The buffet had no fruit, which I usually eat first thing in the morning. It featured fried rice, lo mein, green beans, congee, egg drop soup, some buns and rolls, hot fruit juice that tasted like water, hard boiled eggs, and sweet potatoes. Lovely. I wake up in the morning craving fried rice and beans, that's for sure.
After our meal, we left for the rafting site. I didn't realize this, but each boat was only fit for two people. Thus, Jason and I would be getting our own raft to go in. Scooore! The bus rolled through the woods on the gravel path, and we bounced up and down while bamboo branches whipped past us. The first place we went was this dinky little hut that served as the bathrooms/showers/changing rooms. It was extremely simple and was infested with a horde of bloodthirsty mosquitoes. Lovely. Here, we changed into our swimming suits and paper-thin rain ponchos that they'd generously given us yesterday. It did jack squat to protect us from rain. Oh well.
Next, we left for the place where we'd actually be getting into the boats. Here, we saw quite a few steep dips in the river, and since the current was rather strong, they looked like mini waterfalls...that we would soon plunge down in little rubber boats! This was sounding safer and safer. The mini-falls each had rock barriers right before the drop, with gaps in the rock large enough for the boats to squeeze through. Thus, at each drop, a couple workers would guide the boats through the rocks, so that we could continue on our way.
Jason and I rushed towards the front of the pack after we'd donned our life jackets and helmets. In the boat, we grabbed the two wooden jars there, and were pushed into the water by a surprisingly burly Chinese man. It took a while to get oriented in the boat with the paddling and whatnot, since the two of us were facing each other and therefore, one person would be paddling backwards at all times. Kind of awkward, but I guess there was nothing we could do about it.
One by one, the boats were pushed into the little pool that was the waiting area before we all went down the first (and largest) drop. They had currently barred the spaces between the rocks with wooden planks, and once every boat was in the water and we were playing a tough game of bumper boats, they lifted all the planks and pushed us through the cracks!
We tumbled down the drop and then lurched this way and that while our boat smacked the water down below and immediately began zooming down with the current. Water flowed into our boat from all sides, but we continued to grip the handles on our boat, since we were being tossed this way and that when our boat hit large rocks and boulders. We would spin one way and then another, and if you looked up or down the river, you'd see over two dozen little boats being turned and twisted over and over again, the air filled with screams and exclamations from panic, delight, or something in between.
Once we reached calmer waters, Jason and I whipped off our helmets to dump the freezing cold water out of our boat and back into the river. We were only wearing our ponchos, with tank tops, shorts, and flip flops, and the water that had reached our knees in the boat was frigid. It didn't matter though; we were having so much fun with this, and since both of us are naturally rather competitive, we decided to make it a race! How can you not think about racing when you're in a massive group of people, with pairs paddling in little boats, down a strong current? It's the Amazing Race 2.0, people! Typical Zhang sibling intensity.
By that time, we had already made our way towards the very front of the pack, with only a few boats in our area and us consistently falling in and out of first and second place. Over the next few drops, we paddled hard to be the first ones out of the gates, and succeeded in putting the rest of the boats far behind us. In the end, when we reached another drop and they pulled us out of the water because our rafting was had come to an end, Jason and I were undoubtedly the winners of the Amazing Race! None of our competitors cared that much about being first like we did, so it wasn't an impressive feat, but that's okay.
Sadly, the rafting was over way quicker than we had expected....it only felt like we'd been in the water for fifteen minutes when they pulled us out again. Whyyyy?? Apparently, since it'd been raining on and off those few days, there was more water in the river and the current was stronger than usual, so they didn't let us raft through the more dangerous parts of the river. Ugh...SUCH a bummer!! We were having so much fun, and could've gone for so much longer. Everyone was really upset that the weather hadn't held out for us. The main part of the trip was rafting, and it'd been why everyone had come!
It always seems like we always hit rainy days whenever we go out to travel. In 2010 (the last time we came back to China to visit family), we hiked the Yellow Mountains in Anhui, China, and the gorgeous views had been obstructed because of rain and fog. Please be kinder to us, Mother Nature!
Once we got out of the water, we were to walk back to the little hut/changing station to get ourselves cleaned up and dry (everyone was completely soaked...and therefore, cold!) before we were to head off for lunch. The workers strapped a bunch of rafts to motorcycles and towed them back to the beginning in this manner.
