I had to wake up early because I was going on a small day trip with some of my friends. So I woke up at 6:30, and as I hadn't completely gorged myself the night before with absurd amounts of food, I was pretty hungry for breakfast. So I went to my normal little Bao place. And guess what? I am officially a regular. I was walking up to the Bao place, and as I was walking up to the lady (the street was pretty clear of people, because it was so early in the morning) and she saw me, and immediately starting putting food into the bags for me. She even grabbed me a soy milk without me ever asking. I felt so honored. I have finally made it.
At 8 AM, it was time to meet up at Club 7, so that me, Bo and Josh could take the subway to get to Wulai. From what I had heard and read, it is a beautiful place in the mountains, with a river, and hot springs and natural bathing pools. But somehow, I still didn't think it was a good idea to wear my swimsuit on the hike. I figured I could just change once I got there. Silly me. When have I ever been able to find a public bathroom in China? That was a bad idea. After we realized that it was just going to be the three of us, we headed for the subway. We could have taken a taxi, but what the hell, we wanted to pretend we were natives.
The subway was the easy bit. All we had to do was get on the right subway, going the right direction. An idiot could do it. But when we got off the subway, and started heading over to the bus stop to get on a bus to go to Wulai, we realized that we didn't know which bus we were supposed to be taking. We asked one woman, who pointed us over to the other side of the bus stop, but we still didn't know which bus to get on. We asked another woman, but she just pointed us over to the information center at the subway. She quite obviously understood us, and she definitely knew, but she wasn't going to tell us. Well, fine then. I'll show you just how resourceful foreigners can be.
Finally, we figured out which bus we were supposed to be taking, and we dodged and ignored the taxi drivers who were both trying to get us to take a taxi, and laughing and pointing openly at us for wanting to take the bus. They didn't care at all that we could speak Chinese.
We got on the bus, sat in the back, and got comfortable. And then we hit the second glitch: after a couple of stops, we realized that none of us actually knew which stop we were supposed to get off at. We looked around on the bus, and noticed a group of school children, who were being escorted by a couple of kind looking Chinese ladies. We figured they looked like they were on a school field trip, and since Wulai was the only place a bunch of school children could be going, we decided that we would just follow them. It seemed like a good idea. And we decided that we should just ask the teachers, just incase. She confirmed that they were on their way to the Wulai waterfalls as well, and that it was the last stop on this bus. Mission accomplished. We made our way up this winding, beautiful road. The forest around the road was absolutely stunning.
It took about 20 minutes to make our way up the mountain to Wulai, and as soon as we got off the bus, we once again got accosted by the taxi drivers, who laughed at us for wanting to walk up the hill to get to the waterfall. Silly foreigners. We then realized, as soon as we stopped taking pictures, and started walking, that we didn't really know where waterfall was. But that was quickly fixed as soon as we A) found a map and B) decided to just follow the river up. Pretty ingenius, no?
We had heard that although taxi drivers will tell us differently, it is indeed possible to walk to the waterfall, so walk we did. It was only about 9 AM when we started walking up the hill, and it was already so hot and humid. But the walk was absolutely stunning. It was like walking through Jurassic Park. We even passed a huge gate that looked very much like the gates around the T-Rex enclosure in Jurassic Park. And the forest was astonishing. The trees were literally growing out of a vertical rocky slope. I have no idea how they did it, but they did. And it was beautiful.
When we finally got to the waterfall, all of us were covered in sweat, and grateful for the slight spray that the waterfall gave off. We had passed some shops earlier before getting to the waterfall, and one of the shop keepers was a man who was dressed up as a woman. A very convincing woman. It was very distracting. I can't see what the point was.
We decided that the waterfall was a little bit disappointing, as we had all been anticipating an area to go swimming in, and damnit, we were going to get it. So what was the verdict? We kept walking. It was almost overwhelmingly hot and humid, and I was pretty convinced that I was getting sunburned. But being the genius that I am, I only put sunscreen on my shoulders, and my nose. It seemed to make sense at the time, but now that I look back on it, it didn't seem so smart.
Because I didn't bring a hat, and it was so hot, my friend Bo gave me an Asic bag to put over my head. It was rather smart, if I do say so myself.
See how genius that is? It made a huge difference. I was no longer quite so hot. And my shoulders weren't getting burned. We had to walk for about another twenty minutes along the road to get to the swimming place. Again, we weren't even quite sure where it was, we just had some sketchy directions from one of the store keeps. That seemed to be a pattern for us. Eventually we found a small overpass over the river, and after crossing it, we came across a small waterfall and a pond. We had reached Utopia. The speed with which we had jumped into the pond was rather impressive. We were so hot and overwhelmed, and the water just looked so perfect. Who could resist?
