Upon finishing up our time at Yangshuo, we left for Longji Terraces. It was sort of going from touristy-frying-pan into touristy-fire. The trip consisted of three local bus rides, each being approximately two hours and each being a little more “local” than the one before. By the last bus, people were sitting on floors and bags and I believe there may have been some livestock strapped to the roof of the vehicle. It wasn’t particularly unpleasant, but it made for an interesting journey.
When we got to Longji Terraces, I was prepared for a 45-minute walk with my overnight bag, which necessarily included my computer because there was no place to store that. A 45-minute walk with my bag isn’t a big deal. What I wasn’t expecting, however, was that 40 of the 45 minutes would be straight uphill. I suppose that after over six hours on busses, a little exercise was just what I needed, but it still was not a pleasant surprise.
Once we finished mounting the steps, we found ourselves at our guesthouse for the night. It had some food and drinks, but they were expensive for China and not of the highest quality. They did have free wi-fi, though (and you know how much I love me some free wi-fi) and it was the strongest that I had experienced in my entire trip.
After dinner, much of the group started playing cards – a Chinese version of Asshole, I believe. There was no beer, though, and Asshole without beer is like a BLT without bacon. What’s the point, really? In any event, by this point in the trip, I was getting pretty tired of spending so much time with the group, so I grabbed my computer, sat in a corner and played on the internet for a while. Because of the location of the guesthouse there really was nothing else to do except that or play with the local children and we couldn’t even do that after dark (6:30 pm). After a while, I went to bed, bored.
The next day the group took a five-hour uphill/downhill hike to our next rice terrace hotel. Deciding that all rice terraces looked pretty much the same, I opted to avoid the group again and take a bus to the next hotel. After being handed off from Chinese person to Chinese person, I finally got to the site of the next hotel. It required another walk uphill, but this one was only about 20-25 minutes and didn’t wind me too much. I arrived about 11:30 and waited about three hours for the group to show up. We had lunch and, for the first time on this trip, I had my own room. With a balcony. And wifi. Life was good. Life was oh, so good. Then it took a turn towards the craptastic.
Despite the fact that there are other hotels, a few restaurants, and a lot more people in this area, there again is very little to do. Last night, I enjoyed my wifi until it gave out around 8:30. Everybody else was downstairs eating and drinking, but I was still enjoying my Sheldon-time. After the wifi gave out, I just drank and listened to music. This morning, I got up and made myself some coffee. Then at around 8:00, the electricity died. This leaves for very few entertainment possibilities without going down, and consequently back up, the mountain. I’ve used the time to read and now to write up articles up to the present. (Note: For the record, the “present” is October 18. Since I can’t access this site in mainland China, it’ll no longer be “present” when you read this.) If we were in a city, or even a village, I could entertain myself by walking around, but that isn’t a great option here and, even if it were, this is primarily a tourist trap for people who want to look at rice terraces, so there’s not a lot of local culture for me to soak up.
In a few hours, I’ll leave with the group for another 24-hour trek across China in order to go to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is one of the spots in the trip to which I have been looking forward. I trust there will be scorpion bowls. And Facebook. And, hopefully, I’ll be able to start posting these articles. Until then . . .
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