Ohhhhh, changing and getting dry was a challenge to say the least! We were once again forced to use the primitive shower/toilet areas to change with no privacy, but it was raining which meant that the power was out, so the shower and changing rooms were PITCH BLACK. The door was open, and the little light that got into the room revealed a mass of moving bodies, while all you could hear was a tangle of conversations and comments from no one in particular. I was terrified. I decided that it wasn't worth it to take a shower (using the measly hand towel that we'd bought there since our towels from yesterday were still wet), and instead quickly changed into dry clothes in the bathroom, where I tried my best not to scream or cry at the dozens of mosquitoes lurking on the walls (and the dozens more probably attached to my body already that I couldn't see but would feel later). *Shudder*
Back on the bus, I was in a daze from that traumatic experience and sat there with Jason as everyone gradually came back onto the bus so we could leave this place. The bus dropped us off at another building in the same rural environment, and we once again got off here to have lunch, which would be our last meal on the trip. Here, we ate with other people on the trip, including these twenty-something-year old girls that I hadn't noticed before, who'd gone rafting in HIGH HEELS AND ANKLE-LENGTH DRESSES. I'd noticed them at the rafting site wearing ponchos over their silky, pretty dresses and I started laughing. Who are you trying to impress when you're on a two-man raft in the middle of nowhere, rushing down a river with a bunch of elderly couples and young children?! What. Even. I will never understand.
Lunch was fine...the fish and meats were all very fresh (just killed outside in the backyard! Yaaaay!) and the rest of the food tasted good too. We were happy to peace out though, and get started on our way back home, because our bodies still felt disgusting and the germaphobe inside me was cringing everywhere we went, screaming to take a nice long shower with soap and a loofah.
Everyone spent the bus ride back mainly sleeping, which was good for me too. There was a quick stop we made at a rest area, where Zabrina bought us all Magnum chocolate ice cream bars while other people bought zongzi (steamed rice wrapped in bamboo leaves), tofu strips, and other lovely snacks. When we finally returned to People's Square, we hit the subway, got picked up by our uncle, and were soon home. Ahh. My aunt had painstakingly cooked us an amazing dinner, which was a great way to end the day.
The World Cup championship match was tonight in China, at 3 am! Having stayed up burning the midnight oil watching the past few games, I was really interested in watching this one, of course, but out in the city, at a sports bar, like the hundreds of thousands of other Chinese people do! It just seemed like such a cool thing to do, especially since the World Cup only comes around once every four years, and I was in Shanghai for the championship match! People here can't get enough of the World Cup, and I really wanted to experience the energy and excitement of watching it with so many other fans. My two cousins also really wanted to go out with me to watch it, so they'd started looking at the best bars to go to on the ride home. Sadly, this was not to be, because my aunt was completely unyielding in her refusal to let us go. My cousins had work the next day and she had a point in that they would be completely exhausted after coming off a trip and then going out all night. I wasn't really part of that reason, since I'm not working or anything, but there was no way I would be going out tonight without the supervision of my cousins, so that was that. Darn....
I ended up being the only one to wake up that night to actually watch the match. It was both lonely and relaxing, though, to have the house to myself and watch as the sky outside slowly turned lighter and lighter. My uncle (a soccer fan as well) actually woke up for a bit for the first half, made some tell-tale sleepy comments (ex: "when is Brazil playing next?" or "is this the last game? Ever?") and then was completely out for the rest of the game. I had no one to scream with as Germany's Mario Goetze made the only goal of the night, but went to bed around 6:15, very satisfied with the result. Germany, all the way!
One by one, the boats were pushed into the little pool that was the waiting area before we all went down the first (and largest) drop. They had currently barred the spaces between the rocks with wooden planks, and once every boat was in the water and we were playing a tough game of bumper boats, they lifted all the planks and pushed us through the cracks!
We tumbled down the drop and then lurched this way and that while our boat smacked the water down below and immediately began zooming down with the current. Water flowed into our boat from all sides, but we continued to grip the handles on our boat, since we were being tossed this way and that when our boat hit large rocks and boulders. We would spin one way and then another, and if you looked up or down the river, you'd see over two dozen little boats being turned and twisted over and over again, the air filled with screams and exclamations from panic, delight, or something in between.
Once we reached calmer waters, Jason and I whipped off our helmets to dump the freezing cold water out of our boat and back into the river. We were only wearing our ponchos, with tank tops, shorts, and flip flops, and the water that had reached our knees in the boat was frigid. It didn't matter though; we were having so much fun with this, and since both of us are naturally rather competitive, we decided to make it a race! How can you not think about racing when you're in a massive group of people, with pairs paddling in little boats, down a strong current? It's the Amazing Race 2.0, people! Typical Zhang sibling intensity.
By that time, we had already made our way towards the very front of the pack, with only a few boats in our area and us consistently falling in and out of first and second place. Over the next few drops, we paddled hard to be the first ones out of the gates, and succeeded in putting the rest of the boats far behind us. In the end, when we reached another drop and they pulled us out of the water because our rafting was had come to an end, Jason and I were undoubtedly the winners of the Amazing Race! None of our competitors cared that much about being first like we did, so it wasn't an impressive feat, but that's okay.