We took turns playing kings in the waterfall, and taking fun pictures. It was general foolishness in the waterfall. I didn't feel like changing into my swimsuit (there was, of course, no outside bathroom) so I just jumped in in my clothes. I figured that my clothes were either going to be soaked in sweat or water, so it might as well be water. There was a woman sleeping under a tree a little bit away, and she never woke up.
Thankfully, other Chinese tourists didn't start arriving until after we had gotten out of the waterfall, and had started drying off. Then they started coming, and were taking pictures of the waterfall. And looking like us that we were insane for playing around in the waterfall as we were. I definitely felt like the a monkey in a zoo, being oogled at. But it was so worth it. After that long hot walk, being able to jump into a waterfall was all that I could possibly ask for.
And then we had to walk back. But this time, it wasn't nearly as bad. It was downhill, and we were all cooled off from our swim in the waterfall. Look at the scenery as we walked back to the bus stop!
We stopped in at a cafe (Helen's Cafe) for an ice tea and a cup of coffee before heading all the way back to the bus stop. It was very colonial, and definitely a copy of Starbucks. We sat there listening to Frank Sinatra, drinking tea. It was almost surreal. We had all bought some watermelon (which was absolutely fantastic) and sat around talking about our walk. How ex-pat can you get?
On our way back down the hill, we stopped at a skewer stand on the road to get some food. It was FANTASTIC. The best skewers I have ever had. We had mountain pork, which is supposed to be pretty famous. It's one of the first things people ask if you have eaten when you say you have been to Wulai. And it was so good. I kind of want to go back just to be able to eat those again.
On the bus ride back, we got some shitty looks from some of the old people that were sitting around at the bus stop. Foreigners always get the short end of the straw. We didn't get back to the dorm until around 1:45 PM. So much longer than I thought it was going to be. But it was totally worth it. Definitely a good morning.
I spent most of the rest of the day just resting, and trying to sleep. I was pretty exhausted. But sleep was not forth coming. So I wasted the afternoon away, because lets be honest, it is not fun to walk around feeling like you are in an oven. There is nothing to do in the afternoon but make sure you are in air conditioning. And then night came. And it was time to go out again.
This time, Paul, Jan and I went to the Shi lin night market, and I was completely overwhelmed. It spawns about 10 blocks, and has food and clothes and electronics. We went into the food place first, looking for some dinner. We only stopped to get dinner when one of the restaurant ladies literally stopped us in our tracks, forced a menu into our hands, and pointed to chairs. How were we supposed to say no to that? It was a Japanese steak place, and that food was amazing. Really amazing. And super cheap.
We decided to just bounce from place to place eating small bits of food, so we could keep moving. We ate, and then moved into the rest of the night market. It was so overwhelming, there were so many lights and people and noises and smells. All of us were kind of in a trance walking through it. I was so shocked that I bought the first thing I saw, which turned out to be a shirt that said "No More Fashion Victims." I am pretty sure I am a fashion victim just by wearing it, but I'll go with it. I had to buy some bad Chinese shirts.
After wandering around for about half an hour, we were thoroughly exhausted from all of the lights and sounds, and more than happy to go find a restaurant. We found a slightly better than seedy restaurant on one of the side roads, and sat down. No sooner had we sat down than a Chinese guy comes out, very clearly drunk, and supported by two of his friends. They had barely gotten him to the road when he started vomiting. It was 9 PM on a Tuesday night. This was a classy guy.
The waitress informed us that there were only warms beers left, so we ordered some food that was actually amazing. Paul and I don't eat seafood (he is allergic, I just dont' like it. His excuse is better than mine.) The waitress and I bonded over the fact that even though this restaurants speciality is seafood, neither of us liked it. We were almost friends by the end of it. It was a good night, we spent about an hour and a half there, just looking at all the people. I almost forgot my very special purchase when we left to head back home.
We made a quick pit stop at the carnival dart games so the Jan could win a fake plastic gun that shot foam balls at us. It gave us hours of entertainment. Well, actually, only about the half an hour that we had left of the trip home. The subway back was pretty uneventful, I was exhausted. I haven't been that happy to go to sleep in a long time.
It was a crazy day. But oh so much fun. I am discovering that I love going to sketchy restaurants in alley's. They always have the best food.
1 comment:
sounds like am amazing day. thanks for finally finishing your story!
Post a Comment