Jeremy and Marit left early while Bjoernar and I were still sleeping to head back to Chengdu. I woke up around 9:30 a.m., took a shower, and met Bjoernar. He was coming up the stairs with a large trash bag, heading towards his room. When he opened the door, I noticed the floor was flooded, the window was open and a man was in the bathroom fixing the shower. I thought Bjoernar had accidentally left the window open and it had rained into the room during the night. I asked Bjoernar about it, but he told me he would tell me about it over breakfast. We checked out, walked to a restaurant to eat breakfast and Bjoernar began telling me about what happened in his room. He told me that since Jeremy wasn't there, Bjoernar decided to take a long (well, longer than normal) shower. Bjoernar noticed that the water was getting higher in the shower, but then stayed at one level, so he thought the water was just going down the drain really slowly. Once his hour long shower was over, he opened the bathroom door and noticed the water had flooded into his room, soaking his clothes and whatever else was on the floor. The trash bag that I had seen earlier was for his wet clothes, since we were going to be heading back to Yangshuo that day and he needed to pack his soaked belongings into his backpack.
Anyways, after breakfast we took a bamboo raft to see the scene (which is from Yangshuo) that is on the back of the 20 RMB note. The ride didn't last very long and I wasn't completely convinced that the scene the guide was pointing to was actually the scene on the back of the 20 RMB note. Bjoernar tried to reassure me that that was it, so I didn't argue. After the ride, we walked around the town and by the river, picked up our luggage from the hostel and took the bus to Yangshuo. We checked into the hostel there around 3 or 4 p.m. and went to eat dinner by the bus station. After dinner, Bjoernar and I walked around West street, a touristy street with hundreds of different shops selling all types of things (dresses, shirts, jewelry, souvenirs, cards, food, etc.). Bjoernar and I bought some souvenirs and headed back to the hostel.
Bjoernar bought a ticket for the Impression Liusanjie Show, an impressive performance of singing and dancing. What makes it so unique is that the stage is all natural. The Shanshui Theater, located at the joining point of Lijiang River and Tianjia River, is the largest natural theater in the world. However, I didn't buy a ticket because it was too expensive for me. The show also only lasts about an hour.
Instead, I stayed in our room where I spoke to an Irish guy who told me a little about himself. He told me he had spent the last year in India. I asked him how it was and he told me that the poverty level is bad there and that the country has a smell to it. He told me that if I ever were to visit to not eat any meat because most of the houses don't refrigerate the meat. Most of the dishes, however, are vegetarian dishes and are still delicious. He also told me that the women don't make eye contact, especially with males, because if they do, it means that they are willing to have sex or are even prostitutes. We discussed the differences between Western and Eastern countries and how the people in Eastern countries (like India and China) are more socially free to do what they want without being judged. The man told me that in India, people would be on the beach doing all types of different activity. One would be exercising, the other would be dancing, the next would be twirling in circles and so on and so forth. No one would be staring at them, thinking something is weird about this. It is seen as normal behavior. I told him that I noticed the same thing in China, where people would get together at daytime or nighttime in some area of a city (be it a park or in front of a building) to exercise, dance, do fan or sword taichi, etc. No one seems to do that in Western countries because people would look at them as if there's something wrong with that person. There's a uniform way of acting and behaving in Western countries.
After our conversation, I went to bed.
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