Ride A Bike Through The Yangshuo Countryside

I loved Yangshuo.  I don't care what anyone says, it was one of my favorite spots in China.

Not only did most locals speak English, but I was able to go shopping, and go to a restaurant and easily order food without pulling my hair out of frustration.  It is a bit touristy in the central area, and unlike other areas of China you will (gasp) see other Western travelers.  It's definitely convenient for backpackers with its abundance of western food, wifi in restaurants, and bars and clubs for crazy nights out. 

The Yangshuo countryside was serene and beautiful.  It's not on the 20 yuan note for nothing.....

A popular thing to do while in town is renting a bike and taking a ride around the countryside.  Thankfully, Yangshuo is relatively flat, so the ride itself was absent of any difficult degree of elevation.

We rented our bikes in town, and our starting point was this beauty.....

Beautiful, right?  I told you so.

Yanghsuo is along the Li River, and is covered with hundreds of green peaks.  We took several scenic stops, as well as a stop near Moon Hill (a large mountain with a hole in it, think donuts) since a few of my friends wanted to go hiking to the top.   I opted out on the hike, and decided to relax at the bottom of the hill at a local cafe sipping on a smoothie.  Yum, yum. We also rode our bikes through several farms, and even met a few of the locals on our ride.

The people were so lovely.  This lady was along the Li River trying to repair one of her nets.  I asked her if I could take her photo and she was so ecstatic to have her photo taken.

The day before our bike ride it had poured rain in Yangshuo.  Somehow, I decided it would be a clever idea to ride ahead of my friends for the half day bike ride through the countryside.  As I was going up a hill I encountered two HUGE mud puddles.

Right or Left?  Think fast CeCe!

I decided to maneuver my way around the mud puddle to the left, but I quickly began to sink and FELL in the MUD!  My shoe and pants were covered with mud.  The rest of my friends saw me sinking in the puddle to the left, so they went around the puddle to the right which would have been the much wiser choice.   

The photo above was taken after I had spent almost half an hour cleaning the mud off my pants and shoes, and after yelling at my friend to frame the photo so that my muddy attire would be cropped out of it!  Thankfully I found a laundry service shortly after the bike ride!

We rode into a tiny town that welcomed us with real juggling monkeys, and then found a small restaurant that served locally grown food.  I always love supporting the small, independent restaurants.  We didn't have an opportunity to chose what we ate, everything we were fed was based on the food they got in the local markets.  The owners were so proud of their food and constantly  watched us eat searching for signs of approval.

We started becoming pretty silly (aka we were in the brink of lethargy and exhaustion) the last hour of our ride.  For instance we had the brilliant idiotic idea of taking the photo above while going uphill.  Look mom, no feet!   Do you know how difficult it is to ride a bike uphill without pedaling?  Phew, thankfully we had our ugly helmets to protect us from cracking our precious craniums.    Luckily there were many downhill slopes following this shot that allowed us to sail through the Yangshuo countryside.  It was my favorite part of the ride.

After our half day bike ride our bums felt like they had been whipped by a wooden paddle a good one hundreds times.  The following day I had a TWO hour massage and asked the masseuse if he could massage my butt. Yep, my bootie.  I sure hope he didn't think I wanted a "happy ending." 

Besides a very sore bum, the ride around the countryside was beautiful, peaceful, and exactly what I needed after a month in the polluted, crowded cities of China.

Date Accomplished:  March 20th, 2012

Bike Through The Countryside In Holland

Riding a bike in Holland (particularly Amsterdam) is a more common site than seeing a car drive by.  I think everyone owns a bike in Holland.  There might quite possibly be more bikes than people in Amsterdam.  They don't have parking garages for cars, they have parking garages for bikes....

A Bike Parking Garage by Central Station

After flying for what felt like eternity I finally arrived on an early morning in Amsterdam.  After hauling my backpack through the airport, train stations, and walking to my hostel I was pooped.  My room was not ready, so I had to store my backpack in a locker, and then it was time to decide what to do.  I'm not gonna lie, I was tired.  But for me, the way to overcome jet lag and get back to a normal sleeping pattern for that time zone is to be awake throughout the day, and then take a Benadryl at night.  I should have taken it easy on my first day.  

