Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Friday : sunny
Our breaky was pretty ordinary, the best thing was the coffee and that was a bit rough. The apples were flowery, muffins were stale, and the fruit jelly was the worst.
We checked out of the hotel, put our bags into storage, and then had a nervous wait to be picked up, or not to be picked up in the hotel lobby.
It was about a 45min late but better late than never. We had to make a stop to pick up a family. Then we were off our destination unknown, no one spoke English, we just followed everyone else today.
It was a long and bouncy drive in the back of the suzuki mini van. I some how manage to have a power nap. Kim says I'm learning how to sleep in weird places like the locals.
We arrived at our first stop, which was at a riverside village. It was quiet, we were free to walk around, but we just followed the family. It was good not to be bothered by people trying to sell us things for once. There were signs in English out side certain workshops and shops explaining what they did or had for sale. When done walking around we squeezed back into our van and hit the windy hills again. The smog had blown in today It was very hazy in the morning.
It was a short drive to our next stop. We all hopped out we didn't really know what it was for this time. We joined up with another bus and made a larger group. We had a guide but there was no English option. We didnt know what we were here to see until we saw it. It was Juitian Cave Asia's largest. It was the largest cave I have ever been in. Massive chambers, some probably well over 100m deep. Huge columns and all different sizes of mites.
Massive absolutely massive, we were down in there for almost two hours. Taking all the different paths, very wet too, Kim came out looking like she had a mud fight and lost. The cave had so many different cambers and paths we came back a different way than we went in.
Silly thing here was they built a road inside the cave with big guard rails for a golf cart. They had all these multi colored lights. And they don't wash there caves either so it was black. They had much better protection here compared to Halong bays cave though. It was great to come and see this cave, it looked awesome.
We came back up, had a wash of the feet, and waited for the family. While we waited we started getting some attention from another tour bus. two brothers walked by and asked to have photos with us.
Eventually a young boy from the bus came over with some friends all laughing, and started talking to us. He spoke very clearly, he had limited English but we understood him easily. He asked us where we were from and did we like the cave. Then I think he got scared and went back to his bus.
Not long after a whole group came over with the same boy and the boy brought his grandma over. Grandma? She looked about 30 yrs. old. She spoke English well too, she asked the pretty much the same questions, she said that her grandson wants to be a reporter. She asked where we are from we answered, I don't think either of them knew where OZ was though, they had puzzled looks. We had a brief chat and they wanted a photo with us. The boy could hardly hold the camera steady he was shaking so much.
It was maybe an hour drive to our third stop. We knew what this one was though. Time for rafting!
We put our life vests on and boarded the rubber raft but this raft had an 18hp motor on the back. Then we saw the family come down in full ponchos and water guns. Ok?? Not sure what's going to happen now.
Away we went, by this Time the smog had cleared up to show the towering cliffs above, fantastic. Then under a waterfall we go and through some rapids. Now I know why they were wearing ponchos.
It only got crazier from there for the next hour or so we engaged in frequent ram raids and water fights with other boats out on the river. It was so much fun Kim and I got soaked. Did I mention they ram the boats, crazy. We had no idea that they had water fights.
So in between the water fights and the rapids we took in the scenery and kim really wanted to go for a swim. The water was so clear, it was good to see a river for once that was clean. It's only going to be in national parks though. We Stopped at a cool looking waterfall we viewed it from across the river, it wasn't big but it made the water run off in all directions.
It was a one way trip and our van was waiting for us at the end. There were no other stops. Only a short drive back into town, and I manage to have another nanna nap. There are a lot of new developments happening here cranes are everywhere, they are building a massive bridge too. This place will look very different in 5yrs.
We got dropped off at our hotel, and we picked our bags up and walked to the hostel to checkin.
It was a quick pittstop to change our wet clothes. Before we went out looking for some new shirts, because we couldn't do our washing. Different shirt styles in this town, and I wasn't really a fan. We got dinner instead. We had a bit of trouble ordering there was no English menu, so we weren't expecting the order to be correct. As preddicted It wasn't instead of beers we got apple juice, we didn't get rice, the dish was ok. We ordered dumplings for two but got a serving for 5. It ended up being ok we will save the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow. The Chinese love their chilli it's in everything, and it's not used in small portions either. Very different to Chinese food back home.
We had dinner in a tourist village. Nice looking area. Tourist not foreign tourist Chinese tourist. The town has very limited English. We have only seen one white person in 3days too. It's been weird walking around, they are so shocked to see us, they almost have a scared look on their faces. People stop what their doing and just stare, They tap the person next to them and tell them to get a look too. Really weird. The lady and her grandson speaking to us back at the cave earlier today seemed so scared.
We walked back to the hotel got cleaned up and for the first time in a longtime I think I fell asleep before 10. Early bus tomorrow to our next town. It was good to put the feet up after today.
- comments