Nǐhǎo!

I'm in Guilin at the moment but will later be catching a bus to Yangshou (my last stop in China!).

The weather is not so good today. I was woken up by the rain! Somebody told me the weather down here is really good as well hahaa On a plus note, I had a whole dorm room to my self last night woo.

**WARNING LONG STORY**

Anyhuuu yesterday was a right adventure. Alex is back on the scene hahaa he flew in from Xi'an on Thursday evening. Before he came I met some Chinese people (2 guys and a girl) who could hardly speak English and arranged that we would go with them to the Longji rice terraces to save some money as the hostel tour was expensive. The rice terraces are 37 miles out of the city and the Chinese helped us get there by public bus. I must quickly say that I had Oreo pancakes for breakfast yesterday and they are BEAUTTT. I'm considering going and watching the man make them today but I'm also afraid to see a Chinese kitchen so will probably pass.

Back to my story :)

So we met at 8am and headed off for the bus. The Chinese folk ordered us a taxi to the bus station and we all squeezed in. The bus journey was around 1 1/2 hour and then we had to jump on another bus to the terraces. There are three terraces, Longji, PingAn and Dazhai and we were going to Dazhai. At last minute the Chinese guys decided to go to PingAn first as they were staying the night at Dazhai. They told us to make sure we get the last bus from Dazhai at 1:30pm to PingAn and then the last bus there at 5:30pm so we can get to the bus station on time.

So we got to Dazhai and thought we could hike up to the peak for an hour and back town in time for the bus. There was a cable cart which was £12 so we passed on that idea. So we are heading to the mountain/hill base and ask these white guys how long it takes. They tell us they stayed up the mountain and that you can walk to PingAn in 3/4 hours. We check the distance and it's only 4.4miles once we get to the first village. For some reason we decided that was a fab idea and got the details on how to navigate through the terraces - details being 3 names of villages. As our day had turned into a hike we thought me must eat first. There was a small little food hut that was cheap so we ordered there. Alex had the meat noodle dish, not sure you could call it "meat"! I went for vegetable noodles as did the guys we just met from Holland. After our munch I grabbed a snickers, a Fanta and a small pot of Pringles and off we went.

It was really cool walking up the mountain through the villages of minority Chinese people. This group of people were called the Yao minority and they were women with incredibly long hair! About half an our in I felt abit sick and knew that it was the food but pressed on and drank my Fanta. The terraces were awesome and I used my selfie stick plenty of times! We finally got to the top and the view was great. We were using an app called maps.me where you can navigate when you have no Internet through Gps. It had the mountain tracks on and our direction so we used that to make our way through the terraces.

The hike wasn't easy but I wouldn't say it was hard after climbing Mount Emei. We were constantly checking the time and realised we needed to pick up the pace. We got through the winding paths, up hill, down hill through slate and rock tracks. My best friend were my hiking boots! We passed a few villages. Had way more photos as the rice terraces seemed to get bigger and bigger. It's amazing how they have created this system.

We get to the 2nd village. We had 1 more village between where we were and our last stop and checked the time. We had about 3 miles to go and 2 hours to get there. We thought if we pace up then we could make it. Flatland was good because we could go faster, downhill was okay but had to watch our step so we didn't fall down the mountain and uphill was steep! Alex nearly fell off the bambo bridge lmao literally almost slipped to his death.

We decide to march on. By this time I was really feeling sick. I could feel inside me like poison and knew I had to get it out. We reached the next village and I went and vomited up the evil. Added Dioralyte to my water bottle, munched my snickers and felt way better. We now had 1 hour and a half to make about 2 miles.

Once it hit 5pm we were going so fast. It was slowly creeping to sunset and we knew we had to get out of the terraces. We made it to a road at 5:10pm. We made our way up the road and heard a car approaching. Great idea - HITCH HIKING. We stuck out our thumb and jumped in lmao. The men drove us up the mountain which was way further than we thought. It was 5:22 and the map said 0.3 miles to the bus station. We were going to make it! The man got a phone call and he must be the only driver in China who drives legally because he stopped the car and answered the phone to have a conversation. We were thinking come on!! We have a bus to catch. We make it to the station at 5:26 go to the desk and ask for the bus to Longsheng bus station where we catch our bus back to Guilin. The man laughed and pointed to the sign and said last bus 5pm!!! Oppppppsieeeee. Now we need to get to Longsheng, 8miles away!

We asked a man to take us but his car was full. This woman was trying to get us to get a taxi for 20 pound but we refuse the extortion and start walking. A few minutes down the mountain and we see a car and once again stick out our thumbs. A man pulls up with a what looks like his wife and 3 daughters - the car is full. We show him where we wanted to go in Chinese and say sorry it doesn't matter your car is full. The guy thinks a moment speaks in Chinese and tells us to get in!! Alex get the front seat and us 5 women in the back hahaa. The family were such happy people!! They were talking Chinese and laughing all the way. It took 30 minutes to get to the bus station!!!! We would have been walking for hours. We say our thanks and run to the bus terminal. By now it's 6:15pm.

The lady looked concerned and says no buses. Gets on her walkie talkie and tells us she thinks there are no more buses at this time. Great we are going to have to catch a ride 37 miles to our hostel hahaha she told us to check the main road incase one drives by. It's 6:20 now and we see the road and we think we see a bus. We run and the lady shouts Guilin!! Omg yessssss! A bus! We jump on sooo happy and as we sit down the bus leaves =|
The universe worked its magic for us. A 1 minute delay would have meant we missed the last bus back to our city.

We got back to the city eventually but then had to work out where we were and how to get to the hostel. Some girl helped us and told us the bus number. We waited a while thinking about getting a taxi instead and then jumped on the bus. The man said it was the right one when we showed him the Chinese address and we hoped for the best. I couldn't believe it when we made it back to the hostel alive.

The day turned into an adventure through minority Chinese villages and rice terraces. It was amazing to see them living in nature and surviving away from the Chinese city life.

My universe kicked in and kept us safe all day ha

Guilin was fun.

On to Yangshou in a few hours - tonight is Halloweeeeeen.