moon festival 2009.

i don't even know how to begin explaining the most amazing trip i just had. i will try though!
{beware...this might be long.}

so to start...we took the slow train to shanghai which was miserable. shereesa and i were supposed to have standing seats but we found some cute asian people who let us sit by them which was so lucky. so we hung with them...gave them american names, (that is our favorite thing to do!) and tried to sleep a bit. aka...we held our huge backpacks and rested our heads on them. we slept and woke up early to catch our 26 hour train ride. sounds awful? WRONG.
best. thing. ever.
i am in love with the sleeper train.
all of these hard seats jammed with a little aisle, full of asians dancing around, little asian babies, big huge windows with the best scenery EVER...rice fields, old run-down towns, beautiful mountains then our asian bunk-mates. seriously so fun. i felt like i was the third class on the titanic!
oh and funny story. so before we went to bed on the sleeper, brooke and i had the middle bed seat. we were just about to go to bed, and were saying our prayers, so trying to kneel on our hard sleeper, and so we looked like little perched squirrels and then all of a sudden i hear these chinese voices and they are all coming over laughing and bending and poking their heads down to watch us hahaha it was so funny. we were like, yeah we should end this soon! haha

so i was actually kinda sad to get off the sleeper. they were so fascinated with us. we would just be writing in our journals and a huge crowd would come over and just watch us write. haha so awesome. the 'bathroom' was the only thing i dreaded, and every time i would walk back to my bunk they would all yell, HELLO! HELLO! and take pictures of me. haha. so we got off in GUILIN which is such a beautiful city. we caught the first bus we found to yangshuo and our journey began! it was about an hour ride and we passed the yangshuo mountains which are surreal! i cannot even explain it! i just jammed to cat stevens and was loving life.

so we got to yangshuo which is honestly stunning. google search it. we found our transportation to our hostel MONKEY JANE'S (more on her later...) and here comes a guy on a little bicycle with a little cart on back. we have our huge backpacks and all our stuff and we get on this thing and are just dangling off. it was gorgeous. such a charming little chinese town! we got to monkey jane's and she is a NUT JOB. craziest lady i have met in my life. our room looked like anne frank's annex. no joke. we didn't have a ceiling, it was a tarp, the window had a sheet on it, the floor was cement, us four had to each share a little hard full bed, the walls had stains on it, the door had a huge hole so you could look right in. sounds awful. WRONG again. i loved it! we got it for so cheap too!
so we went and just explored the city, went and sat by the gorgeous Li River and hung out. there was an amazing firework show that night too that was awesome.
the next day we rented bikes and biked along the countryside and took a 10 mile bike ride to MOON HILL and hiked it which was amazinnnng! so gorgeous! the mountains look like lush green giant dr. suess mountains. the hike up was like 2,000 stairs, pretty steep, and these two little asian GRANDMA'S followed us up the entire way. they were fanning us and they looked like they were going to break, but they were so cute. i think they wanted us to give them a bunch of money but oh well. these grandma's here work till they die i swear. we then biked to this little old village which was awesome. we found some dirt roads that lead into the jungle kinda and it was just soooo awesome. so we got back, ate dinner and just wandered around west street (the famous street in yangshuo which is PACKED for the moon festival...it was crazyy!!)

oh and cool story. maybe it doesn't sound that cool but it was to me.
so when we were walking the streets we found this old man painting on these original silk fans. the thing is...he only had one arm and a little nub and painted with the nub. it was so sad but seriously amazing. so he made mine and he said it was 50 yuan so i gave him 100 and he gave me 100 back in change...he started walking away and i was so confused. i asked lindsay how much it was and she told me 50. so i ran after him and told him he was supposed to keep the 50. he gasped and almost fell over cause he realized what he did. he started crying because he realized how much he needed that money. he saluted me and it was the cutest thing that has ever happened to me! i have never felt so good about being honest. i could have easily walked and been like sweet! a free fan. so i am so grateful for being raised with the importance of honesty.

so on top of the monkey jane hostel there is a rooftop bar where all the people in the hostel go hang out. we decided to go up just to meet some funny people cause we weren't tired. first off, it is GORGEOUS on this rooftop. people are from EVERYWHERE. i met some cute guy from germany who is living in vietnam, we are chatting and he said his name was david, later on i find out his last name is barth! he was like, well it is bart with an h on the end. didn't register. then i was like wait what?!! so we had a little bond. it was nice. he was really so nice though. then i made friends with these three boys from israel, they taught me 'shalom shalom and shubaba!' so now i am basically fluent at hebrew. so i taught them how to play speed and how to shuffle. they saw me shuffle and they told everyone i worked in las vegas cause i was so good at shuffling haha it was funny. then we are good friends with this boy darren who is SO darling and from England. he kinda took care of us. best accent ever. oh and these two boys from london! ronnie and tom. they were SO cute. they were telling me all the places we should visit when we go to london. i told them my brother and sister-in-law lived there and they were so stoked. they kept saying rubbish, brilliant and the best english words ahah. SO MUCH FUN. seriously, france, germany, paris, austria, israel, australia...i have friends all over the world now! then we all lit off these lanterns which was SO MAGICAL. they were all floating in the sky...awesome music playing...ah it was heaven!

