Well, our trip to Ping'an in Longsheng province, to visit the famous rice terraces, was quite an adventure! Unfortunately this is me trying to re-write the blog from Hong Kong, as we arrived back here this evening, as for some reason the one I tried to send early this morning wouldn't work. Also there was no picture of the Longji rice terraces in the STA website photo library, so these are something simillar from Pakistan!
We were sad to leave the Li River Retreat in Yangshuo, as we had been so well looked after by the lovely girls there. They had grown very fond of us too, and gave us lots of hugs when we were leaving. They all tried to hug Tony at the same time and then dissolved into fits of giggles. They had nicknamed him 'The Kind Man' while we were there, which of course he is! We had our usual taxi driver for the 4 hour journey, and then he was also going to stay the night in Ping'an and drive us to the airport in the morning. We'll be seeing you all very soon, so I won't go into all the details of the journey, but it was the usual mix of scary (but fairly skilful) driving - whilst apparently ranting at people on the mobile phone, us not knowing what on earth was going on most of the time, unscheduled stops for the driver to run errands, an unexpected but really lovely stop at a tea farm for a Chinese Tea Ceremony, altercations between the driver and the police over permits to enter the rice terrace area, altercations between Tony and the 'Long Hair' hill-tribe women trying to sell him postcards and trinkets through the car window, and finally, giving a lift for the last 17 km to a man who may have been in the secret police (Tony's theory) or just a friend of the driver - who knows?!
By some miracle we survived the treacherous mountain roads and arrived in one piece at the car park in Ping'an village, ready to start the ascent to where the hotels are, perched high up on the hillside, and only accessible by climbing the hundreds of stone steps. Tony went a bit pale as he saw the coach loads of Chinese tourists, and the hordes of Hill Tribe women in traditional costumes, with their ankle-length hair wound into ornate turban-like hairstyles, selling more postcards and trinkets. We were glad to be with our taxi driver as we ran the gauntlet and headed past their stalls up to the start of the steps. Suddenly, the driver began shouting into his mobile phone, and then, as usual, rushed off somewhere, leaving us standing there! After a couple of minutes he came back, looking very pleased with himself, accompanied by a litte old Long Hair lady, (although we couldn't actually see her hair, as the older ladies have their heads wrapped in a piece of material) with an enormous pannier on her back. He motioned that we should put our backpacks in the pannier and follow her up the hill, then off he trotted to have a well earned beer with his mystery passenger / buddy. We already had our backpacks on, and couldn't possibly have let the old lady carry them anyway, but she kept pointing at the basket, and we were beginning to attract an audience, so in the end I put in my small bag, and Tony put in his coat. She seemed satisfied with that, and set off up the steps. We passed many of these 'porters' beetling up and down the hill, most of them very elderly, with great piles of luggage in their panniers or on their heads, and some were even carrying people up and down in sedan chairs!
After about half an hour we eventually reached our hotel, and our litte lady seemed very glad to sit down and have a rest. I took my backpack off and let her feel the weight of it, and she looked really surprised! The hotel, identical to all the others in the area, looked like a cross between an old wooden barn, and a Swiss chalet, and teetered precariously on stilts on a narrow ledge. Inside, nothing was straight or level, including our bedroom, which sloped quite alarmingly towards the rickety little balcony. Other features of 'local charm' were the electric cables hanging everywhere, bound up with Duck tape, and the shower being placed over the toilet, but overall it looked clean, so that was the main thing.
The journey had taken a lot longer than anticipated so it was getting late in the afternoon, and we decided to have a quick bowl of noodles then head up to the nearest viewing point, which was about another half an hour further up the hill. En route we met another Hill Tribe lady, who offered to let down her long hair for a photo, in exchange for a fee, but Tony was having none of that nonsence and actually said if he met any more of them he was going back to the hotel! When we reached the scenic 'Seven stars to the moon' viewing spot (otherwise known as the No. 2 viewing spot), there were more stall holders, but as they sat quiety behind their stalls, that was fine, and we stood and gazed out over the valley. The guide books promised a view of the water -filled rice terraces in Spring looking like coiled silver belts glinting in the sunshine. Well, I'm sure they do, on a clear sunny day, but what we saw most of was an occasional glimpse of them through a thick white swirling mist! Because the mist was moving, my camera didn't seem to know what it was meant to be focusing on, so I think most of the photos will look like pictures of fog!
What we could see of the terraces was quite stunning, and worth the climb. We met a nice Irish couple and their two small children, had an ice cream, and watched (from high above, and at a safe distance) a tremendous cat fight between two of the women, one of whom had had her stall knocked over! On the way down, we had to go very slowly, as the stone steps were really uneven and slippery. We passed a couple of sorry looking ponies tied up outside a house, 3 litte pigs penned in behind a bit of plywood, lots of hens wandering about, and a rat that squeaked loudly before it ran out in front of me!!
We shared a table at dinner time with two Australian ladies we'd previously met at the top of Moon Hill. I have to say the food wasn't that great. They ordered 'Chicken Hotpot', but I think it should have been called chicken stockpot, as all it had in it was a kind of dishwater soup and pieces of bones and gristle. I had the same sort of thing, but it was Tofu, and didn't have bones, and I really couldn't eat it. Tony however was delighted with his spicy beef! We went up to bed, and as I opened the door and put the light on, a large cockroach ran into the bathroom! According to Tony, I frightened a Dutch family who were just passing our room, as I jumped back out into the corridor shrieking 'cockroach' ! We could hear them 'swatting' things in their room before we went to bed!

We survived the night, in a bed which Tony thinks was actually a table with a cover on it, and we didn't get eaten by bugs or rodents. Our plans to walk to the No. 1 Viewing point this morning were thwarted by a thunder storm and the thick mist completely enveloping the hillside, we couldn't even see the narrow terrace outside! We checked out afte a relaxing morning and made our way down to the car park where our taxi driver was waiting. By the time we got there, we were absolutely drenched, unlike the people who were being carried down in sedan chairs draped in heavy sheets of polythene! The journey to the airport was only about 2 and a half hours, but we still had a few hair raising moments. However, we arrived safely and had an uneventful flight back to Hong Kong. So, here we are, at the end of our trip, and VERY excited about coming home tomorrow! Can't wait to see you all again - thanks for all your messages and for reading the blogs for the last 7 weeks.
Goodnight xx