After an exhausting ourselves the past two days, we sort of expected to be tired at the end of every day in Guilin. Of course, we could see that just by looking at the itinerary. Not that I’m complaining; the Guilin trip was wonderful. Of the four NYU-sponsored trips, we did name the Guilin trip the “exercise trip” (Guizhou was the “community service trip”; Gansu was the “adventurous trip”; and Hong Kong was the “metropolitan trip”).

The exhausting part of the day was rock climbing. Uhhh, rock climbing? My fear of heights certainly doesn’t sound good here…

Scaling the Great Wall

I did manage to get to the top of the intermediate level route (there were 4: easy, intermediate, hard, hardest), though I regret looking down halfway up. I didn’t bother with another one. No need to put myself through more of that. On a slightly unrelated note, there was this really cute dog with this rock-climbing couple. Going against the well-known fact that petting an animal in China will give you rabies, everyone pet it anyways. It was just that adorable.

After a nice little break at the hotel, we went to get some authentic Guilin noodles. I didn’t really know what they were, but if they’re a specialty here, I guess I was obligated to try them. After a bit of searching, we eventually found a decent-looking restaurant, where I had Guilin noodles and some fried rice. They were pretty good, except I now know I DESPISE pickled beans. Disgusting…

I probably should have taken a picture of the noodles before I devoured it...

Our next destination almost made me puke out what I so happily ate. For our cooking class, we visited a food market in Yangshuo. As much as I appreciate the hardships that rural citizens go through, I couldn’t stand being in this market. It wasn’t that bad at first. The vegetable section was pretty tame, though the stench of pickled beans was a bit too much for me. It was the meat section that really had my stomach churning. Raw meat, fish, and live caged animals dominated the second half of the market and it just couldn’t be sanitary. I think it would have been better if the market was outside. The dim lighting just made it worse.

I was too busy feeling disgusted to take a picture of the meat section

Luckily, the cooking class was pretty fun. I once again confirmed that I’m a horrible cook. I managed to completely butcher the egg drop dumplings and overcook a few things. I did, however, manage to successfully make the vegetable dish. OK, so it only had two ingredients and took like two minutes to make…

Chicken and garlic; excuse the poor lighting

The ride back to the hotel was quite exciting. Since there were no street lights, the driver only had his headlights to guide him. Sitting shotgun was, for once, not fun at all. I witnessed our driver’s incessant headlight switching and watched as cars zipped by from out of nowhere. I’m alive, so kudos to the driver? Again, we ended the night shopping. It really is hard not to go shopping in Yangshuo. There are so many shops and it’s so lively on West Street at night. I didn’t buy anything except a strawberry slushie from Cafe HK, though. Slushies are always a good way to end a tiring day in the Guilin heat.

Random photos from the day:

The aforementioned dog. Isn't he CUTE?!

I'm pretty sure they're not going to be pets... T_T