Hello all!

Well, I think we left the last blog on a bit of a sad note. But we were very ill. We succesfully crossed into China, sleeping most of the way and eventually got to Guilin where we rested up in our hotel, eating plain rice and sleeping for the next 2 days. We literally didn't venture out at all except to the restaurant next door lol. Once we were feeling better we caught a bus to the extremely beautiful Yangshuo. We were well excited. When we got there we walked towards our guesthouse and were really impressed. Alot of the town was pedestrian streets full of little stalls and lovely restaurants and people dressed up in traditional gear, selling random things. It was a really nice place to get our first impression of China.

The town itself is quite small and set on the Li river with the Yulong river crossing it. Both are known for being particularly beautiful. There were karsts all around, as far as you could see and we were on the top floor with a little balcony outside with views down the whole river. It was absolutely stunning. The rest of that afternoon we just wandered around the little streets (feeling a bit delicate) and browsed the little stalls and shops. It was so completely different to everywhere we had been and really nice to have a change. Also quite overwhelming though, knowing none of the language etc. All very new!

The next day, after an early night watching some films (the guesthouse had loads of dvd's you could borrow free! We certainly made the most of it lol), we got up early and hired a couple of mountain bikes, ready to explore the countryside. We started cycling through the town and then down a little road which eventually turned into a dirt track (very hard on the bum!). We passed through lots of teeny tiny traditional villages with cobbled streets you could barely squeeze down and little stone buildings. There were veggie patches everywhere and lots of farmyard animals (water buffalo, cows and chickens). We rode for a couple of hours, stopping literally every five minutes to take photo's. The scenery was so amazing. Fields full of hay stacks and rice with huge green and stone karsts looming behind it all. We eventually got to the river (Yulong river) for some truly stunning views. There were people fishing and diving with snorkels for god-knows what! After a while we were actually following the river, with water buffalo absolutely everywhere. You really had to watch out for them. They would just stroll out of a field, and we almost hit a few lol. Most were being walked by their owners which was quite funny to see. Little old ladies or men in conical hats, bent over and pulling along a huge buffalo to a new patch of mud! After a few hours cycling we decided we were'nt going to make it to the bridge we intended to get to and started back home. We were very sore as most of the way it was really rocky, dusty tracks and our bums and arms ached! We slept very well lol.

The next day we didnt really do much. We strolled around a little park and climbed up a couple of hundred steps up a karst for a view of the town. We then went to the farmers market which we had been told was quite interesting. It really was. There were live frogs, eels, crabs and fish everywhere! When we got to the back we saw lots of dogs in caged and thought, OMG! There were loads of them being prepared for the oven and we saw loads baked and hung up whole, tails and teeth included. After taking a few shots a lady eventually bought out a cat! And hung it up with the dogs. It was so bizarre to see. Not in a queasy way, just odd. I think maybe because they were whole, only the fur missing and they had blasted them with blow torches. There were even heads with teath and eyes piled up on one counter! Very strange. lol.

The day after that we got out some bikes again and headed down the river, in the opposite direction. Our aim was to get to Fuli, a 500 year old village. We started by going 3 kms the wrong way down a main road. We finally realised and got back onto the right road! We started by passing through lots of tiny villages with naked kids running around and little old chinese men, just like you'd picture it to be. Eventually we got to a little village right on the river and sat there, persuaded a man to wake up so we could buy a cold drink and chilled for 20 mins, watching an old lady wash her clothes in the river and little bamboo boats going past. We then carried on cycling towards what we thought was Fuli. We rode past some amazing views, lots of farms surrounded by karsts and buffalo and wild herbs and flowers growing everywhere. It was really nice to see traditional village life. People going about their daily business. Such a simple way to live. The roads (or tracks) were pretty hard going and after about 3 hours we really really started to ache, especially out behinds! But the views and the people we drove passed shouting 'Neehow' (hello) at us was totally worth it. After about 6 hours we figured we must have taken a wrong turn. Every village we got to we thought, this must be the crossing point for Fuli but it never was lol. We finally got to a little village with a restaurant selling cheap cold drinks and surprisingly found a girl who spoke English. She was really nice and sat with us chatting for a while. She told us we were 17kms from where we started. We had gone past Fuli about 3-4 hours ago!! Lol. She gave us a little map and some directions to the nearest road and we were off. By this time we were peddling madly. It was about 5.30 and we only had a couple of hours of daylight left and had another 17kms to go! After another 5-6kms we got back onto a road which was absolute bliss! It had been a really hot day, we had run out of water and were so sore so a road was total luxury lol. We sat on a rock, had something to drink and ate the last of our biscuits before heading off for the last 12km stretch. Luckily a lot of it was downhill so we would peddle madly for 3 kms and then cruise down these massive hills. At about 8pm we eventually made it back into Yangshuo and went to the first restaurant we saw.....Mcdonalds! We definately deserved it after accidently riding 30 odd kms along very very hot and bumby roads. Needless to say we got in and crashed after that! The next day unfortunaly we had to move on. We could have stayed there so long it was so beautiful. We wouldn't change a thing about our long bike ride (maybe some padding on my bum!). We saw the most amazing views, into total rural China and met some lovely people. Totally worth it!

Anyways, it was off to Dehang next, very exciting! Will tell all next time.

Big big hugs to all and miss you loads

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