This was another one of my favorite places. My friends who came to China through ILP a few years ago told me I had to go here. So I really pushed for it to happen and my friends agreed to go there. Little did we know, we were going to the coolest place ever. Too bad we only planned for 1 night there!
If you want to see Fenghuang (which you totally do), click here!
The train from Zhangjiaie took us to a place called Jishuo where we had to get a bus to take us to Fenghuang. We were traveling on a huge holiday in China so there was TONS of traffic and it took us and extra hour to get there, but we finally got there. We met some awesome people on our way who offered to help us get to our hostel. If they wouldn't have helped us I honestly don't know if we would have found our way. Because it was the holiday, the whole entire city was literally PACKED with people. Shoulder to shoulder. It was insane. We passed all sorts of street vendors and stores and cute little shops. It was one happening place! Our hostel was right in the heart of all of the fun!
Once we got all settled and cleaned up, we ventured out into the madness. It was so much fun! When you are white in an Asian country, you can get away with a lot more than the average Asian. We found a real, legit ice cream shop that played American music at it so we obviously sang along with Taylor Swift as she told her boyfriend they were never ever getting back together.
One thing about Fenghuang is that there is tons of food. It all smelt so good and I wanted to try all of it, however it kind of backfired. Every single thing I bought either tasted AWFUL, or tried to kill me, literally.
The next day we just walked around and explored more. We walked across the bridges and had a jolly good time. Actually, everyone else had a jolly good time. I was still struggling with whatever sickness was trying to ruin me so I was kind of cranky, and then a bunch of people came and wanted pictures with me which is fine. However they ended up knocking my camera out of my hand and putting a big dent right in the lense. I got really angry and decided to not talk to anyone for a while so I didn't hurt them. I just wanted all of the Chinese people to go away, and I wanted good food, and my bed, and my mom.
HERE COMES THE MOST EXCITING/TERRIFYING PART OF THE ENTIRE TRIP.
After our stay in Fenghuang, we needed to find a bus to take us back to Jishuo so we could catch our next train. However after a series of unfortunate events, we found out there would be no more buses leaving until the next day. This would not do. We found some people who spoke English to help us try and find a taxi to take us! However none of the Taxis were even taking passengers because of the traffic. We had no clue what to do. If we stayed in Fenghuang we would miss our train, and we wouldn't have any place to stay! We HAD to make it to the train station and we were running out of time.
As we were in a panic trying to figure out what to do, a few motor taxi drivers came and offered to take us. The thought was kind of absurd seeing as Jishuo is a good two hours away...however we were hopeless and desperate so we jumped on. 4 motorcycles, two girls on each motorcycle, with our huge backpacks...I still can't believe we did that. But we did. We took off, trying to squeeze our way past buses and cars full of people, bumper to bumper. About 10 minutes into the ride the second taxi broke down. The first taxi didn't notice and kept going, luckily my taxi and one other taxi was still behind them so we stopped to make sure they were okay. We ended up waiting about 15 minutes to find another taxi driver and then we took off again. Between all the traffic we all got separated, which I was fine with until we turned off onto a dark, creepy, lonely road.
At this point I literally was preparing for the worst. I was with a strange man who I didn't know at all, who I couldn't even speak to if I tried. We were driving down and empty, dark road, passing random strange creepy people walking on the side. My phone was dead so I didn't have any way to call anyone if I needed to. I didn't have any important numbers memorized. I was with another girl who was even more terrified than me so I had to be calm and collected for her sake. We were squished on a little motorcycle with our backpacks hanging off to our sides. And it started to rain. All I had on was shorts and a little sweater.
Then all of a sudden the driver pulls up next to this building. I honestly started preparing an escape plan. I was terrified. He pulled out a bag and started ruffling through it, trying to find something. Then he pulled out a rain coat and told me to put it on...hahaha. PHEW! He was just being a nice man, trying to take care of me. I put on the coat and we took off again. Even though he was kind, I still had my gaurd up. We were still traveling down some creepy roads. We had been going for a little over and hour when his phone rang and we stopped again. At his point, my tailbone felt like death from the position I was sitting in. A few minutes after we stopped another motorcycle pulled up next to us. My first thought was, "Great. This is his friend who is going to help him murder us." However, as I looked I saw my dear friend Rachel sitting on the back of the motorcycle. She looked at me with the most happy, yet terrified face ever. She was crying! I jumped off of my motorcycle and ran and gave her a big hug. The poor girl was alone on her bike and was just as scared as the two of us on my motorcycle! We all thought these men were going to do bad things with us, however the fact that we were both all in the same place was SO relieving. It gave us a sense of peace and comfort!
From that point on both of the motortaxi's stayed together until we finally reached the train station and met up with everyone else. I can't even explain to you how happy we all were! We were all equally as terrified, but we made it and we were all in one piece, with 10 minutes till our train left! We grabbed our bags and ran as fast as we could to make our train! We made it just in time and for some reason we were expecting to be able to relax on the train...hahahaha nice thought. Our seats were right next to the smoking section on the train. I literally spent 8 hours holding my scarf over my entire face so that I could breathe. I was having a hard time breathing without the smoke just because I was sick, so the smoke made it awful. There was also more trash on this train than any of the other ones. I was so grossed out. Longest 8 hours of my life.
I didn't ever think we'd make it to our next and final stop, however we did. In one piece.
HELLO YANGSHUO!
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