getting the suitcases and gear into the trunk of the car

todd, i need you to take this exit

todd was undoubtedly surprised. i didn’t tell him where we were going but he started asking questions like, “do i need my sunglasses for where we are going?”

in the airport garage, i gave todd a box full of puzzle pieces. when the puzzle pieces were put together, it would unveil the details of our trip. however, todd didn’t find out where we were going for a few more hours.

todd did two things from the arrival lobby: 1) he warned cam that he wasn’t going to fix as many bugs as he’d hoped over the next weekend, 2) checked-in on foursquare from the san francisco airport. after that, he was ready to go.

we first flew to LA and todd still didn’t know our final destination. we walked to the international terminal and when i turned into the air china check-in area, todd said, “china? we’re going to china? why are we going to china?” if i hadn’t planned this trip, i don’t think we would have gone to china for a while.

todd’s piecing together his puzzle.

now he’s reading why we’re going to china.

todd’s examining our biking itinerary that lists how many miles we’re biking each day. he’s a little intimidated.

to our first destination at the longji rice terraces in southern china. the miao women in this area never cut their hair and their hair could easily extend to the ground.

view of the rice terraces

we’re exploring the dragon’s backbone rice terraces adjacent to our hotel

it was really cold in our hotel. we huddled around a small coal pit in the lobby area. our guide, farmer tang, sits to todd’s right.

we spent the first day hiking 10-12 miles. you can see pingan in the distance. for irrigation, the rice farmers suspend bamboo from the branches in the foreground to pipe water to their rice paddy.

i like the image of the pig on the rice terrace. i believe these houses were constructed by the dong people who are known for their carpentry skills.

a carpentry workshop area

farmer tang collected enough grass to construct a small offering at the top of the mountain

little hut on a hill

these local women were dressed so well considering the work they were doing. the women typically wore silver earrings and brightly colored embroidered garments. each time we passed someone on the path, they would stop to ask farmer tang who we were and also how many other women we had passed that day.

this is why our guide, farmer tang, was so essential. this is a map of the local trails.

farmer tang just set up his first yahoo email account after his sixteen year old son had been urging him to get the family a computer. todd’s helping him check his email here.

todd unconvincingly pretends like he’s making tofu

when we finished our hike, we took a local shuttle back to our original hotel. our van was one of the few local non-tourist vehicles and we happened to take it when the school children and merchants were heading home. it was packed.

a view of or packed van. even more people wiggle inside after we exited.

a small caravan walking up the trail leading to our hotel.

our first morning before biking. todd helps himself to a fried-rice breakfast.

i like this photo because it almost appears as though todd’s deciding between biking or horse riding. our first hour of biking was straight down the winding mountain road. it was exhilarating and cold.

when we reached the bottom of the hill, we took local roads that served more cows than vehicles.

our first of many noodle bowls.

three happy pigs live next to the bathroom where we had lunch

we stopped at a local factory that manufactures bamboo jugs for wine. just behind the factory you could see the bare patches in the bamboo forest where workers had recently chopped down the trees.

these are the bamboo jugs for the wine. we saw these later at airports and grocery stores.

many hours later, we finish our first day and rest in butterfly valley.

chilies and rice dry on bamboo mats

drying rice is everywhere we walk in this local village

todd poses in front of a local temple. you’d never guess this was a few feet from our hotel.

todd in biking spandex and chinese household sandals

a toddler helps his mother bag rice while his younger sibling looks on from her mother’s back

cute chickens. the farmer was about to scoop up all of the chicke into this cardboard box but they kept jumping out. there are a lot of animals (including humans) whose appearance struggles through adolescence. however, i think chickens are the worst adolescent animals i’ve ever seen. they just aren’t cute during this phase.

posting post-shower in a small corridor

some cattle follow us

todd tries to decipher some local postings

a really, really long stalk of bamboo carried on a farmer’s shoulder. just ahead is a winding staircase with lots of switchbacks. we watched her skillfully navigate the corners with the bamboo.

