Chance Meeting in South China

Travelin' Tish Hendershot and Tami Quest

I think we have a new category in our "heroes" gallery.

Perhaps it had to happen eventually. If you're out here on the road long enough, you start bumping into other travelers who you've met one, two or three countries prior. It doesn't occur often but we've met familiar backpacker types in back alley eateries or sitting at the other end of a restaurant full of people - sometimes months and months after last seeing them. Maybe your eyes develop a latent sensitivity to picking the known from masses of unfamiliar faces teeming the cities and streets of Asia.

That might help explain my reaction a few nights back while Tami and I were eating dinner on a side street in Yangshuo, a tourist destination in Guanxi Province. It was a Saturday night and the street outside had a steady stream of strollers like the midway at a fair. Suddenly, a profile and walk looked distantly familiar. Without even thinking, I got up, ran around the corner and tentatively uttered the name of the person I thought it was - "Tish?" She turned around with an "I've just seen a ghost" look but we knew right away we'd just made a very, very....very low-probability connection.

For the first few minutes I think we were all too stunned to say much. After we came back down to earth, we realized that Tish had some time, we had some time and so, we spent the next four days doing a bike tour around some of the most sublimely beautiful country on this planet.

Back to front: David, Tamara, Tami, Tish, Sarah

I've known Tish from San Francisco for quite a few years now. Her work takes her all over the world but I was still stunned to meet up with her unexpectedly. As a further note of coincidence, a few years ago, Tish bumped into Captain Ken on a street in Bangkok - the same Captain Ken who just visited us! Tish and Ken get around.

She was in Yangshuo because she'd just finished a project up in Beijing and Shanghai. She came south with some friends and we all rode to Fuli town the next day to a market.

Man at the Fuli Market selling all manner of creepy crawlies that bit stung and otherwise apparently work wonders when rendered in rice whiskey for you to drink or rub on that aching joint. The original snake oil? Note the elderly patrons to his left.

The day after, we headed north into the countryside with the town of Xiping as our destination. No decent maps were available so we set off with a hand-rendered tourist diagram and asked farmers along the way for guidance. What we thought would be easy to reach in a day proved utterly elusive with only an hour or so of light left. We covered a lot of ground but we had yet to cross (or find a ferry to take us across) the Li River. Plus, every time we asked people which direction to Xiping, they invariably got agitated and launched into an indecipherable monologue in Chinese.

David practices some circus moves during recess.

Luck was with us, though. As we entered a small village, two people were motioning animatedly for us to go just up the hill to . . . what looked like a small guesthouse. Low and behold, after riding for seven and a half hours through nothing but seventeenth century farmland, we'd found refuge. The proprietor, Zhao Qiao Young, could not have been happier to see us nor more hospitable. He loaded his refrigerator with coveted beers and we settled into a long spell of relaxation.



Things at Camp Zhao were so comfy, in fact, that we stayed for a full extra day just to explore and soak up the beauty of the area.

Tami, Mr. Zhao and Tish above the Li River

We finally did make it to Xiping - two days later than planned but I remember no one complaining. Tish departed north and Tami and I, as our visa was running out, made for the Vietnamese border. If life's best pleasures are those that come unexpected, Tish helped make our already wonderful time in China that much more magical.