Yangshuo the Beautiful
Yesterday was a fun filled crazy day in Yangshuo. We all meet for breakfast around 6:30 and headed to one of the local cafes since our hotel doesn't serve breakfast. We enjoyed a great western breakfast of bacon and eggs and fruit, as well as some very strong coffee. They claimed they made better coffee than Starbucks but I haven't seen a Starbucks since Hong Kong so I don't know if they've tasted Starbucks before. The coffee was pretty strong (my spoon wilted) but at least it keep me going for the day which is more than green tea can do! Our first activity for the day was biking. We all rented bikes and spent 4 hours (8 am - noon) biking through the country side. It was a little tricky getting out of town as everyon was on their way to work and the streest were quite crowded. Thankfully everyone uses their horns so you knew by the sound of the horn whether you were going to be hit by something small (ie mophed) or bike (ie truck!) Once we were out of the town things because quite nice and we were able to enjoy ourselves. The road was quite rough but we did have mountain bikes and an escort following us on a mophed so we were quite safe. We biked for over 2 hours, stopping to take pictures along the way, before we reached Moon Hill. Most of us decided to climb the 800 steps to the top to get a great view of the valley and sourrounding area. It was quite humid yesterday so the climb was quite tough. I can run and I can bike, but I am not a climber. Evern if there are steps to take! A number of the local ladies followed us up carrying water in little coolers and fanning some of our group while they walked up. I did notice that they fanned all the men and not the women, so I didn't get the benefit of a breeze on the way up. The view from the top was quite spectacular, even though there does seem to be a haze that hangs around Yagnshuo all the time. After our climb it took us another hour to get back to town where part of the group opted to go swimming in the Li River while the rest of us headed for our showers. (The hot water is only turned on in the morning and the evening and up until last night I hadn't been able to hit the hot time! Thankfully after our bike ride I did get a bit of hot water.) I didn't bring my bathing suit with me plus I wasn't keen on swimming in the river but Jonathan decided to go for it. On the Li River cruise he decided not to eat the soup because he was afraid they were taking the water from the Li RIver but he had no problems swimming in the River!
I spent the afternoon receving a wonderful back and foot massage while Jonathan poked around town and picked up some water. We all meet around 3:30 to do a cooking class with one of the chefs from the Cloud Nine Resturant. The cooking class (and the meal too) was one of my best experiences in China so far. We had to decide as a group what three dishes to make and then the chef took us to the local market to pick up all the fresh ingredients. (The meat had been bought in the morning, thankfully!) We decided to make meat dumplings, sweet and sour pork and another chicken dish. The trip to the market was an experience in itself. There's a section for everything - meat, veggies, tofu, spices, dried food and fish. I'm not usually someone who is bothered by strong smells, but the combination of the heat, lots of people and raw meat made me feel a bit quesey! The meat area was the most interesting and I actually saw a couple of ducks meeting their end. (Their throats were slit) We also saw dead dogs, frogs, turtles, snails, els and many other interesting sites.
Our cooking class was held on the roof of the Cloud Nine resturant where we had a great view of the area. All of us had our own station with a gas burner, wok, cutting board, cleaver and a variety of spices and oils. (rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, oyster sauce, salt, white pepper, sunflower oil, cornstarch etc) I recognized all the ingredients that we used except for custard powder. We prepared all three dishes first and then cooked then one at a time. The chicken dish was stir fried, the sweet and sour pork deep fried and the dumplings were steamed. We didn't have pineapple for the sweet and sour pork so we used cucumbers and tomates which tasted excellant. After we cooked each dish we had a taste and then headed back to finish up the rest of our cooking. Everyone throughly enjoyed the cooking and we're all hoping that we can go home and reproduce the results again since the chef gave us the recipes.
The cooking class went from 3:30 - 7 so we had time to make a quick stop at our hotel before we headed out for an outdoor theatre type of show. It was all in Chinese so we couldn't follow the story line, but the atmosphere and acting was quite amazing. (Even if we could have understood Chinese all the locals around us ate, smoked and talked for the entire show so we wouldn't have gotten much out of it anyhow!) We all sat in bleachers on the side of a hill and then watched the story below which was on a lake with the mountains illuminated in the background. We estimated that there must have been between 400 and 500 preformers, many of them children and local farmers who preform this show when the River isn't flooded. The show lasted for about an hour and then we headed back to our hotel for some much needed sleep!
We have the morning today in Yangshou before we catch our flight to Guilin and then head to Kunming. I've tried to post pictures to facebook but the internet here is really slow and the interface is all in Chinese so it's hard to figure everything out. Also discovered that although I can post to blogger in China I cannot read my site, as it's blocked. I can view comments through my email, so feel free to leave them at anytime.
(posted at 9 am local time)
I spent the afternoon receving a wonderful back and foot massage while Jonathan poked around town and picked up some water. We all meet around 3:30 to do a cooking class with one of the chefs from the Cloud Nine Resturant. The cooking class (and the meal too) was one of my best experiences in China so far. We had to decide as a group what three dishes to make and then the chef took us to the local market to pick up all the fresh ingredients. (The meat had been bought in the morning, thankfully!) We decided to make meat dumplings, sweet and sour pork and another chicken dish. The trip to the market was an experience in itself. There's a section for everything - meat, veggies, tofu, spices, dried food and fish. I'm not usually someone who is bothered by strong smells, but the combination of the heat, lots of people and raw meat made me feel a bit quesey! The meat area was the most interesting and I actually saw a couple of ducks meeting their end. (Their throats were slit) We also saw dead dogs, frogs, turtles, snails, els and many other interesting sites.
Our cooking class was held on the roof of the Cloud Nine resturant where we had a great view of the area. All of us had our own station with a gas burner, wok, cutting board, cleaver and a variety of spices and oils. (rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, oyster sauce, salt, white pepper, sunflower oil, cornstarch etc) I recognized all the ingredients that we used except for custard powder. We prepared all three dishes first and then cooked then one at a time. The chicken dish was stir fried, the sweet and sour pork deep fried and the dumplings were steamed. We didn't have pineapple for the sweet and sour pork so we used cucumbers and tomates which tasted excellant. After we cooked each dish we had a taste and then headed back to finish up the rest of our cooking. Everyone throughly enjoyed the cooking and we're all hoping that we can go home and reproduce the results again since the chef gave us the recipes.
The cooking class went from 3:30 - 7 so we had time to make a quick stop at our hotel before we headed out for an outdoor theatre type of show. It was all in Chinese so we couldn't follow the story line, but the atmosphere and acting was quite amazing. (Even if we could have understood Chinese all the locals around us ate, smoked and talked for the entire show so we wouldn't have gotten much out of it anyhow!) We all sat in bleachers on the side of a hill and then watched the story below which was on a lake with the mountains illuminated in the background. We estimated that there must have been between 400 and 500 preformers, many of them children and local farmers who preform this show when the River isn't flooded. The show lasted for about an hour and then we headed back to our hotel for some much needed sleep!
We have the morning today in Yangshou before we catch our flight to Guilin and then head to Kunming. I've tried to post pictures to facebook but the internet here is really slow and the interface is all in Chinese so it's hard to figure everything out. Also discovered that although I can post to blogger in China I cannot read my site, as it's blocked. I can view comments through my email, so feel free to leave them at anytime.
(posted at 9 am local time)
posted by The Patterson Pair at 8:32 PM
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