Hey, We have now been in Yangshuo for four days and three nights now. Yangshuo is great and the only way i can describe it is that its like the Ibiza of China!!! its very south so the weather has been abot 30c each day. The first day we arrived here we pretty much dropped our bags of at the hostel and heading for the local mud caves. The caves were great and we all got cked in mud from head to toe!!! We have some great photos! The hostel that we booked into is called Monkey Janes. It has a roof top bar with great views over the town and mountains. The reason that i said the hostel that we had booked into is because after we had gone out for a few drinks on our first night........we came home slightly drunk to a rather large brown furry friend sleeping on my bed!!!!!! yes a rat!!!! It was about the size aof a small cat!!!!! as you can amaging Belen woke up everyone in the hostel with her screaming!!!!! After the room had been checked by one of the staff from the hostel we decided to go to bed. We were later disturbed by the sound of scratching and chewing as the rat tried to get back into the room!!!!!! So i got up and put the light on, as i did so the rat then scurried along the corridor, so we decided to put the light off but lay a towel under the door. Anyway this went on all night and when we got up in the morning there was a massive hole in my towel where the rat had been chewing all night!! We decide as soon as the sun came up to check out of Monkey Janes and into a nice hotel called Youth Hostel. It was more expensive but atleast we could have a good nights sleep. The second day we had a relaxing day to get over the stress from the night before, but later on at night we went on a fishing trip with local fisherman who use cormeran birds to fish for them. It was amazing to see these large birds sitting on the boat like pets and then just as soon as they seen a large fish they would jump into the water and bring it back to the fisherman. The tour cost about 3 pounds each and was well worth it. Yesterday we went on a bamboo raft down the Li river with two of our friends. It was really nice and relaxing. Every so often we would pass a group of Buffalo in the water and they would come right next to the boat. We have some great photos, but the internet is very slow in Yangshuo, so we are going to wait until we arrive in Hong kong tomorrow afternoon and upload them then. Im really glad we came to Yangshuo as it is by far my favourite place in China!!! there is so many tours to do in the day here and then at night there are plenty of good restaurants, bars and clubs also. Kind of sad to be going, but really looking forward to Hong kong, as we are meeting up with another couple of our friends there.

Uncle John - We have not tried dog or cat. Well as far as we know anyway, but the local food here is Bamboo rat!!!! so we should have caught the rat in our room and had a barbeque!!!!!!

Heather- Is Coco okay??, as Belen was telling me that he was barking all the time????

Kev - Hope the house warming went well. Wish i could have been there, but unfortunatel i have had to travel around china. Damn!!!

Mike - Where is your new place??

Frase- how was america??? oh i got a pair of custom vans done over here. The guy hand painted them for me. I will have pics of them up soon. Oh and they only cost 5 pounds!!!

Dad & Mum - Is everything going well with building the house??? Is it still starting next month

Espanol

Ahora estamos Yangshuo, un pueblo muy bonito pero hay bastantes turistas chinos y japoneses por aqui. Creo que en esta zona no tienen muchos problemas con las cucarachas pero mateo y yo nos hemos percatado de que lo tienen con las ratas. La otra noche cuando salimos vino un chico en nuestro grupo del hostal y nos dijo que alguien habia visto una rata etc. Cuando volvimos de cenar mateo entro a la habitacion antes que yo y me dijo no entres que hay una rata, yo pensaba que estaba de broma pero la rata salio disparada de la habitacion salto mi mochila y no la vimos mas. Pusimos una toalla debajo de la puerta por si las moscas, por la noche escuchamos ruidos en la puerta, era la rata que queria entrar, por la manana levante la toalla y habia un agujero bastante grande en la toalla. Bueno ya no estamos en ese hostal nos cambiamos, le dije a la mujer del hostal que queria una toalla nueva y me dijo que si o que me la podia arreglar! Le dije nueva gracias. Por aqui hay bastantes cosas que hacer, hemos ido a unas cuevas, a ver los cormeranes pescar y hemos hecho bamboo rafting en el rio, bueno mas bien era pasear en una barca de bamboo pero las vistas eran muy buenas. Esta noche vamos en autobus a Hong Kong, en el autobus hay camas y tarda unas 9 horas o asi. Tengo ganas ya de ir a Hong Kong y poder ir a un wc normal y que nos podamos entender un poco mejor con la gente. Hemos aprendido un poco de chino y ayuda. La otra noche le dije a un chino algo en chino y me empezo a hablar en chino pensando que yo sabia hablar, le dije no solo se algunas cosas! La comida esta buena, por aqui lo tipico es rata de bamboo y serpiente. Tambien hemos visto los perros que comen aqui, no es el tipico perrito, se parecen un poco a los zorros y son de un color rojizo. Bueno me tengo que ir, escribire desde Hong Kong. Muchos besos