So here we are.... In China! Alice and I were reunited (Alice had been touring Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand while I was in Africa) in Hong Kong airport where we went to meet our friend and ex-merchistonian Harris who we were going to be staying with for the week. Harris' flat was on the 35th floor of a very swanky tower block in Wan Chai on Hong Kong island... The central location and view out of our window were insane. We spent our week being real tourists, while taking our time to recover from jet lag and slowly adjust to the Chinese way of life. We visited the Peak Tram, Hong Kong Park, The Natural History Museum but the highlight was definitely our visits to Kowloon Island which we reached by the "Star Ferry". From the ferry you get spectacular views of both Hong Kong island and Kowloon island, and we managed to time it so that we saw it in daylight on our way, and in nighttime on our return. Our week passed very quickly and although we were going to miss the comfort of being around people we knew in the luxury of Harris' flat... We were ready, and excited, for crossing the border into China.
So on the 18th, we got the train at Hong Kong and a few hours later we had arrived in the concrete jungle that was Guangzhou. Our time in Guangzhou was definitely not quite as relaxing; our overnight stop-over turned into a bit of a trauma; being forced to overcome the obstacles of cheeky taxi drivers, incorrect directions, a vital lack of chinese, missed trains, heavy thunderstorms, dodgy hostels and a lost bag. However we eventually managed to escape by means of the 13 hour train to our next stop, Guilin.
We disembarked the train to blue skies, beautiful sunshine and the most spectacular scenery... we were feeling better already. The landscape is Karst and is surrounded by tall, grassy mounds which look as though they have been plucked up from the ground (my descriptions really wont be able to do the views justice... you'll have to look at the photos!) We directly got the bus to the beautiful rural town of Yangshuo which is where we are now. We are staying a lovely rustic hostel (if you could call it that...) called "Yangshuo Outside Inn" which is 4km from the main town of Yangshou. Everyone cycles so we have hired bikes the past few days and one day plan to hire a tandem.... which could be put our friendship to the test...! We spent our first day cycling around the town, wandering through various markets and streets where we came across buckets of eels, netted toads and lots of chinese scarves and fans. When we got back, Wendy, one of the girls who works at the hostel invited us to climb one of the nearby hills to watch the sun set. So we followed Wendy (who turned out to be quite the rock climber) up rocky faces, through bamboo thickets and over big boulders until we reached the peak. The view was absolutely breathtaking. Hopefully from the photos you'll be able to see how we managed to see the village as well as the sun gently sinking behind the peaks.
Yesterday we awoke to more blue skies and so decided to cycle to Moon Hill and then visit the "Moon Water Caves". The bike ride to Moon Hill took about 45mins (although perhaps it was a little longer, for whenever we stopped to check the map we would be engulfed by a swarms of locals calling to us "you so beautiful- can we take photo?" as they gathered around us as we remained perched, awkwardly, on our saddles). Moon Hill itself is named due to the round hole in its middle which, depending from which angle you look at it, resembles the moon at different phases. After ascending, and then descending the 800 steps, we then cycled, with slightly burning thighs, along to the "Moon Water Caves" where we were told to strip down to our swimming costumes and put a helmet on for our boat ride, and then walk (although crouched-shuffle may be a more apt description) around the limestone caves. Our guide expertly pointed out the various stalactites and stalagmites which resembled "sleeping tiger", "flower upside-down", or even "the titanic", but thanks to the Geography trip to Malham Cove in Lower 6 I managed pull together a vague explanation to how everything was formed... (I think I may have to read over my notes before term starts in September however...) We were then lead to mud pools followed by hot springs for us to wash off the mud (although I don't think my bikini will every quite reach the same shade of pink again...!)
Our time in Hong Kong and China has been incredible thus far, although our time in Guangzhou proved really difficult; it's taught us that without the lows you wont have the highs and right now, we are basking in the highs.... And looking forward for the highs to be elevated as we begin to venture North.
JHJ