Shanghai: Trip To South China Part 9 (final part)

I'm not sure if there's really any subtle way of saying this, nor am I even sure I'm truly able to come to terms with what happened. I was woken up in the dead of night by a Chinese cock. There… I think we can move on.

Or maybe not, you see I lied, it was not just one cock it was several and they were all shouting for attention. Their needs and presence were well known. When one called out, a succession of others would perk up and add their voices to the choir.

At 3am I was up, by 4:30 I couldn't take it anymore. I went ahead and got dressed in the dark and made my way downstairs. I was utterly alone in the night. Making my way out onto the balcony I grabbed a dry chair that was under the awning and set outside for around an hour. Eventually the mist and the wind drove me back inside though. But during that hour I witnessed some of the most awe inspiring scenery. Great misty mountains were gobbled up by rolling thick fog, and as the sun began to come up the layers were gradually peeled away revealing an increasingly serene landscape.

Once I was driven inside I decided to try and write my blog using my cell phone's flash light. While this worked to the extent that I was indeed able to write my blog, it had a dreadfully negative consequence. All of the bugs in the room began migrating towards me. Luckily I was soon saved by my cell phone ringing.

Apparently my departure had destabilized the groups sleep, or maybe the cock's call could no longer be ignored but Clement and Sandra were awake. We decided that instead of checking out of the hotel in the morning we would instead make the trek to the other village now and come back by bus. So off we went into the new day.

The climb itself was "rough," the path was stoned for the most part but it had lightly rained during the night making them all really slick and there was the looming drop down the terrace along the side. Also these were really tall mountains, it felt like we were climbing the largest staircase in the world and the group was pushing a pretty fast pace.

Luckily the view was completely worth it. Probably the only place I've felt "alone" in China. The early morning meant that not even the locals were using the trail.

An hour and half into the trip and we stumbled across a nearby village where we were quickly scooped up by one of the local women and invited into their home. After a little price negotiations they sat about making us some homemade breakfast. The women themselves looked to be quite formidable, with some of the most well defined calves I have ever seen. They could do a full squat with their feet flat on the ground and maintain that for at least 10-15min without moving. They also had their famous hair wrapped into a complicated bun that adorned their head.

The house itself was a rather good example of the duality of China. While the house itself was obviously quite old, there was a modern entertainment system just sitting in the living room (as most entertainment systems do). I did get a little nervous when they lit a fire in the middle of their wooden home but they obviously had it well under control. The food itself was quite good, and even though I knew there was a little bit of a risk I couldn't help but eat plenty of it. Hey, you don't get sick from authentic Longji Valley food very often I your life and I've gotten sick from much more boring places before.

With our stomachs full and our feet rested we set off again on the trail. Climbing the steep narrow trail we were often faced with a long drop just half a step away from us, and a many poo hurdles in front of us. Eyes dead set on the path in front of me I regret we didn't have time to go slower and enjoy the view more. When I did stop to look at the view, I would often regret it because suddenly my vision would get really "swimmy." Suddenly the mountains would start moving and shifting in depth, it was actually quite a trippy experience.

While walking we suddenly ran into a small problem, well about 6 of them, and small might not have really done them justice. A narrow valley was filled with two bulls, a few heifers, and about three calves. Now we understood that these animals were pretty domesticated, but it's hard to rely on that when a charging bull would send us down a half km drop and on these slippery rocks he would be pretty unavoidable. And when there are calves you just never know. But we know choice so I led the group through the small herd nice and slowly, and luckily we had no problems. We all breathed a huge sigh of relief afterwards though.

A few hours later and we finally made it to the village of Dazhou. Luckily we had Clement along to guide us because without his ability to constantly ask the locals to make sure we were on the correct path there were quite a few times when we could have taken a wrong turn. I did finally slip and fall, right at the end too. Merely sat down hard, instead of tumbling off into the abyss, luckily. None of us rolled our ankles either which was a miracle in and of itself.

Our challenges were not over though. Apparently it's a little uncommon for travelers to make that trek and then want to go back to Ping'an because there were no buses that ran from this village back to the other one. So we explained to the driver that we would just like to be dropped off at the foot of the mountain road that leads to Ping'an. Sounds a little strange but we've seen plenty of Chinese do it so how hard could it be? And we had no other choice.

We sat at the base of the mountain for over an hour trying to flag down various vehicles as they passed. Either they were tour buses and refused to stop, or cars already packed. One van did stop but refused to let us on because we didn't have a "ticket" for the ride. Horse shit. We dithered back and forth about this but in the end she refused, even the passengers were on our side, opening the door for us but she drove off before we could force the issue. Luckily a passing local was willing to take us in his van, if he didn't who knows how long we could have sat there.

By this time we're exhausted, utterly so. And once driven to the village we still had a nice hike up to our hostel. Luckily this was the last day.

After checking out we hoped on a bus then hoped on another and eventually made it back to Guilin. There we got some dinner and ice cream before eventually calling a cab to the airport. On the way our driver played techno music from his iPod which after the traditional Chinese music we listened to for the last few days the music was a welcomed change of pace.

Once at the airport we checked in and passed security. Sandra's L'Oreal shampoo was confiscated but my cheap bottle of Chinese body washed passed just fine… hmm. Whatever, by that time we were so exhausted we didn't have the energy to fight.

After sitting at the airport for over two hours I think Clement and Sandra got a sudden second wind because that started to enthusiastically mock the French. Nobody mocks French people like actual Frenchies. I nearly died laughing and we would be getting strange looks for the entire flight.

Pretty much end of story. Got back to my room around 12:30am, took a cold shower because I hadn't bathed in 2 days and they asked us to turn off our circuit breakers before we left. I actually made it back with all my belongings which is just simply unheard of. Overall this has been a great trip. I hope you've enjoyed reading about it, sorry I couldn't stick with the writing style from beginning to end, I had to write this blog down at the oddest of times and I was more worried about just getting it down on paper by the end then trying to create an epic adventure.