Tuesday : sunny

We couldn't expect to sleep for long in a village. Going on past experiences in Thailand. There were dogs barking and people up at 5:30 making a racket. Then at 7:00 loud dance music started playing. Must be early morning ti chi. We were the only other people staying at this guest house so at least the house was quiet.

We had breakfast in the house, beef noodle soup it was big meal and probably just what we needed before our walk. Probably better we got up early bit, too cooler for the walk.

After breakfast we went down to another hotel that could book us a private bus straight to the airport tomorrow. So we could spend more time in the village tomorrow and not chasing buses. While we were there, there was this fella sitting at a table. He asked where we were from, we told him. He said, is that still Keatings country. He told us that he was from Brisbane. I know these QLDers are a bit behind he 8 ball but wow! We had a short talk about how fascinating the town is, and he told us about a secluded swimming hole nearby. Sounds good, we said we will check it out after the sweaty walk today.

We grabbed some water from a shop and started our walk. It was great scenery for the whole walk. Every corner produced a kodak moment. The villigers have carved steps out of the mountains to make all the rice terraces. Seems like the whole valley has been manicured, some terraces go over 1000m up the mountains. It must of taken decades to create. The terraces follow the contours of the mountain, it seems to just go on forever. There were plenty of pit stops along the way at different villages. The main pathway is made of stone too and sign posted, which made it easy not to get lost, and gave us more time enjoying the views.

The plan was to head for a 600 year old town called Ping'an, after we visited all the scenic vantage points. But turned around at the village before the town, because the nice scenery kind of stopped. We noticed on the map that there was nothing to see along the way there too. The town was a massive haven for tourists too.

On the way back we caught up to a hiker we passed earlier. He turned out to be from Belgium, a very happy and friendly bloke. Unlike most of the euro trash we have come across in China, What's with that? The worst are the french by far. None of the euro's smile or say hello, what they're bugged too see other tourists? If they were more friendly they could find out from us where to go were you won't see another white person for weeks. That's what we did with this Belgium fello, he wanted to go to places with no tourist and we gave him a few towns to visit just for that. He was so funny, he had to of been a sandwich short of a picnic though. He went on this trek with no shoes, hat or water all he had was his camera. We told him to take a certain track before he goes to Dazai, for he best views that we came across on our walk today, and we said our goodbyes at that intersection.

It was a great walk it took 6hours. Kim didn't stop taking photos the whole time I dont blame her, I probably would of taken more. We got back to Dazai and stopped at a cafe for a couple beers and some juices.

Then we heard loud music and people cheering, we went for a look. It was over near our hotel, there was a platform and a crowd of people around the platform. There was corn hanging up like decorations, we saw posters for Miss Asia beauty pagent. Of all the places to have a beauty contest, there must be only 50 people in this village.

Anyway we left the contest and went looking for the waterhole for a swim, We had to follow the path up the hill behind our hotel for about 15min. Come to a cafe and turn left, then take a dirt track on the left. We got lucky and found the trail the QLD man said to take. It lead down into a valley where it sounded like a waterfall was. It kept getting louder and louder, then the waterfall appeared. We climbed down some rocks to where the waterhole was and it looked plenty big enough to standup in. We had to climb down the rocks further to get into the water, I had a close call climbing down I slid down backwards lucky not to fall into the water and land on the rocks on my back. I slid down probably 3m and somehow landed on my feet the rocks were so slippery, even barefoot. Kim didn't seem worried at all, it could of easily gone from a good day to a not so good day.

It was a different way of testing how cold the water was. Kim came down on her butt with her shoes on, with no dramas.

The water was great mountain fresh, nothing better on a warm day. It was good to have a rinse before dinner. We were at the waterhole for an hour. Then went back to the cafe that we took the left at and had dinner.

It was a nice relaxing meal watching the sun go down over the village. We noticed they do breakfast here, and have toast on the menu, good chance to have sone more Vegemite.

By the time we were ready to leave, it was dark and had to use torches to find our way down the hill back into the village.

When got down we felt like ice-cream, we went to the shop and picked up some more water and a couple treats for the room.

On the way back we stop off outside the restaurant with wifi and Kim checked her email. Our flight confirmation has been canceled, they what more info about the card and card holder, faxed to them to reprocess our request. Well seeing how we are in not able to find a fax at this hour, we chose to try our luck at the airport tomorrow in buying the plane tickets. Hopefully it's been canceled, and don't have to chase money. Never had that happen before, thought that's what credit cards are use for, silly China.

The ice-cream hit the spot, but tonight we have neighbors, and their quite noisy. Id rather listen to the howling dog than these three girls. The walls are timber, and some spots you can see through the gaps into the next room. I covered the big holes up with posters from other walls.

They do this in hotels, and seem to do it even in guest houses they have all the other rooms to put people in, but manage it so they to put people right next to each other. Has to be for when they clean the rooms. The iPod gets another workout tonight.

We had a great day today, this place is so quite and laid back, except early in the morning. During the day its so peaceful everyone stops work and disappears, then start back up in the afternoon when it cools down. We might try and go for short walk after breakfast tomorrow. We get picked up to get taken to the airport at 13:00, and can check out late.