todd’s pointing out that the builders used upside down plastic coke bottles for fencepost decoration

just pretty woodwork

this is our outside water heater. why it’s decorated with a martini glass, i don’t know. i actually washed myself from the cold sink and it wasn’t until we exited the room for dinner that we realized that the regulator for the shower was on the outside of our hotel room. for todd’s shower, i stood outside while todd shouted, “too hot, too cold” from inside. i’m not sure what donald norman would say about this situation. this seemed like something too strange to ever see again but all but one of the places we stayed while were were biking had this contraption.

a bee hut for collecting honey on the side of a hill

we’re biking again and enjoying a mid-day noodle break. i hadn’t sat in chairs this small since early elementary school.

farmer tang purchases fruit from a street merchant. they are weighing the fruit using a stick and a solid brass weight here.

apparently palmellos are in season in november

we stopped at a weekly market. the colors in the shoes were just pretty.

this man was marketing an electronic wand that would instantly heat up water. he had a large sound system and could be heard from blocks away.

we got caught in a long traffic jam biking to guilin. todd and i got stuck behind this duck truck. todd really wanted a close-up photo of the cute ducks and i risked life and limb to get within photo distance of this truck. the photo turned out well though.

the ducks were the only ones smiling in the traffic jam.i’m sure the traffic jam was better than where they were heading.

we stopped at a dam for lunch. farmer tang goes to the bottom to wash his hands.

farmer tang divvies up the palmello

biking through a local town. in many of the villages we biked through, the buildings were hollow and vacant.

another shot that todd really wanted. this woman had two pigs underneath each arm while walking down the road. i took this photo while biking so it’s a little bit blurry.

a great shot of the rice being grouped together and prepped for harvesting.

my favorite energy snack

todd’s favorite energy snack (fresh sugarcane)

water calligraphy on the sidewalks in guilin

glass bridge in guiin with the karst mountain terrain in the background

after trekking through local villages, the lights in guilin were refreshing. plus, we had a real hot shower!

the morning traffic leaving guilin was nuts. i tried to capture it here.

noodle break! we’re pro’s at noodling by now.

slurp, slurp, slurp

farmer tang admires todd’s growing beard. todd explains that he didn’t know he was coming otherwise he would have shaved (and scheduled a hair cut) beforehand

one of the few areas where you can see the old architectural style. it was very quiet here.

these workers repairing phone lines seemed so out of place

we had a few tough uphill patches to get to this peak. this was the highest we biked throughout the trip. after this, biking became easier.

a happy couple looking out and thinking, “it’s all downhill from here!”

just a pretty view. we’ll be biking down to this area next. but we still have many, many miles to go afterwards.

fueling up with some chocolate goo

after our longest biking day, we arrive in a local family-run lodging house in Xingping.

most towns we visited had these fluorescent banners to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the communist revolution

cautions! falling stone.

sunset over the li river

the karst mountains in this area are also illustrated on the back of the 20 yuan bill. all of the mountains have a name like sitting frog, five fingers, smiling monk, and even pen holder.

the eggplant chili dish from this area is amazing. i brought back the pickled chili paste to try to reproduce this in California.

surprise! farmer tang pulled out all the stops to make sure that todd’s 30th birthday didn’t go without singing and candles. it wasn’t chocolate but it was really quite good.

the children in our farmhouse were so happy to help todd share his birthday cake

the next morning, we hiked to a lookout point before hitting the biking trails

early in the morning, we could see a synchronized aerobics class in the schoolyard.

that’s me. todd’s felt like i should have a photo from the lookout point too.

we started the day by loading up a raft boat with our biking gear and rafting 2-3 hours to our biking trail

enjoying some morning fruit that farmer tang plucked from a tree for me

we passed lots of chicken farms. i could tell when were approaching a larger town because there were always chicken farms just outside the populated areas. and i could tell when we were approaching chicken farms because chickens really, really stink.

these college kids joined us for part of our biking journey. they said that they had never spoken to english-speaking people before. however, in the course of trying to practice their english with us while biking, one overlooked a bollard in the road and crashed. he was fine but i wasn’t eager to be very conversational afterwards.

this was my view most of the trip. todd’s really good at checking that i’m following him.

