In order to get to the rice terraces we had to take a 4 hour death ride coach from Guilin 900m up in to the mountains.The ride was pretty rough, we got as far as our tour bus could take usand had to change for another 30 minute local bus, when we finally got tothe top we had an hour trek up to our guest house (luckily we were able to leave our big bags in Guilin).I'm sure the views would have been absolutely stunning had it not been foggy!

The guest house cooked us lunch, which seemed very nice at the time but within about 40 minutes I was being ill, one by one 9 of the 16 in the group were all in the same vote.I don't think we would have felt quite so vulnerable had we not been stuck with squat toilets, paper thin walls and hours from civilization!The group really pulled together to help each other & make sure we were all ok, being sick when you are away from home really sucks, so it was reassuring to know that everyone was looking out for each other.

Luckily I felt a bit better after a nights rest and decide to brave the 6 hour trek through the terraces, a few of the others weren't so fortunate and opted to hike back down and take a bus to our next guest house.

The temperature was still pretty low and visibility was sketchy, but the hike was good fun. It was hard work at times as morale was low because we couldn't see what we had come to see!Still all in all it was good fun.

We arrived at the next guest house, which again was just a glorified shed, no insulation, no heating to speak of and more paper thin walls! We were sat in the dining room eating dinner and our breath was freezing as we were eating, I was wearing my thermals, trekking trousers, a long sleeved tee, a short sleeved tee, my fleece, scarf & wooly hat and I was still cold!I decided that a vodka coat was needed, Chinese vodka on a dodgy stomach do not mix, so I was back to square one!I'd had enough, I was off to bed (fully clothed).

After a short hike down from the guest house, we were glad to be back on the death bus and en-route to collect our bags and join the warm overnight train to Hong Kong.Not a journey I had been looking forward to as we would be loosing seven of the group and we had some newbies joining us!