25/3 - arrived in guillin and got the bus straight to a small town called yangshou which is quite popular with backpackers. the bus ride was nice because the limestone hills surrounding the road made for a nice view the whole way. After a couple of hours we arrived in yangshuo where we stayed in "fawlty towers" hotel, which was nice enough. The town was really nice, much more relaxed than the big cities we had been to so far but still with plenty to do, and plenty of nice bars and restaurants! and the karst limestone hills made for a good backdrop :) i think we just had a bit of orientation today then went for a meal and to a bar for some drinks and drinking games :P after that some of us went clubbing, whch was an experience :P Tom's dance off with a random middle aged chinese guy was legendary!

26/3 - I think today was rock cimbing! which was an amazing day!!! the weather was so nice, really sunny and hot and the climbing was so fun :) and the views spectacular when you reached the top! that evening us guys entered a pool comp in one of the bars, whcih was fun even though none of us won :(

27/3 - We had a cooking class today, after a bit of a lazy morning walking down through the market stalls by the river. The class started in the afternoon, first they took us to the food market to show us where they would get their fresh ingredients from. it was a market that sold all sorts of animals, we saw turtles, frogs, chickens, rabbits, eels, snails and even dogs ready to be sold for food! Then we went from there to a sort of farm house just outside of yangshuo where we were taught to cook some chinese dishes. It was a bit frantic cooking, having to chuck in ingredients or oil or water all the time, all dishes only took a coule of minutes to cook so it was hard to keep up with! We made some egg dumpling things which were amazing and quite easy to make. And made some dishes with eggplant (aubergine), chicken, beef and some other stuff. then we ate the stuff we made for dinner, it was all quite tasty :) It all reminded me a lot of "can't cook won't cook"! We then went from here to our next guesthouse, which was a group of farmhouses nearby, was very nice though!

28/3 - I think this was the day we had our bike ride, which was a very wet and muddy experience! We rode around for about an hour amongst the limestone mountains, which was very nice, and then climbed to the top of mt. moon (i think?), where there was a really nice view. and some old lady followed us all the way to the top trying to sell us water, postcards and other souvenir things, which was weird. I had to admire her spirit and energy, but it wasnt going to guilt me into buying anything :P we then went and had dinner in what i think was our guides house, he cooked for us, then rode back to the guesthouse. That night we watched the mask, it was awesome!