On the picture you see Li River, Guilin where we were before Yangshuo is situated by the river and so is Yangshuo where we are now. When we arrived here for two days ago I was little bit disappointed. The way here seemed calm, just mountains and fields. But this place for me is like some holiday village in Gran Canaria, Costa Rica, etc. expect you don't have the beach. Bit too touristy to me but still a lovely place. There are only 300 000 inhabitants and so it's no bug city, luckily. But you have all the typical tourist things: shops, western restaurants, tour arrengers and travel agencies.

Me and Suvi also did a popular tourist thing yesterday. We didn't rent bikes and most people do but we had a moto ride to the river - that was exciting! On the river we hopped on a bamboo boat and took a slowly 'ride' on a river. We had our 'captain' pushing us forward and steering with a bamboo stick. The idea is nice and luckily the sun was shining but it wasn't anything very special to me. The river was full of others doing the same and ladies selling beer, coca-cola. The views were great, like on the picture: mountains, mountains, mountains.

After bamboo rafting we walked to the ticket office of the REAL Water Cave. Be aware - there are many fake water caves...that's what they tell you. But the truth is that this relatively new Water Cave is not totally genuine and natural. But well, fun time we had. Before getting in with a small boat we changed our bikinis on. We had met a girl from Israel and a boy from Norway on our way and went together with them. We spent more than three hours inside. We had a guide telling us again how you can see a bird there and a fish there and then the dragons and lions again...getting boring and two Chinese girls taking tens of photos. But then after climbing and walking we got into business. There was a (artificial) mud bath. We three girls went in and scrubbed the mud all over us. Finally I was able to scrub myself properly, it's been one month that I felt me 100 % clean. Cause we didn't wanna make our clothes wet we continued the hike in our bikinis. We have some fashion pictures for you to see later! We still got to a fresh water pond/spring/pool. The water was chilly, but it felt like Finnish lake water. Me and Suvi were enjoying, others just dipped in.

In the end, before getting out of the cave we still got to try something. Our guide was still inside and another guide was supposed to take us out - that's what we thought. But we ended up staying alone in the boat, with the bamboo stick - supposidly to leave alone. We were not very skillfull and were hitting the walls heavily; it seemed a catastrophy but we were laughing. In the end we crabbed the fence and pulled the boat out. As said the tour was worth it! Costs: 160Y (bamboo and cave), 7,5 (2 persons on a moto), 2,5Y (bus to town). (17 euros)

Girls will leave to Wuzhou today to see some snake repository and me staying in the area. Will go to a place called Xingping, stay for one night, do some hiking. Then come back here for one night more and take a cooking lesson. From Yangshuo I take a night bus (will be horrible again) to Guangzhou where I meet the girls on Thu morning, 2nd October.

In Hainan we will be 5-9.10. from where we head to Macao and Hong Kong. Only 2 weeks and 2 days left.

Erika