so the next day was the MOON FESTIVAL. everyone is eating moon cakes (which are seriously SICK - so nasty but the asians love it) when the asians describe "moon day" they say, "we sit and-a eat da moon cake for da moon is very round" hahaha AMAZING.
so on the actual moon day we went to the mud caves which were a BLAST! we biked to the little hut which was about 12 miles away, best bike rides ever, took a little van that was struggling for life, they were blasting britney spears so we are just jamming, hike a little bit to the cave, wear legit asian slippers, get into a little boat, felt like i was on pirates of the carribean in disneyland, went on an intense little hike inside this cave, the tourguide spoke chinese so yeah i learned a lot. :) then we found the mud pool!!! we got COVERED from head to toe. chunks of mud in my eyeballs. it was AMAZING. all the asians were too scared to get in so they just took 500 pictures of us. we were hugging and just loving life in the mud caves. so we kept hiking FULLY COVERED in mud. walking down the mountain, all the asian's pass us saying AH BEAUTIFUL! we were like, yeah...we are gorgeous! haha. so then we get into this fresh water pool to rinse off. 500 ASIANS TAKING SO MANY PICTURES OF US. and including all these asian father's shooting us with water squirt guns hahaha so funny. we were like, they are like little boys! then we were trying to imagine our dad's seeing 4 asian girls and squirting them haha it was a little different. so on our bike ride back into town, we were just biking, and all of a sudden i hear brooke yell, "ABBY!" i look back and there is a man in dreadlocks just casually butt naked cruising the streets. i couldn't believe it. i have no words about that experience!

so on sunday, we woke up got breakfast and decided to go to the dragon bridge! we biked and it was SUCH an intense bike ride. my legs were burning. so we found this cute little friend who showed us how to get there, and so we are biking then start going back in time! LEGIT ancient china town. all these roosters, old men playing chess, beautiful lime green fields, all these homes on the hill, we just kept screaming, "OH MY GOSH! WHERE ARE WE!" so we parked our bikes and found a little spot we could read and hang out. so we are chilling by this gorgeous river where there were bamboo rafts and this huge bridge. it was awesome! some of our friends from monkey jane's were there...darren the english boy, victor I HAVEN'T EVEN EXPLAINED VICTOR i will in a minute. the other girls were scared to jump off, but i don't have i problem with cliff jumping so i showed them it was alright. the bridge is 15 meters which is about 45 feet. so i got up there and jumped off and it was so dang awesome. we just jumped off in our sports bra and shorts but it was great! i like jumping off things though :) so that was way fun! then we just chilled and read. so THEN i had to go the bathroom wayyy bad. this asian boy told me he knew where a 'water closet' was so i followed him with lindsay and shereesa. so we go with him then he tells us it is 5 yuan to use the water closet. PSHHHH. yeah right. so we start walking to find a place. we are in ancient china. no kidding. men looking like they are from the 1400's. soo awesome. so i find a little home with a dirt floor and no electricity but try to explain we needed a bathroom. she didn't understand. so i had to demonstrate squatting then she got the picture. so we follow her in her little house. wayyy back in her home there is a door. so i go first. walk through the first door. HUNDREDS of black guinea pigs squealing. my heart droppped. it was the scariest. then i go through the next door. so musty and i am not kidding but picture this: Charlotte's Web. the epitome of what i thought. NOT KIDDING. only light coming through the window with a huge web and pretty sure charlotte was in there. so there is a steel hole for my potty and a pen next to me. i was like, let's just get this over with. so right before i go, i hear something in the pen next to me and i look over to see a huge PIG a foot away from me. AHHHH! i just hurry and go and that pig was TICKED. he was squealing and trying to get out of his pen. imagine going to the bathroom with a pig just freaking out next to you. so i peaced out as fast as i could! hahaha it was so interesting!! my allergies were ticked at me on the bike ride back but it didn't even matter it was awesome!!

