After flying from Kuala Lumpur to Guilin I went straight from the airport to the hostel and I must have been in “cold weather” shock since I found myself “staying in” at the hostel for the next day until I was forced to leave in order to catch my bus to Yangshuo.
Hostels in China typically charge around $4/night for a bed and throughout my travels I was continually impressed with the quality of the places I stayed (except for the fact that they all had hard as a rock 2” foam padding disguised as mattresses). Almost always the staff at the hostels spoke good English and provided a fun atmosphere to swap stories with other travelers.
Typical mattress in $4 Chinese hostels
Yangshuo was a great place to begin my travels in China.… Not only because of the amazing scenery but also because it was super touristic, meaning that more people here speak English than in other parts of China and I could find a “western breakfast” and not have to settle for the typical Asian breakfast of noodles or rice. I don’t mind that so much at other times of the day but not for breakfast!
There was one day when it was not raining so ventured out with 2 Israeli guys from the hostel. We rented bicycles and toured the countryside for 3 very muddy, misty, and cold hours. It was incredibly scenic and fascinating to bike through little Chinese villages and see what daily life was like.
The beautiful Li River in Yangshuo
After we got back into town I stopped off at the “wet market” where you can buy produce and other things. I was shocked when I looked in the back and saw several stalls selling dog meat. Dogs were crammed into cages, barely able to bark, while the butcher was chopping up meat from another that had been freshly slaughtered, and adjacent to that he was roasting a dog (just like you would roast a pig). It was a very sad and disturbing sight.
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