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084 - Yangshuo, China

Our overnight sleeper train arrived at Guilin at about 7am. Adrian our guide was caught a bit unawares because this is the earliest time the train had arrived. We got a bus to Yangshuo which was about an hour away. This bus kept stopping every 100 yards trying to pick up anyone going to Yangshuo. It came to a stage when I felt like buying all the remaining seats for a total cost of about a pound so we could carry on with our journey.

Instead, I decided to suck up the beautiful scenery, people going to work, a non stop stream of VW Jettas and some unorthodox but very effective modified forms of transport as seen from the window of my seat on the bus. I was getting excited at these mechanical contraptions and trying to share it with Julie without much luck. I was sad at her disinterest but I guess it is the same when she is enthused about things I find drab. I continued to stare at the amazing China with a bit of a sulk.

We were so early that our rooms were not ready at the hotel. Adrian took us to a place he knew for breakfast. After a huge European breakfast, we went on a 5 hour cycle ride. It wasn't hard physically but I know I will be aching all over in 2 days. This included a little detour to climb a massive hill. The scenery was similar to the stacks near James Bond island in Thailand but these of course were not on the sea but in land. The hills were not very tall (only about 500 metres) but they went straight up. The cycle ride was a sweaty affair and included dodging water buffalos and a river crossing.

Afterwards, it was so nice to come to a nice hotel room, shower and relax for a little while. I was a bit cheesed off with the television because the AV ports weren't working. We took some clothes to the laundry and internet before meeting up with the group. Then we proceeded to China Café. We were served with a banquet of many Chinese dishes which kept coming in a steady stream – all tasty and unusual. Talking of unusual food – the Chinese love them. During the meal, news came through that the other Intrepid group who were on a balloon trip had come to an unfortunate end. The balloon had crashed and bounced of a ledge on a hill. A couple had very serious back injuries and had to be flown to Hong Kong for treatment. The others were not too well either. We were supposed to be going up on that balloon on our last day. It looks as if that is not going to happen.

We have seen some goodies on the menus such as the following:
Deep fried frog
Bloody snake (rare, like in steak cooked for a short time)
Dog
Rat
Bugs of all kind

After the meal, the others went to see a live band. I came back to the hotel to listen to Pink Floyd. Julie strolled in many hours later totally plastered and feeling very ill. Not wanting to risk waking up in a puddle of sick, I slept on the spare bed.

Next morning, 3 out of 7 people including Julie dropped out of the boat trip due to alcohol induced illnesses. We had to take a bus and a walk via the guide's coffee shop to get to the boat. We were going on an unlicensed boat at 5% of the tourist price. The views on the river Li were spectacular with steep hills with misty tops looking like upside down ice cream cones. Some were thick with vegetation and others were stony enough for adventurers to climb and do their mission impossible stunts on. We stopped to look at a cormorant fishing boat. Fishermen train these birds to fish for them.

Our next stop was a fishing village. The buildings in this place must have been hundreds of years old with old fashioned curly roofs and narrow alleys. Vendors either side of the narrow alleys were selling the same stuff to tourists, for some reason the prices on some stalls were 3 times the price of others. The food vendors believed in fresh food and had buckets containing fish, crabs, shrimps etc still swimming around. On demand, they would spear your chosen creature and fry it in front of you or if you preferred a more lingering death spectacle, they would oblige willingly by grilling it. The village reminded me of the buildings I had seen on the 70s cult tv series Monkey. Bill Clinton had been to this place with Hilary and Chelsea. Some houses had many photos of the famous family taken during their visit.

It was about 5pm when we finally returned to Yangshuo. In the evening, we went for another joint meal before going to watch Adrian playing guitar and singing a little at Bar 98.

Our final day was marred by non stop rain from dawn till dusk. We checked out of our rooms at the last possible minute and then spent about four hours on the internet. After a meal at the Stone Roses café, we got a bus to the airport in the pouring rain. The plane was delayed due to a crash at our destination airport of Chungquing but we managed to get there without much hassle.

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