well we went and met these australian boys we made friends with to go ROCK CLIMBING! they were hilarious and so nice. we took a little van ride to the mountain and it was HUGE!!!! i have never been rock climbing so i was stoked. the rock climber guides were hilarious. so we went on this huge mountain tucked into the countryside. i felt like i was on mission impossible. really tested my upper body strength though! not kidding, it is tough! but so funny. my little guide was just yelling in their little chinese accents, "you! uh go da right fuut you put it deier! no uh...stand up! use da body strength for da pushing up! right they-a!" haha so great. i was laughing while i was going up. so after we took a little nap and got some lunch. then we met the australians again to go to secret beach! we biked maybe 8 miles to this beach tucked in the country. AMAZING ride. i wish you guy's could have seen it! i cannot even explain this place. so there is sand, and the perfect little beach on the Li River. there were these three darling little french children edward, mya and louer? they were just gabbing and playing in the sand speaking in french and it was so cute. we found a asian grapefruit in the jungle and i cut it open myself. it was wonderful. i felt like i was on cast away ha love TOM HANKS just a little shout out. so on the way back we pass all these water buffalo and i felt like i was in israel or africa. it was like twilight so it was getting dark. we were rushing cause we were missing all the light of the day! so we kinda shopped around and got some fun stuff on west street that night.

so my last night in yanshuo was so sad. we were all sooo sad knowing it was our last day. we decided to go KAYAKING! we got in yet another asian van and took a very bumpy ride far away. we got strapped in little vests and hopped in our own kayaks. there were tons of little naked children playing by the river. so dang cute. not gonna lie, after 2 and a half hours of just paddling your own kayak i got a little restless. it was gorgeous. i was legit pocahontas. me and shereesa were singing 'just around the river bend' the whole time until we got way tired haha. so we got back to our hostel and monkey jane gave us a free dinner. it was some good corn on the cob and chicken curry stuff. we ate it on the rooftop and it was way fun. met some fun people from holland who are traveling for 6 months and have no idea where they are going! haha. so we are on the rooftop and see monkey jane and she shaved her head. she is PYSCHO. she has a chinese/british accent and just pulls us away for ten minutes like everyday and just rambles and we never have a clue what she is saying. we were like, monkey jane! why did you shave your head?! "freedom. new person. new life. i don't want to be so famous no more." then she will randomly start bawling and have a major rant for like 10 minutes...then put her head down and say "...thank you." we are like, okay cool monkey jane. hahaha there is no way to describe this girl. we took a picture with her before we left and she was just in her shaved head dancing around to dancing queen and then put the headphones on me when we took the picture. hahah she is on crack. so that night we met the cutest couple. the boy from australia and the girl from sweden. they met traveling in south america and have been together ever since. they were cute. love meeting cute couples like that :) haha i know i am a nerd.

so the morning we left we had our last breakfast at lulu's and i got some american museli. yummy! i said goodbye to my fruit lady who i saw twice everyday cause i was obsessed with her fruit. i hated her at first cause she would rip me off but since i became such a reliable customer she gave me some help with the prices. meaning she did not yell at me when she would give me a price, i would give her a sassy smile and hand her what i thought was fair hahaha. all the girls make fun of me and tell me i am going to start smelling like fruit when i sweat cause i eat so much of it hahah. so i got a ton for the train ride which weighed about 20 pounds, we took our bus and said goodbye to victor. my favorite friend i made on the trip. he is just a lonely traveler from quebec who is going no where in life. hahah the funniest accent. all he says is, "why not." i cannot explain it. but he somehow found out we were mormon, that news traveled pretty fast on the rooftop when everyone realized we weren't drinking, and so he was asking us all these questions. he couldn't understand a lot of it, but we got a picture with him and he was like, can mormons take pictures? we were like ohhhh gosh. we are normal! but he told us he could see there was something good and different about us which i liked to hear. i am glad we could be a little example that LDS people are NORMAL! but we got on our bus, kissed yangshuo goodbye and headed to our train. the bus took seven years in traffic so we ran home alone style to our train, and my souvenier bag completely broke so DOUBLE home alone style! the train home was awesome. almost 36 hours traveling home. now i am back home in changzhou. it is so ugly here compared to yangshuo but nothing really compares to that place! BEST WEEK EVER.
xoxo

shanghai time.

reasons why i loved my shanghai weekend.

- we were hanging out in the biggest city in china.
{it.is.seriously...HUGE)
- i ate the famous shanghai dumplings.
- we slept in normal beds, had an american breakfast
& used a normal toilet!
- i listened to dallin h. oaks speak saturday & sunday
& shook his hand. it was great.
- 5 hilarious asian men rubbed our feet at the massage place.
- we went to the ancient antique stores in the heart of
shanghai and made some wonderful little friends.

ahhhh i can't wait to go back!
xoxo