Yangshou And Guilin

Yangshou To Fuli By Boat
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Am now in lovely Yangshou on the Li river.  It is a million degrees and there are dragonflies the size of Fiat Puntos flying around the place, they are huge.

The place itself is a bit wierd, going through the village is West Street, a long strip of bars, clubs and eateries.  With the blazing sun it reminds me of a street in Ibiza.  If you follow the road to the end though there is a market and a wall that stretches for a fair bit.  Over this wall is the Li river with herds of water buffalo on it, tourist boats and bamboo and fishing boats.  It really is a strange mix.

Yangshou

A Dragon yesterday
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I have been drawn into the tourist street thing far too easily and have already bought tat.  My brother collects face masks so i have bought him the mask of "jack of the devil"! whatever that means.  It was of course "only available in this shop", until you walk 20 yards to the next one that is and see a strikingly similar one there.  I have also bought myself the essential "monkey king" wooden mask, you never know when you might need it.  My love for the old 70's/80's tv show "Monkey" made it a must.

Li River With Boat
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I also had to get a haircut here after much badgering from ruth.  I was dreading it.  As it happens the haircut is not too bad and was pretty much a similar process to that in great britain.  Sit down, tell him what you want, he starts cutting away, young girl brings half dead rat on a lead in which is caught in a trap with its guts hanging out, squealling.  Man shows back of hair in mirror, you nod as staff takes turn to run and boot dying rat, pay and see dying rat attached to door outside shop by lead.  So not much difference there.

Water Buffalo On The Li River
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We agreed a boat trip with a local today to take us to the town of Fuli which is down the river.  So we headed off after agreeing a price and the scenery down the river was fantastic, the little karst mountains thiings are in the background all the time and there were water buffalo in the water and mooching about on the grass and small fishing boats along the way.   We got to Fuli and "Hey look there it is, there's fuli" and then "hey fuli is going?....bye Fuli" as the boat driver just turned around and came straight back to Yangshou....bit of an error in communication there...we would actually like to get off and see it!......ah well...maybe another time.

Guilin From Elephant Hill
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We are getting a guided bike tour into the villages and hills tomorrow and with our superb fitness regime of eating rubbish, smoking and drinking daily this should be fun I am hoping to actually reach the end of the main road before i am sick, the woman guiding us is about 60 so i am prepared to be totally embarrassed.

Also went past a market yesterday, fish flopping around on the floor after they have jumped out of the bucket, tons of crayfish all on top of each other.  I hate fish, absolutely hate them, i cannot even look at them, can't go near them, can't eat my dinner if someone is eating fish near me so i was panicking, i had to get out of there as soon as possible.  Ruth shouted over and said "hey paul look at this"..."no it's going to be horrible and fish-like" i replied.  She assured me it was not.  So i looked and there was a net bag with eyes just blinking through "A BAG OF EYES, WHAT'S WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE! " i screamed while running away at high speed, with my hands over my face.  When ruth caught up later she explained it was in fact a bag of frogs....oh not so bad after all then!.

Darth Vader V Luke Skywalker In A Cave in Guilin
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I have to say with my fish fear i couldn't be in a worse country.  Walking around the streets of Guilin people have fish outside in washing up bowls.  So you would be walking along and all of a sudden a fish would jump out and flail around on the floor just by your feet.  I am usually ok as i had the now mistaken theory that fish don't live on pavements.  Now that is not the case i am in constant fish-fear.

My fish fear started when i was young and i was in the sea on holiday and some flying fish or a rather large shoal of flapping fish surrounded me and i stood there screaming until someone got me out.  I had this fear after that, at university my house mate luke kept goldfish.  I couldn't go in his room because i knew the fish were there, if i forced myself to go in the room i had to have my back to the fish.  One morning i woke up to laughter outside the door and felt something wet on my top lip.  I felt around with my tongue and realised it was one of lukes goldfish, he had crept in and put his dead, black goldfish on my top lip......so kinda re-enforced the whole fish thing there.....damn you luke, i will have my revenge.

Me And Ruth On Bat - Note The Shiney Faces
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Current rules on fish are.  I can eat cod as long as it is not shaped like a fish, so fish fingers are ok, if they are put in a fish shape i will be reminded they are fish so cannot eat them. Tuna is ok unless someone reminds me it is fish, then i cannot eat it, hence tuna sandwiches going in the bin at work when someone mentions fish.  See..all perfectly logical.  And now i am in a place where crayfish, lobsters and fish roam the streets....it's going to be a long stay here.

nb.more photos attached...click on see more photos at bottom