YANGSHUO: Day 204, Friday March 21 2014

Yesterday we spent the day exploring the inside of the Karst mountains, in the network of caves, while today we got a different perspective of the countryside, from the edge of the cliff face itself.

We were told that breakfast would be open by the time we got up Friday morning, but it wasn’t. We found a place down the road to order food, but they took so long to bring it out we ended up getting it to go. We weren’t the worst off though, there was a large group that had gotten there before us whose’s tour was supposed to leave ten minutes ago. We ate at the hostel, finishing just in time for the “Spider Man” climbing guide to show up. He brought us to to get shoes from a room located over an african type bongo and drum music store.

We climbed at a place not far from moon hill. The cliff was almost coral like, and very porous, so it was easy to find hand and foot holes, but the rock was jagged and sharp and our poor soft teaching hands were cut up and sore before long. The climbs were tall, very tall, and the height itself was enough to exhaust you by the top. Our small guide scooted up the rock just like spiderman to set up the climb for us.

“I DON’T LIKE CLIMBING” Meiqi yelled in frustration “I like muay thai. In muay thai you have two feet on the ground and you’re balanced.” We joked that she would punch the cliff over and roar “THERE I CLIMBED IT!” She was soon claiming that rock climbing was the one thing she’d dreaded most about the trip. I had to laugh later when I Skyped with her after she continued on to Thailand, when she had told me somewhat sheepishly about climbing there and how much she’d loved it! Good thing the girl’s bark is worse then her bite!

I managed it up every route, though I fell of the last one several times. I managed it by turning around so my back was to the wall and somehow that worked as Meiqi screamed from below that she had made it so I had to as well.

We were so exhausted after climbing that instead of trying to fit in another sight seeing trip we headed straight back to Wada hostel in Guilin where we made it in time for the BBQ specialty night. Delicious! Meiqi’s cold has earned her a bit of a swollen lymph node, but there doesn’t seem like too much reason to panic at the moment.

Thanks for reading, see you again tomorrow!