I found a bike company online that didn't require reservations, and that ran daily bike tours out to the countryside.  I took public transportation to the bike rental place, but I had arrived a tad early so I decided to walk around and find a place to sit and enjoy my lunch.  Then it started to pour rain.  My lunch included huddling under an umbrella shielding myself from the rain in front of a dry cleaning place (oh the irony). 

After lunch I headed back to the bike place, and because of the rain it was only a small group consisting of a couple from the UK, a couple from Australia, and a gal from Canada.  We were edumacated on Amsterdam 101 before dressing into our ponchos and heading out on our 22km journey.  We first rode around the city, and I have to admit I was more afraid of all the other cyclist than the cars.  They were everywhere!

Our first stop out of the city was a windmill.  Of course I had to take a photo of how silly I looked in my hideous poncho...

Imagine that in bright red, like Teletubbie Red.  That is easily one of the top 10 most embarrassing photos of me.  Enjoy it.  Save it to your hard drive for times when you need a good chuckle.

After checking out the windmill we were back on the road, and our next stop was a clog factory and cheese farm.  We parked our bikes in a barn full of cows (more proof we really were in the country). 

We immediately stepped into a room covered with shelves of cheese.   I needed a Lactaid just looking at it. A Dutch man came out and talked about the cheese making process with us, and then we sampled the cheeses.  We then entered another room and watched wooden clogs be made.  The man was actually wearing a wooden clog and walked in them with ease.  When we went into the clog shop they had clogs of every style, and they even had some that were blank in case you were artistic enough to design your own.  Perhaps they have a Pinterest tutorial for Clog Designing?

Of course, out of curiosity I had to put a pair on.  The Verdict?  They are utterly uncomfortable.  I'll stick with my Toms, Thanks. 

When we stepped out of the factory it was pouring rain again.   We ran to our bikes and waited a bit for the rain to calm down, and once we continued it started hailing.  It felt like someone was throwing bullets onto my face.  It was painful!  The worst part was that the hail was so intense that I couldn't even open my eyes to see the path ahead of me.  Tell me again why I decided to do a 22km bike ride in the hail after a transatlantic flight?

After nearly 30 minutes of bike riding and continuous pouring we made our way to a park just outside the city.  We finally stopped, and I decided to take a photo.  I reached into my "waterproof" poncho pocket to find that it was filled to the top with water.  Inside swimming in my poncho pocket was my brand new camera!  Needless to say the camera drowned and I was unable to revive it.

We reached Vogel Park, and then back into city limits.  I was so exhausted, drained, and drenched at this point that my fear of the other cyclists had withered away.  They were probably fearing me.

Would I do it again?  Sure.  But I would follow these 3 simple rules....

1. Only sunny days so I can soak in the scenery 
2. I must be well rested, or at least highly caffeinated
3. No hideous ponchos allowed within 100 feet of historical windmills

P.S.  Three days later when I was making funeral arrangements for my camera it miraculously came back to life! Hooray!

Date Accomplished:  October 19th, 2011

Rent Cruiser Bikes And Ride Them Along Venice Beach

I have never been to Venice Beach, but I had seen enough shows and movies located there to know one of the top things to do there is to rent a cruiser and bike along the boardwalk.  I also learned that this is also the place to get marijuana.  For a second there I had to rub my eyes to make sure I wasn't in Amsterdam. 

Venice Beach

The people of Venice Beach are different.  They even had a museum called "Freaks of Venice."  I thought to myself, "Why do I have to pay $5 when I can just walk the boardwalk and meet all kinds of freaks."  A few times Cathy and I got pretty scared because people that were obviously under the influence (likely of a combination of many things) were running towards us.  I have traveled the world and have been to some shady places and in scary situations (heck, one time in Time Square a guy pulled out a knife about 2 feet from me!), but Venice was a melting pot of odd people.

Santa Monica Beach

We rented some cruisers for an hour (the cruiser wasn't as good as the one I have at home), and biked along the boardwalk all the way to Santa Monica Pier!  My biggest advice to anyone wanting to do this is to bike from the end of Venice to Santa Monica since the boardwalk is a lot wider and safer, the boardwalk along Venice was real narrow at parts and I almost crashed into people several times.  Despite me being so negative about Venice Beach itself, it was still a great thing to do on a SoCal summer day. 

On our way to Santa Monica

Taking selfer photos while riding a bike was not as easy as I thought

Santa Monica Pier in the background

Date Accomplished:  June 25th, 2010