We landed in Guilin at around 11pm and had a pickup arranged to our next hostel. We arrived and dumped the bags in the room and started making plans about what to do with our stay, Despite the time we sat up until 2am chatting with the hostel staff and trying to decide how to make the most of our 3 days there. We had been told previously that Yangshuo was the place to stay and that Guilin is mainly used as the way in and out. However, we had already booked 3 nights in Guilin and had thought we could maybe do a day trip to Yangshuo. The reception staff advised us to take a trip to the Li River, which then carried onto Yangshuo, we could then decide to stay there or get the last bus back.

We got up early the next day having decided we would go to the Li River and Yangshuo and that we would stay. We packed our day packs with essentials and left our larger rucksacks in lockers at the Guilin hostel. They were more than happy to keep our bags and refund our 2nd nights stay due to the fact we had booked on their tour. We arrived at Yangdi pier on the Li River and were loaded onto a motorised bamboo raft which took us on an hour and half cruise along the mystical waters. The Li River really does have spectacular scenery with large craggy peaks lining the waters edge. As we departed the raft and were making our way back to the coach, we spotted a familiar face, it was Stuart! A Scottish lad we had originally met in Shanghai and then bumped into again in Beijing. And here we all were again....just by random chance. We agreed to try and meet up later on.

We continued on our coach round to the Yulong River and the Dragon Bridge. By this point the sun had come out and it was really warm. The Yulong river has a strict rule of no motorised boats and so the waters were very clear and all the boats come complete with man and bamboo paddle. We climbed on board a 2 seater bamboo raft and were taken under the dragon bridge and down stream. We came to a large patch of green land jutting out into the river where we were told to get off the raft. From the neighbouring fields water buffalos were lead by their owners over to where we were stood. We had been told the buffalos were gentle creatures and so there was no issue in approaching them. We were given food and got to feed and stroke the buffalo....wonderful.

We were taken onto yangshuo and we found a hostel to stay in before setting out to find Stuarts hostel. Stuart had also had a busy day and had walked all around the Li River and made friends with 3 Aussies. So, 1 Scotsman, 2 English and 3 Aussies all sat down for pizza and beer in the lively town of Yangshuo. The following day the 6 of us hired bikes and went on an all day cycle trip. We strayed off the beaten track a couple of times (or got lost!!) but got to see some of the rural areas of China and the locals hard at work in their crop fields. One Aussie ended up in a bush and the other two cheated by rafting part of the way back :-) By the time we got back to Yangshuo with the bikes we were exhausted and decided if we could, we would stay and not get the late bus back to Guilin. We rang the hostel in Guilin to ask if they could keep our bags another night and then booked a second night in our Yangshuo hostel. We went out for a Chinese meal with the Aussies and Stuart again before finishing off the night with beers on a rooftop bar over looking the wierd craggy peaks and river.

The next day we caught the bus back to Guilin to collect our bags and then set off for our next overnight train experience to Hong Kong.