water buffaloes

we passed 2-3 really, really old bridges outside yangshuo. i think this one was from around 1200 AD

we carried our bikes over the stairs so we could cross the river and reach a small restaurant

view from on top of the bridge. you can’t see it from here but the tiny raft far, far away was occupied by a bride and groom-to-be who were getting their wedding photos taken on this river

we’re getting better at ordering food. no more surprise chicken feet or mysterious pork bits.

biking through the rice paddy fields outside yangshuo was the best part of the biking vacation. at times, the path narrowed to just a few inches and if you veered in either direction, you’d land in wet paddy fields.

this was a typical view of most of our biking on the final day. any time farmer tang took us on a shortcut, we would be guaranteed adventurous offroading with really narrow, bumpy trails (far narrower and bumpier than here). fun, fun, fun. sometimes we’d hear schoolchildren shouting, “hello” from the fields to practice their english though we couldn’t see them over the tall grasses. we’d shout “hello” back in their general direction.

it’s thanksgiving and somehow we stumbled upon a real, honest-to-goodness turkey. farmer tang was stunned to see a turkey which is apparently unusual for where we were. we tried to explain to farmer tang that this day was our national turkey-eating day. explaining the pilgrim story seemed pretty long-winded and when i was thinking about it, i wasn’t entirely sure when turkeys became part of the thanksgiving tradition.

the corner of a roof juts out into the sky

some original historical architecture still remains. farmer tang thought that it had been purchased by a family who hoped to rennovate and create a resort here.

end of the day at moon hill

we stopped by farmer tang’s house. farmer tang lives just outside yangshuo and has a few pigs and chickens. he explained that anyone who doesn’t own a pig in this area is just lazy.

saying goodbye to farmer tang in our hotel lobby. he said that we were the youngest and the slowest bikers he had traveled with. he joked that it was okay because we were on our honeymoon but he knew that we were just slow and that we’ve been married for a while now. next time we’ll condition a bit more. we were painfully saddle sore the first few days.

todd cheers when he sees a real hot shower!

we enjoyed a sit-down non-noodle dinner in yangshuo. this kitten climbed up into my lap.

yangshuo is ridiculous. most of the stores here are geared towards drinking or rock climbing. while we were here, the world rock-climbing competition was just coming to a close. imagine a more hyped-up boulder, colorado.

tiramisu! we have to stop!

todd challenges a chinese man in a suit to a game of badminton. todd actually beat him.

inside the water cave

i think many would think these guys have the best job in the world. we hiked a mile or two inside a cave and were startled to find this high-tech setup inside the cave. nearby, there are some natural mud baths, hot springs, and two changing rooms. however, many people venture into the waters sans clothing (after all, who remembers to bring their bathing suit?). these men take, print, and sell personal souvenir photos of tourists playing in the mud baths. the pictures can be pretty provocative.

walking down the cave. you can see todd’s blurry silhouette in the lower righthand corner.

here are the boats that will take you inside the cave

a local man takes a nap outside his store just adjacent to the water cave

the entrance to the water cave. the blue pipe on the left supplies the electricity necessary to power the computerized photo souvenir shop miles inside.

a woman crafts and sells sandals outside the cave

corn story! we passed several corn bars and finally were curious enough to sample it. we had corn juice and waffle balls.

three working men taking a nap in their wheelbarrows

we took a cooking class in yangshuo and made cashew chicken, beer fish, eggplant, and some little dim sum balls. todd gave me most of his vegetables.

the cooking school is equipped to teach nearly a dozen people. however, there were only four of us tonight.

bon appetit!

after yangshuo, we took a 2-3 hour plane flight to beijing. i splurged for a really nice hotel at “the opposite house.” after not having dependable hot showers, this felt like an especially nice treat. currently, this is my all-time favorite hotel.

the restaurant at the hotel. quite a different experience than our rice noodle stops.

we spent the morning before our return flight in beijing’s forbidden city.

admiring the architecture and history. we used todd’s iphone to download the wikipedia articles for the forbidden city. in most places, facebook and wikipedia are blocked. however, for some reason todd could still pull up those sites with our international iphone data plan.

at the airport. getting ready for the long flight back home.

boarding the plane

last moment in china

and many hours later, we’re back where we started – in todd’s car in san francisco.