After around 25 hours of travelling by coach, hard sleeper train and public bus we finally arrived in the idyllic Yangshuo. The scenery is like that from a postcard, although I can imagine that it was even more pretty before it got too touristy. The looming hills are visable from every point, but this is slightly marred by the KFC and the Macdonalds that are placed amongst the rustic looking guesthouses! Regardless of all the fast food chains and the bars, the place has a lot of character and the markets are worth a look. I got a pretty dress here for like 4 pounds after we bartered a bit. Our first lunch made me feel a bit sick as some of the boys on the tour ordered a pot of dog, and the paws were still in it! Jack tried some, but I had to tell myself it was something else in order to just sit as the same table! On the first nigth here we went to see the local fishing with the cormorant birds (I think this is on the HSBC advert at home?!) This was impressive as the birds swim down and scout out the fish while the fisherman keeps a close eye on them for when they catch one. When they do he pulls them up to boat and forces the fish out of their throat. It sounds cruel but the birds seemed to enjoy it and they get to eat some after they have caught 5 or 6. One of the fisherman, an elderly man with a long white beard is a bit of a local celeb there as he has made a BBC documentary about this style of fishing! We got our picture with him, but I was more worried about holding the bird, haha. Jack was amazed by him though and so took loads of pics that night!

The next day here was action packed, even by the standards of thr last 2 weeks. We started the day with a 2 hour countryside bikeride through the rice fields and villages (Jack and I went tandem, much to his dissmay!) At the end of the ride we stopped at a restaurant where they make the local beer fish. It was very fresh tasting, but VERY fishy too! Next on the agenda was the mud caves and hot springs A few of us from the tour decided to do this while others rode back to the guesthouse. This was a brilliant activity and I would love to do it again. We were first taken by a narrow boat into the caves (all wearing hard hats!), we then had to duck loads going through the lower caves until we reached the mud pool. After loads of muddy poses for the camera and a few trips down the mud slide we got to take a slippery walk to the hot springs which were further on. This was like laying in a warm bath..but with loads of other people in it! The mud was caked into our swimwear for ages after too :0

On our final day here we took a short caligraphy lesson where we learnt to write our names in Chinese (mine was suprisngly tricky but jacks was cool). This turned into a bit of a war between jack and I as we get a bit too competitive on things like that! I still say mines better though ;) haha. After this Jack and I got a Chinese foot massage. My masseus came into the room with a smile, she was small and fairly old. Jack's lady came into the room and we were both having to stop ourselevs from laughing. He was expecting a similar woman to mine, or a young beautiful Chinese lady...he got a woman built like a wrestler with a scar down her cheek..hard luck Jack!!She slapped Jack';s feet really hard and beat his legs, but he seemed to enjoy it!

That night we went to get our last overnight train in China to the Hong Kong border....