Mogan Shan, Waterfall and Village

So I have really been slacking on this thing, and now I am going to make an attempt to catch up. Afew weeks ago we went to a waterfall and an area known as the Little Guilin (as opposed to the real Guilin). On the way there, we passed through a public park, which is shown here. It was really quiet and peaceful. ....I could live here, or at least have a house here. One of the strange things about China, is that many of the places I have been here, which hold this amazing aire of natural beauty, has been recently reconstructed. China is notorious for mad construction and skyscrapers popping up like bamboo...this is true, I have seen it; however, the little things like the bridges, playgrounds, plazas and every little pagoda is also recently refinished. Take this public park for example. The bridge is a relatively new bridge.


At the same location, there were kids playing on an old beat up bike. They would run it to the top of a hill, then everyone would pile into the back and then they would ride it down the hill and scream. It was really funny to watch. The bulk of the youth in the cities here spend an alarming amount of time on the internet, but then out in smaller villages, you will see kids playing (in my opinion) how kids should play.

Pics of the group at the waterfall.

After the waterfall, we caught this river boat to what I would call a "real" chinese village. Here is Lindsey, a really cool guy from Canada, and a local villager. The guy asked where I was from and I said America. He laughed, "ahh, U.S.A!" and pumped his fist.


A quick funny story about Lindsey: afew weeks ago we went to a real back alley chinese club with one of the teachers. No Wai guo ren (outsiders), except for our group. There were police all over the club (We think they were police...they were all in uniforms and standing on tables) and the smoke was thicker than....I dont know what. It was very smokey. The dance floor was packed, and it bounced (literally). If the wai guo nu ren (outsider girls) decided to go onto the dance floor, they were immediately swarmed and molested. Anyways, it was the closest thing to a mob that I have been in since the old mardi gras days in San Luis Obispo. Anyways, so you get the picture.

Anyways, the locals were constantly trying to get everyone to dance, mainly the girls, but also the guys. At one point a mob of approx 70 guys fromed on the dance floor in a very small circle around lindsey.

Lindsey is quite a modest, disarming young white canadian...he enjoys such activities as rock climbing and studying Chinese in his spare time. He likes laughing, and wearing thick rimmed fashionable eye glasses. So, various chinese guys who had obviously been practicing their dance moves would come up and bust their moves in front of Lindsey, to which Lindsey was forced by his dance floor escorts (ie, other chinese locals who just happened to be at the club and liked lindsey) to retaliate with his "A" dance moves. When lindsey would finish his "running man", all 70 guys would be all, "OOOOHHHH!!!!!!" then the next chinese guy would step up to the plate. This went on for approx 5 rounds. It was really funny and I dont think I have yelled "OOOOHHHH!!!!" that loud in my life before.

So back to the village:

Here is Lucy in front of the town dentist's chair...
....with a brown rag sterilizing the equipment.

Here is a dog in the village, He looks healthy right?

One thing that is pretty nice, is that I am seeing more and more people with dogs. I think that If a society has moved to a dog-friendly state, then it says something about that society. (Short of a rabies outbreak or something...some of you know what Im talking about.)

So this trip to the village and waterfallwas on a Sunday, but on that Saturday before, Arve, Sabina, Zuzana and I decided to go to Mogan Shan, its a mountain that is supposed to be pretty. This was significant because it was our first trip that we made on our own. I would say it was a success. We basically went to a bus station, bought a ticket, then figured it out. As soon as we got off of the bus in some deserted old bus station in some odd town, we were swarmed by locals trying to take us to Mogan Shan, it was actually alittle nerve racking because you dont know who is legit...actually I think all of the guys would have been legit, but at the time you never know. Some wanted to take us to the mountain in a little rusty 3 wheeled like phonebooth on the back of a motorized tricycle. They pointed to the vehicle we were supposed to get in, and it was like one of those moments, truely where you all look where the guy is pointing....there is a pause as you all recognize....then you laugh in his face. Then later you hope that you didnt offend the guy.

Finally we got ourselves into a cab.

He said, "where to?"
We said, "Mogan Shan" (which means Mogan Mountain)
He said, "where on Mogan Shan?"

We said, "The most beautiful place...do you know where?"

Turns out he took us to a pretty good one, and we ate some pretty good food. It was a good experience.
Too bad it was foggy, but it was nice anyways.