Yangshuo Day 1

the email i sent to people that night at the hostel:

hi everyone,
just a quick hello from yangshuo, in guanxi province of mainland china. sarah and i got here after a bone-rumbling overnight busride from shenzhen at the china border (and all the cheap dvds to be had there-- we went a little crazy), and woke up to find ourselves in a fairytale landscape of green rounded mountains and lazy silver rivers. cows, farmers with straw hats, rice paddies, early morning mist, the whole nine yards-- it looked like a green tea commercial. we pulled into the bus station, rode on the back of a bicycle-driven pullcart to our hostel, the white lion hotel, which is insanely cute, though located on the slightly-annoying "xie" or "foreigner" street (backpacker heaven). we took naps to replenish the sleep we never got on the 10 hour busride, and then ventured out into town in the heat of midday. we rented bikes for about 1 USD and rode towards something called "moon hill", but never made it because of various wrong turns and then an unfortunate spill i took on the pavement (i haven't ridden a bike in about 5 years). i scraped up my hand and elbow but i'm fine mom! (i have since cleaned with alcohol and neosporin, don't worry) it was just a bit hard to ride on the way back with my bloody hand clutching the handle. also it made me aware of my own mortality on these crazy chinese backroads-- if i had wiped out in the path of a bus or truck pulling 90mph, or one of these weird loud tractors everyone drives around, i probably would not be writing right now. but i am, and all cleaned up, sarah, rachel and carrie and i are headed out to find the local delicacy called "beer fish"... tomorrow perhaps a bamboo raft cruise down a river, maybe a cooking class, and then back to the hustle and bustle of neon hong kong.
thinking of you all,
xo sam