Yangshuo was the countryside we'd been expecting in Guilin, the main centre was the Chinese equivalent of a holiday resort but cycle 10 minutes out and you could be surrounded by Karst peaks and rice paddies.

On our first day I decided I was going to get back on a bike after my fall in Vietnam, we cycled out of town and started following the Yulong River up to Dragons Bridge which is an ancient bridge in Yangshuo. The scenery is amazing here, green rice paddies, beautiful stretches of river it was a really nice 10km + cycle to the bridge.

Once there we crossed over and decided to cycle down the opposite side of the river. At some point we must have taken a wrong turn as we ended up on overgrown paths and having to push our bikes through and eventually we came out into what must have been someone's back garden. Clearly this must be a regular occurrence as the man sat on his back step didn't seem phased and waved us in the right direction.

About halfway back we had to cross a bridge to the opposite side of the river, once on it we couldn't believe what we were seeing. There were 100's of bamboo rafts floating towards the bridge with brightly coloured parasols on and 100's that had already floated past. We've never seen so many people on a river at the same time. It wasn't the idyllic setting we'd cycled past a few hours earlier. We decided to dangle our legs over the bridge and have 10 minutes. We were like the local celebrities, everyone was taking our picture, the raft men were flicking water at us so we got in the spirit and sat there posing giving everyone the peace sign (they're favourite pose out here). Another completely bonkers moment in China.

On day 2 we thought we'd risk another bike ride as I'd managed not to fall off the day before. We were supposed to be cycling about 25km like the previous day but unfortunately we ended up doing more like 45km but we'll go into that in a bit.

First we cycled to moon hill which is a large hill with an archway and you can climb the 800 steps to the top to get some amazing views. You have to pay to see pretty much all the natural attractions but it's never too expensive, this was only £1.50 each but a little old lady was outside and said she'd get us in for 50p each if we followed her. Bearing in mind we've been scammed so many times Casson was reluctant to go with her but I'd read about a back entrance locals used so thought we should. We followed her down the road and round the corner and then she had us scale a wall to bypass the ticket booth! Genius.....

After this we carried on cycling following some directions we'd got off the internet, it was so nice and we must have cycled for hours, Casson was slightly concerned that we seemed to be going deeper into the countryside but the directions fit, eventually we came to a town and crossed the river we'd been looking for. Unfortunately we soon realised we'd arrived at the wrong town and crossed the wrong river, we'd cycled well out of our way.

After playing charades with some locals and getting nowhere Casson went into a bank and luckily there was someone who spoke a little English, unfortunately she told us we were over 3 hours away, by that point we should have almost been back. Our asses were dead, we were knackered, this wasn't what we wanted to hear!

Off we went with not really any clue where we were going, we were slightly concerned that if we kept getting lost we may not make it back before dark .... we got lost at least twice more. In fairness the views were incredible but by this point we just wanted to get back, it seemed never ending. Eventually we came to what we presumed was Yangshuo but we weren't certain which end (and it's pretty big). We picked some beers up to take back to the hotel to drink on the roof terrace and carried on. As we went round the corner Casson said he thought we were at the opposite end of our road to where we were staying, the conversation went like this:

Casson: This is it, i think we're at the opposite end of our street we're almost there

Me: don't tell me that unless you're positive

Casson: I am, let's go

Me: I can't make it, I'm too tired, leave the beers with me and I'll die happy by the side of the road

Casson: Nooooooooo, come on, you can do it. PEDAL

Bear in mind we're cycling whilst having this conversation so it wasn't quiet, I'm nothing if not dramatic! We'd managed that whole bike ride on 2 banana's and 2 satsumas each so that night we blew the budget and went for a curry.

Our final day here we decided to hike the river Li from Xingping to Yangdi which is about a 5 hour walk. Unfortunately we hadn't really given ourselves enough time to get back for the last bus so we powered through about 15km and then got a bamboo raft for the last 9km, again the scenery was amazing.

Yangshuo in the evening is mental, there's a pedestrian street and it's the loudest, busiest street we've seen yet. At the start there are about 35 women lined up all wearing similar but different dresses, they then have about 10 of the dress they're wearing over their arms as they're selling them. Casson was fascinated and insisted on filming it, we'll upload to Facebook soon.

The street is lined with shops, restaurants and bars, outside the restaurants there are people with amps and guitars who will stand and sing, unfortunately you might have 4 right next to each other so it's a case of who's got the biggest amp and they all sound awful, not one of them can actually sing.

General points:
1) If you want any useless tat, preferably of the neon variety come to China

2) We've noticed a lot of couples in completely matching outfits, I think this could be a good look for Casson and I, we can definitely see it catching on in the UK

3) Everywhere we've been in China the pavements have been really slippy, especially if wet. In Shenzhen I slipped and ending up doing a form of lunge with my right leg and landed on my left knee and since then I've almost gone flying loads of times. I said I was like Bambi on ice, Casson's reply? "Don't you mean dumbo on ice"? I thought he was calling me fat but apparently it's because I've got a nose as big as an elephant's trunk and I stomp about, I think I'd have preferred it if he was calling me fat!