Sadly, the rafting was over way quicker than we had expected....it only felt like we'd been in the water for fifteen minutes when they pulled us out again. Whyyyy?? Apparently, since it'd been raining on and off those few days, there was more water in the river and the current was stronger than usual, so they didn't let us raft through the more dangerous parts of the river. Ugh...SUCH a bummer!! We were having so much fun, and could've gone for so much longer. Everyone was really upset that the weather hadn't held out for us. The main part of the trip was rafting, and it'd been why everyone had come!
It always seems like we always hit rainy days whenever we go out to travel. In 2010 (the last time we came back to China to visit family), we hiked the Yellow Mountains in Anhui, China, and the gorgeous views had been obstructed because of rain and fog. Please be kinder to us, Mother Nature!
Once we got out of the water, we were to walk back to the little hut/changing station to get ourselves cleaned up and dry (everyone was completely soaked...and therefore, cold!) before we were to head off for lunch. The workers strapped a bunch of rafts to motorcycles and towed them back to the beginning in this manner.
Ohhhhh, changing and getting dry was a challenge to say the least! We were once again forced to use the primitive shower/toilet areas to change with no privacy, but it was raining which meant that the power was out, so the shower and changing rooms were PITCH BLACK. The door was open, and the little light that got into the room revealed a mass of moving bodies, while all you could hear was a tangle of conversations and comments from no one in particular. I was terrified. I decided that it wasn't worth it to take a shower (using the measly hand towel that we'd bought there since our towels from yesterday were still wet), and instead quickly changed into dry clothes in the bathroom, where I tried my best not to scream or cry at the dozens of mosquitoes lurking on the walls (and the dozens more probably attached to my body already that I couldn't see but would feel later). *Shudder*
Back on the bus, I was in a daze from that traumatic experience and sat there with Jason as everyone gradually came back onto the bus so we could leave this place. The bus dropped us off at another building in the same rural environment, and we once again got off here to have lunch, which would be our last meal on the trip. Here, we ate with other people on the trip, including these twenty-something-year old girls that I hadn't noticed before, who'd gone rafting in HIGH HEELS AND ANKLE-LENGTH DRESSES. I'd noticed them at the rafting site wearing ponchos over their silky, pretty dresses and I started laughing. Who are you trying to impress when you're on a two-man raft in the middle of nowhere, rushing down a river with a bunch of elderly couples and young children?! What. Even. I will never understand.
Lunch was fine...the fish and meats were all very fresh (just killed outside in the backyard! Yaaaay!) and the rest of the food tasted good too. We were happy to peace out though, and get started on our way back home, because our bodies still felt disgusting and the germaphobe inside me was cringing everywhere we went, screaming to take a nice long shower with soap and a loofah.
Everyone spent the bus ride back mainly sleeping, which was good for me too. There was a quick stop we made at a rest area, where Zabrina bought us all Magnum chocolate ice cream bars while other people bought zongzi (steamed rice wrapped in bamboo leaves), tofu strips, and other lovely snacks. When we finally returned to People's Square, we hit the subway, got picked up by our uncle, and were soon home. Ahh. My aunt had painstakingly cooked us an amazing dinner, which was a great way to end the day.
The World Cup championship match was tonight in China, at 3 am! Having stayed up burning the midnight oil watching the past few games, I was really interested in watching this one, of course, but out in the city, at a sports bar, like the hundreds of thousands of other Chinese people do! It just seemed like such a cool thing to do, especially since the World Cup only comes around once every four years, and I was in Shanghai for the championship match! People here can't get enough of the World Cup, and I really wanted to experience the energy and excitement of watching it with so many other fans. My two cousins also really wanted to go out with me to watch it, so they'd started looking at the best bars to go to on the ride home. Sadly, this was not to be, because my aunt was completely unyielding in her refusal to let us go. My cousins had work the next day and she had a point in that they would be completely exhausted after coming off a trip and then going out all night. I wasn't really part of that reason, since I'm not working or anything, but there was no way I would be going out tonight without the supervision of my cousins, so that was that. Darn....
I ended up being the only one to wake up that night to actually watch the match. It was both lonely and relaxing, though, to have the house to myself and watch as the sky outside slowly turned lighter and lighter. My uncle (a soccer fan as well) actually woke up for a bit for the first half, made some tell-tale sleepy comments (ex: "when is Brazil playing next?" or "is this the last game? Ever?") and then was completely out for the rest of the game. I had no one to scream with as Germany's Mario Goetze made the only goal of the night, but went to bed around 6:15, very satisfied with the result. Germany, all the way!
An interesting breakfast to start off my day
A blurry shot of the rafts and life jackets that we would soon use (I couldn't get any photos once on the boat, it wasn't worth it to sacrifice my new phone!)
The rafts
Look at those ridiculously thin ponchos! Yay?
Lunch
An edited photo I took during the World Cup match
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