China - Arrival in Yangshuo

From Guangzhou, Guilin is only a night bus away; some 9 hours on the road. I was so proud of having bought my own ticket, showing my destination in Chinese from a leaflet.

As often in China, we wait in the bus station until some official man or lady come pointing at the backpackers (me) and a bus (mine?), speaking something I could not understand to save my life. This time, it is a little in advance, but who would complain...

... until I got kicked out of the bus in Yangshuo at 3:30 am, sleepy and confused. We were still 2 hours away from Guilin... "No Guilin", says the driver. "Yangshuo better for tourist." I was put in the wrong bus! And I had specificaly asked the driver (or did the best I could anyways) That was my first contact with the "elastic truth" in China.

Yangshuo is a small touristic town located in the middle of karst pillars. It is really beautiful, but at 3:30 in the morning, it is completely dead. Even the "24h" KFC owner went to bed, keys in hand. I eventually found a little restaurant, where people didn't speak English. Strange, for such a touristic place. The menu was only in Chinese, but I could manage communicating with the sweet little waitress with pitures and drawings (thanks for the picture book, Pat).

But the restaurant was closing at 4 am. The little waitress decided to try to find me a place to stay for the rest of the night. She brought me at hotels, waking up security guards. I didn't know how to say I just wanted to wait a few hours and find something in the morning. After 30 min of unsuccessful attempts, she invited me to stay at her place for "50 money". I had no idea how people lived. I gladly accepted.

She lived in a 5 storied building, reachable only through a very narrow street, only large enough for 2 people to cross each other. She lived in a 10m2 room with 2 other women in their fifties, sharing 2 sets of bunk beds. There was a small table with a pot of tea and a little stool, some clothes were drying on a line by the window. There was a small shower room, with a broken toilet. There was a strong smell of urine as they had to use the shower corner, going out to public toilets for more solid stuff.

No matresses on the bunk beds, only a straw carpet. The little waitress gave me her blanket and pillow, and lied down in her clothes on her now stripped bed. She also gave me a small ventilator to keep me cool. Sweet girl!

Despite my resolve, I ended up going to sleep as the 2 women were quietly speeking gibberish in the lower beds, while the young girl texted the night away on her mobile phone.

There was a big smile on my face.
It was 5:00 am. I was in real China.