Halfway done university I decided I wanted more from life than a nine to five for fourty years.
I decided to leave and live the life I wanted to live.
I decided to go AFK for a year.

My travels will go across China, Australia and SE Asia, writing about my experiences along the way.
Here's my post about an amazing day in Yangshuo. Started as a boy, ended as a man

To see the post with pictures and part 2 see: 
http://www.afkforayear.com/china/yanghuo-rivers-and-mountains-and-snake-hearts-part-1/


Another normal beautiful morning in Yangshuo, or at least that's how it started. Waking up my pillow was speckled with blood – that was the first sign the day wouldn't be normal –, only a nosebleed, but still terrifying to wake up to. That was the first minute of a very memorable day.

*Knock Knock*

Still dazed from waking up and confused about what to do with the bloody bed there was a visitor. Room service perhaps, or maybe a roommate that forgot his key. Putting on my clothes I opened the door and there was my water-pong partner from the night before – we won three games, three wins away from winning a special t-shirt. Holly, a gorgeous country girl from the US of A whom came by earlier than expected for our biking date. Ten minutes into the day, great so far.

*

We consulted the good book – Lonely Planet – and decided on a destination based on the 'fierce-and-awesome-name-scale': “Dragon Bridge”, with a name like that who wouldn't want to go there. We headed out with a vague sense of where this “Dragon Bridge” was, a bag full of weird fruits I hadn't eaten yet, two bikes and no other plans.

The road was pretty standard. Paved, with other travellers going past us, occasionally some cars, stores along the path with English signs – a sure sign you're on the right path -, and close to the river like the map showed. Stopping occasionally to take pictures of the farmers and fields the day was going a bit too smooth. Each intersection generally had an obvious path to go . One way had a paved smooth road or path, while the other was narrow covered in rocks. The few times it wasn't obvious there were locals nearby to point the way - after trying to sell us bamboo raft trips along the river.

Like the taxi drivers that get you lost then try to rescue you, a bamboo raft driver tried the same scam. One of them - after we refused the boat - pointed us down a path that looked fine. A few hundred meters later the smooth dirt rode became a smooth mini-boulder road – also called a bad stone road. The bamboo raft driver was probably hoping we would go back, but we soldiered on and fell off the path only once.

Once again the path became kinda ride-able. Smooth, but too narrow to be a bike trail, we were now lost – near a river though so not lost lost. The other bikers were gone, the path-side stores were gone, the cars were gone. What we did have though was a slightly-larger than average tree, which Holly was amazed by - hilarious (if you're Holly change hilarious with cute or something like that).

The next hour was spent cruising through rural towns and paths. With each bend we'd wonder whether we should head back or not. With each bend we should have turned around we decided to go to the next turn or hill because the bridge might be past it. Luckily it was. We came to a main road which led to a city full of people who knew which way we needed to go. Even after being lost we ended up being very close to the “Dragon Bridge”.

When something is called “The Dragon Bridge” you expect it to be big, extravagant, colourful, scary, special in some way, dragon-like. But no, this was a normal stone bridge famous for being built a long time ago. Even when we were on the bridge we weren't sure if it was the dragon bridge. The only other people on the bridge also didn't know. It wasn't until a local confirmed that it was indeed the 'Dragon Bridge' did I believe it. If I ever name something I'll be sure to add 'Dragon' to it since that attracts people - it attracted us at least. Example of things easily improved : DragonMart, DragonForAYear, BestDragon, Dragon&Gabbana, Burger Dragon.

*

This was the first rivers in China I had seen where the water was clear. Clean? Probably not, but clean enough to swim in – I hope, no diseases yet. So we looked for a place to go in and cool off. With the Gulong river being very slow the current wasn't an issue. We just had to find a place not full of bamboo boats going by constantly.

Finding a deserted spot we stripped down and jumped in. Well... more like slowly, cautiously walked in being grossed out by the slime and trying not to think about what it was. A cool swim in a Chinese river on a warm day in a 'clear' river. 'Clear' because when you're in the river and your face is inches from the surface the 'clear' water becomes very 'full-of-thousands-of-floating-things'.

Since we chose a deserted place to strip down and swim, it only is fair that as soon as we got out the place became busy. Within a minute three cows – that took a dump right where we were swimming - with farmers crossed the river where we were followed by a line of bamboo boats full of tourists slowly cruising past. Next time I'll go in a busy place so it'll be deserted when I get out.

We dried, got dressed and continued. We found and followed a random path up a random mountain saving a bunch of money and seeing amazing views, took the extra long way back to Yangshou by mistake, but besides that nothing noteworthy happened. Until that evening.

Continued in part 2:
http://www.afkforayear.com/china/yangshuo-%E2%80%93-rivers-and-mountains-and-snake-hearts-part-2/


Question:  What is the weirdest food you have had in Asia?