22/03 we got on a 23 hour overnight train to Yangshou. We arrived at about 3pm in Guilin and caught a 2 hour bus (about 15 mph) to Yangshou. Pleasantly surprised to be staying in a hotel called Fawlty Towers! was hoping to see a spanish waiter, but unfortuately there was a drunk old guy instead.

Driving in to Yangshou was just beautiful. All around are lime stone peaks and lakes which make you feel instantly relaxed. Surprisingly this area was quite touristy but the town was quaint with lots of cafes, bars and shops.

In the evening Met went out to watch commeric (some sort of bird) fishing, while i went to the markets shopping! typical.

The next day i spent shopping once again while Met went to a Dog restaurent. He brought me back a bone as a present....what a charmer! In the afternoon we took a boat ride down Li river (which is the river on the pic for this blog) it was so nice to sit back and enjoy the scenery. The Binoculors came in very handy to see right in to the hills and watch the water buffalo on a near by island. all in all a lovley day followed by a lovely evening. It was our leaders birthday so we chipped in to get her a cake....she loved it....met loved the cake (it had cream coating instead of icing so ive had hints about his birthday ever since).

24/03 was our last day at fawlty towers. We were collected by a lady who look us to a village called Cholong for a cooking couse. It was amazing. we cooked egg plant (aubergine) sir fry, dumplings and veg then all sat down together to eat it. We will now beable to cook a banquet when we get back.

We stayed in Cholong two nights. It was really rural which was a nice change to towns and cities we have been staying in so far. 25/03 we took a long bike ride round the cholong area. We climbed a local mountain called Moon hill and had lunch at our Leaders house (she is originally from the village here). It was so cool, we met her parents and got a tour of the farm. We feel really priveledged as no other group could have this experience unless they had her (a lot of the other leaders are american.)

On the last day we packed up ready for our 2 day trek to the Longji Rice terraces.