13 - 15 February

It was a short bus ride to Yangshuo, a small bustling town sandwiched between some of China's most beautiful scenery. Our hotel, West Lily Hotel, was cheap and clean and perfect for us.

We dropped our stuff off as soon as we arrived and went for a walk round town. We didn't end up getting back until 2am, it was such a wonderful wee town, the perfect backpacker haven. We ended up in a bar/hostel called Monkey Janes and ended up playing an American college game called beer pong. I didn't quite understand it, but I was pretty good at it. You had to bounce ping pongs into pints of beer and then the other team had to drink them.

Our first full day there, we had a lot planned as it was Valentine's Day. We took a romantic bamboo boat up the scenic Li River . Two hours floating up the river with beautiful limestone hills surrounding us, I couldn't of asked for a better day. The river was so shallow that you could touch the bottom with your fingers. We took the boat from Xingping a short bus ride away, it is a very famous village with the Chinese. The scenery in the village in on the back of the 20 yuan note.

At night we went for a bite to eat and then went to meet Aaron for a farewell drink, he was off to Shanghai the next day. We ended up having to go home early though because I had heat stroke. I spent the rest of the evening in the bathroom being ill. Adam wanted to know why whenever it was special occasion I was always ill. When he took me to Rome I was ill because of the heat and I kept having anxiety attacks and when he took me away for my birthday in the Lakes to a spa resort I was ill with a dicky tummy. I knew had to make it up for him for the forthcoming anniversary on the 17th.

Our final full day, we had a relaxing morning and then we headed off to a water cave in the afternoon. A cave which we could not only explore but swim in too. There was a small pool and a fairly large natural mud pool, which did our skin wonders. It was so much fun, but very cold. It took a long time to wash the mud out of my hair and ears.

We had a chilled out evening in preparation for the following day, we had a six hour bus ride ahead of us to a place called Nanning. I felt a bit sad leaving Yangshuo, I really loved it here. I didn't want to spend three days in a big, dirty city, but it was the closest place that we could obtain a Vietnam visa.