Our adventure in Guilin started with a cruise along the Li River to Yangshuo. At this time of year 60 boats leave in convoy with approx 100 people in each. The trip includes a Chinese buffet lunch which is prepared in a small kitchen on the back of the boat - not exactly Gordon Ramsay style. Unfortunately the weather was wet and humid with a continuous haze which spoilt the scenery. However, we still found it quite unique and it was peaceful cruising along even with the activity of river life. They fish on bamboo rafts and the adventurous salesman hooked the raft to the side of the boat to sell their wares. There is plenty of poverty here as well but again they seem quite content with life.

We docked in Yangshuo to be greeted by thousands of traders who quickly dropped their price when you declined the offers. There might be 9 million bicycles in Beijing but we think there are 28 million here. It seems that huge numbers of Australians and Europeans come on cycling holidays here and they have millions of tourists in this area who all seem to hire bikes, needless to say the Tozers didn't and opted for the electric car.

We visited a local Chinese family's house. We were told they were 13th generation and the house did seem old. We tried our hand at pumping water and grinding beans to make curd. The keep fit regime is lifting stones varying in weight from 25 to 180 kilos. The 70 year old grandad could move the heaviest one!! The other odd thing was that the oldest members of the family had already made their coffins. It seems that if you can afford to make your coffin ready for your funeral you are considered not to be really poor. Our guide informed us that this family are paid a yearly sum by the travel companies to keep the house in its present condition.

In the evening we went to a show set on a lake - it was amazing. The backdrop for the show was the local mountain scenery which was a rare sight and the cast was 600 local Chinese people. The director of the show is the person in charge of the Olympic opening ceremony so it should be quite spectacular.

Today we have visited Reed Flute Caves and our guide insisted they were the best in the world. They were the normal stalagmites and stalagtites and made impressive with laser lights and music and we played the normal game of find the budha, monkey, lion, dragon and even Father Christmas. When the guide asked Ray what he could see he kept on saying sea lions but the guide did not agree but eventually found it funny and cottoned on to Ray's sense of humour. Elephant Trunk Park followed and more Chinese food.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Hong Kong and we are looking forward to being on our own. We have decided that although we have had a brilliant time we are not really organised tour people. We also never thought we would ever say "No more food please!!!" We may not have learnt to speak Chinese but we are fairly fluent in chopsticks!

Keep reading and we promise photos will follow soon. We are missing everybody.

Jen and Ray