We made it to Sanjiang a little late. We were able to finally get off the train at 1:20am which arrived in Sanjiang County...not Sanjiang city. This meant that we had to take a half an hour van ride into the city where there is a place to stay. Luckily, the Lonely Planet guide did give us some places to stay, and the driver could understand us well enough to get us to a hotel. We literally spent about 6 hours in this hotel showering and sleeping.
The next morning we bought our bus tickets leavign for Guilin at 1:30 and headed to the Dong minority village. The fact that we were the only tourists in the village added with the spontaneity of the stop made this a definite highlite of our trip. The narrow alley ways, the crumbling buildings, the random corn and rice fields, and the villagers hard at work gave us a new way to look at China.
Of course I had to take photos with the elderly! The people in this village were so friendly. I just wanted to give them big hugs, but I refrained. Since we stumbled upon this town, we only had a enough time to spend a half a day here...bummer. Had we known how amazing and how authentic this stop would be, we would have planned to stay longer. We are just happy that we had the time to experience it at all especially since it wasn't part of our original plans. And, what's weird is that this was the first day that everything went smoothly for us. It was a nice change of pace.
Next stop Guilin/Yangshou!
I love hearing stories like this, & they all revolve around the theme that authenticity is special & to be valued--I'm also glad to see you're making old people friends! :) Hope your trip went well...
Posted by: Lindseybuck | 07/24/2011 at 01:51 PM