Shaxi

Tree lined small streets with sneaky little alleyways darting off in all directions and an atmosphere that made you feel at ease from the second you were there. Shaxi was a really nice relaxing, peaceful and calm place where we got to wander streets without being harassed and just take in the serenity.

Round one of finding somewhere to stay and relax for a couple of days began with a ¥480 deluxe room at boutique hotel. Then we discovered a peaceful little room at a neighboring guesthouse for a fraction of the price. Great. No wait, is there any power here? Yes at 4pm... we will turn on the generator a stones throw from your room. Not great for the next 48 hours of relaxing. Kindly the lady who ran the place gave us our money back when we asked and appolgised for the generator. She even went to the the extent of lining up a room for us at the place next door. We kindly declined wanting to get away from the noise.

Round two involved scouting many other hotels and guesthouses for about an hour only to find them all rather expensive, although they did have power. A little disheartened we tried the Tea and Horse Caravan Trail Inn again for a room the owner had said we could have for ¥100. Power, yes. Quiet, yes. We'll take it.

A fantastic choice. It set the scene for our time in Shaxi. The owner was super friendly, interested in our travels (showed us some photos of other cyclist he had hosted), helpful at every moment possible and gave the gift Kate had been waiting for; filtered coffee. It came in a packet but had its own strainer, was proper coffee and tasted great! We also met a lovely Dutch family that were staying next to us who were travelling for 5 1/2 months so got to shared many stories and get some info on the places we were heading for.

On our day off the bikes we went for an unexpectably long 2 hour run/walk into the surrounding hills. It was our first day of sunshine for several days and we sweated up a storm as we climbed up a valley past some old monestries set in the rocks to discover the local GIANT tiger eating spiders that hid in the small cracks of the pathway steps. We narrowly escaped being dragged into the death holes, cocooned in a web and slowly devoured by spider death fangs the size of small elephant trunks. Then Kate spotted ticks on the long grass overhanging the pathway. We hadn't become host to any of the little death eaters yet so we continued along leaping and dodging all long dangly things. We made it to the end of the track and arrived at Shibaoshan Temple and Grottoes with the road meeting us at a carpark and some tourists peacefully eating lunch and sweating a whole lot less. We circled around and checked out the area taking in the cool view of the mountains surrounding us. The track back down was unknown and we were a little weary of havimg to dodge tick grass all the way back. Our path started out clear and wide then following the good old GPS map we turned off on to some great trails that spat us out back down on the road with big grins, no ticks and no tiger eating spiders chasing after us.

The less worn track down hill

Carvings on the way up the hill

Lunch for Calvin was a delicious pottle of spicy deep fried potato chips (that set his lips on fire after eating them) and two even tastier hotdog wraps. Kate very healthily ate a self prepared salad and fruit.

Shaxi was a highlight of China for us. We left feeling we could have stayed much longer but still very happy with our peaceful time there. Upon leaving the hotel Kate mentioned to the owner she was keeping the second coffee he gave her for her birthday in a few days. On that note the owner disappeared and brought back four more packs. Awesome.