Spring Break (April 7th)

The pictures of this trip are on http://picasaweb.google.com/mr.walker.tkd23, http://picasaweb.google.com/mr.walker.tkd6, and http://picasaweb.google.com/mr.walker.tkd7.

I woke up at about 9:30 a.m., surfed the computer, ate breakfast, and walked around the Giggling Tree for a little while. We checked out of the Giggling Tree and took a van into Yangshuo city. From "downtown" Yangshuo, we took a bus to Xingping. We realized that we forgot to stop at an ATM in Yangshuo to get money since we had almost run out of our cash. We would have gotten cash in Xingping if it weren't for the fact that Xingping is so small that there are no ATMs there. We checked into This Old Place hostel in Xingping and Jeremy decided to take the bus back to Yangshuo to withdraw some money. In the meantime, Bjoernar, Marit and I ate lunch at a little restaurant down the street where the owner spoke English, some German, and Esperanto. I'd never heard of Esperanto, so I asked her about it and she told me that it's the international language. It's not spoke by any specific country. Rather, any person who wants to speak it can learn it. She is also a singer and had made a CD with her Esperanto and Chinese songs. After lunch, the three of us walked around when Jeremy met up with us. We returned to the hostel and sat on the roof to write postcards. Bjoernar and I joined Marit and Jeremy downstairs and played Foosball as they ate. After we all ate dinner, we returned to the roof for the rest of the evening (excluding the time Bjoernar and I went to buy some snacks) to play cards and surf the internet.