hi!

Headed down to south of China to a town called Guilin ..wasnt that much to do there, and the hostel was freezing! Though id ike to add that they had some lovely dishes being prepared...anyone fancy chickens feet? or how about duck beak??  ....So today we headed down to Yangshou on a boat! We bought the trip from a dodgy looking street seller yesterday as we didnt want to pay the usual price! cost us 60 yen in the end instead of the usual 250 yen! This morning the same woman and a guy picked us up in this tiny people carrier and to be totally honest ....i was really scared!! suddenly thought they might be takin us somewhere to rob us or worse!! i even had my pen knife handy!!haha... think iv seen a few too many horror movies!! ....but i soon relaxed when they picked up another english couple from another hostel!! pheww!

The ride up the Li River itself was excellent! the four of us sailed in a small wooden chinese boat up the river taking about 2 hours, the view was amazing with towering limestone peaks covering either side of the river which shaddowed in the distance. It was totally as i imagined China to be! We stopped half way at some caves where it was great to sit and take in the view. we arrived at a small local town and docked next to a family what were washing their clothes in the water. We then took the small town bus into the town of Yangshou.

We have been in Yangshou so far for about 4 hours and so far we love it! Its great to be away from the big cities and although this place has adapted to tourists it still feels less touched here and we are looking forward to venturing out on bikes to see the surrounding areas and landsape! We are staying at a great little hostel..more like a hotel and its really cheap! we even have our own bathroom!yay! we need a good shower!! Think we might even treat ourselves to an alcoholic drink later for a change!! been a while!!

laters!!xx