Day Twenty-Seven

Lotus Park, Yangshuo Park & Sports Stadium

Not such an early start again today, to be honest I think we are still sore & shattered from the gruelling bike ride. Breakfast this morning was porridge in bed. We got our little camping dishes & cutlery sets out & borrowed a kettle from reception. Last night on the way back to the hostel we decided to pick up some porridge oats & give it a go. It was successful & it was lovely & made a nice change. We got the bag of strange fruit that we bought in the market yesterday & using my Swiss Army Knife we cut open some of the fruit it give it a try. First we ate a star fruit & it was quite weird, it had the texture of a pineapple but a strange after taste. Next we cut open the dragon fruit, inside it looked exceptionally strange & to be honest it had no taste at all. It was so boring only half got ate & the rest got chucked in the bin.

We decided to venture out & explore the Lotus Park. It was just situated at the back of our hostel so we got ready & headed out. We had to pay to get in to the park but it seemed quite nice & the area was peaceful as nobody was around. There were a few pagodas that we sat just off the cliffs & we had lovely views of the Li River. We walked up some steps which led us higher & higher on the mountain. There was a set of stone chairs & a table so at the point where you were not allowed to walk any further we sat there for a while & read from out Lonely Planet book about Hong Kong which was going to be our next stop.

Time to trek back down, we went a different route this time. We took the steps on the opposite side where we had come up to go back down. There wasn't much else to see there so we left & headed for Yangshuo Park. We walked around the street & the area exploring all the books & crannies as we went. We found some nice little streets which we hadn't ventured to before & there was lots more bars & shops too.

We entered the park under a little archway & it was quite busy, that might have been the fact that it was a Sunday. On the left to the entrance of the park there was a little children's fun fair with the mini fair ground rides & attractions but there was a merry-go-round with the horses & we were killing ourselves laughing because the music that was playing was jingle bells. It was almost as funny as hearing the happy birthday tune on a bus in Beijing. Walking further in to the park there was a squared area place for people to practice Tai Chi. In fact we seen 2 western men doing Tia Chi in this area so we stood & watched them for a while.

Around the Tai Chi area was a path which you could walk along so we followed it around. It lead us under trees & over little bridges which had lakes under them. The park was only quite small & we managed to cover a lot of ground quickly. Before we knew it we were 3/4 of the way round. Andy saw a fisherman & his daughter on the side of one of the lakes so we went over to take a closer look. As we got closer we heard some music & there were little wrought iron gates just at the side, that's where the music was coming from so I went to have a peek. As I looked through the gates there where woman dancing with big red fans & other women were shaking cloth that had bells attached to it. I watched in amazement as I had not seen dancing like this before. Right in the middle of all the dancing women was a man. He was also dancing but he was the best dancer out of the lot. To be honest I think he may have been some kind of dance teacher. The dance was so graceful & the music was so soft I could have stood & watched them for hours.

With the time cracking on we finished walking around the park so we headed to a little sports stadium that Andy had spotted when we were coming in to Yangshuo. The stadium was only small & the place & seating area was made out of concrete & the roof looked like it was made from congregated iron. Inside there were men playing basket ball, men & women jumping with a massive skipping rope & the there were people playing badminton. There were little kids with a coach & they were practising their badminton shots. There was one tiny little boy & he was cracking at it, he was really fast & sometimes he was giving the coach a run for his money. We sat there for about an hour & then it started to get dark so we headed back to our hostel. I had a little mess about on the computer whilst Andy caught 40 winks. I woke Andy up for dinner & we headed out to the same restaurant we went to last night as it was so nice. As we approached the restaurant which was next to Lucy's Cafe where we had breakfast the other morning we could hear all this commotion & loud music playing. The odd time there were fire crackers shooting off & singing, we wondered what the hell was going on.

We got closer & everything seemed to get louder. We had reached the restaurant but the noise & fuss was coming from Lucy's Cafe so we went to find out what was happening before we sat & ate in the restaurant next door. Actually inside Lucy's Cafe there were flowers & petals all over the floor, there were lots of people dressed like they way we dress children who play shepherds in the nativity play. They had white cloths on their heads & little cloaks & there was also many many people sitting around with many tables & chairs positioned in the street looking in & facing the Cafe. Further inside the cafe when our eyes wandered past the people kneeling on the floor was a big massive colourful box which had a picture if an old lady stuck on the front. It quickly & sharply became apparent that it was a funeral.

Excitement over we sat & enjoyed our meals. We had both ordered mixed grills & that's exactly what we got if you know what I mean! Hahaha! Andy was dubious but I as usual rammed my food in not even thinking what it was, I actually thought it weren't too bad & I picked on what Andy had left so it was all good. McDonalds again for another ice-cream - seriously if we eat anymore ice-cream I will end up growing wafers out of my ears hahaha!

Back in the hostel we used Skype so Andy could contact his family & also watch the Everton game on the Internet at the same time. As someone else wanted to use the computer we had to get off so we went for a walk on the main street to see if any bars were playing English football. There was no joy so we headed back to the hostel & chilled on the sofas whilst watching a bit of David Attenbougha. After the programme had finished we started to mess around on Yau's laptop & that's when Ana the lovely Argentina lady joined us. We all sat on the sofas chatting away about all kinds if funny things. Yau was telling us about his experience of ladyboys in Cambodia & fighting with them. We wish we could take Yau home because his explanations, pronunciations & animations are hilarious - he is an exceptional funny guy. We then began trying to explain about Black Lace's Gang Bang sound from the movie Rita, Sue & Bob Too. Ana was searching in Spanish for the meaning of gangbang & couldn't believe what she was reading, we were looking at different meanings of things on the Internet & seriously we have never laughed so hard in our life's trying to explain some crazy English things. Before we knew it we checked the clock & it was 2am.

Time for sleep as we were off bamboo rafting on the Li River tomorrow......