Backpacker paradise, western breakfasts continued

Ran into a couple of girls we met in Dali whilst having breakfast in Kunming. They actually live in Yangshuo and were returning there on the same flight as us. They suggested sharing a taxi to the airport and they also suggested that they organise a driver to pick us up at the airport in Guilin to avoid a two bus stint out to Yangshuo. We were very happy to agree to this.

Another white knuckle flight (according to Wendy) but one with very minor turbulence (Keith's version). In any case, we landed safely to find it drizzling and only 12 degrees, and thick fog. This was a bit of a comedown after the last week or more of brilliant sunshine and warm days (but freezing nights!)

Our new friends Jackie and Naomi suggested a good hotel, and Jackie was able to use her local contacts to arrange a good discount for us.

Yangshuo is set in a valley of several rivers, the landscape dominated by limestone karst formations - huge pinnacles of limestone rising out of the plains everywhere. Even in the fog these are quite an amazing sight.

We spent the afternoon having a look around town - it's one of the few "backpacker haunts" in China, with bars, cafes, western food and most of the comforts of home. English is quite widely spoken, unlike many other parts we have visited.

Jackie is the chef and teacher at a cooking school a few kilometres out of Yangshuo, so we booked in for a lesson on Friday morning. Jackie picked us up from the hotel and we walked to the local market, picking up two more eager chefs on the way - an Israeli couple. The tour of the market was fascinating - we not only saw all the fresh vegetables, spices, poultry (tried to walk quickly past this bit!) but also - yes, the dog meat section - and also found out the identity of those animals we'd seen at food stalls the previous night - so they were dried rat after all!!! Just as well we hadn't been tempted by a quick snack.

We went out to the village by minibus where Jackie started instructing us in the fine art of Chinese cooking. In the next hour or so we learnt how to chop the vegies, crush the garlic, steam, stir fry - experts, we are. We made a fried eggplant dish, stuffed mushrooms and tofu, chicken and cashews, green veggies and the piece de resistance - beer fish. A delicious lunch of our own making was enjoyed by all!

Lunch was followed by a short walk through the dry paddies to the river, admiring (and photographing)the karst scenery still more. (Someone is trying to spread a rumour that Keith is taking too many photos!)

On Saturday Jackie had arranged to show us some of the sights via bicycle.  After hiring a couple of sturdy mounts (at about $1.40 a day this is a bargain!) we set off.  We have absolutely no sense of direction here - the fog doesn't even allow an indication of where the sun might be rising or setting.  However, we just put our trust in Jackie and headed off through some very pretty countryside - the omnipresent karst mountains, people out in the fields involved in peasant-type activities - watering, weeding, hoeing etc.  After a couple of hours of fairly non-strenous riding we stopped for lunch at a restaurant opposite Moon Hill - a mountain with a hole in it.  After lunch Keith climbed the 1000 plus stairs to the hole to enjoy a stunning view of the surrounding mountains - some time soon we hope to be able to get some more photos on the page!  Wendy and Jackie stayed at the bottom, sitting around a fire chatting with friends of Jackie.

We rode home through a maze of tracks, between fields and through little villages.  We sauntered up to the night market after dinner to check out the festivities up there - big screen and lots of dancing and singing (Keith was in his element!) but unfortunately we couldn't see all that much cos all the locals were standing on chairs, motorbikes etc.  Apparently it is quite OK to drive your motorbike into such gatherings and just toot the horn to get people to move out of the way.  If only we'd had a bike we could have secured front row seats!  Anyway, after all this excitement we walked back to our hotel past the rat, squirrel and dog meat vendors.  Everyone eating there seemed to be having a great old time but somehow, satay fido just loses its appeal for us!

Sunday dawned... not bright and sunny as we hoped but foggy yet again.  Not to be deterred and flushed with success from our Saturday ride we aimed higher this time and cycled out 24kms to the village of XingPing to get a boat back down the river to Yangshuo.  Our bikes were carefully loaded onto our small boat and we chugged downstream overtaking the larger tour boats.  We had to be offloaded just shy of Yangshuo though as apparently ours was an 'illegal' boat tour.  The scenery was yet again stunning - Keith will never tire of Karst mountains I fear!  All have been photographed and videoed - just in case there is an earthquake in the future and they all disappear.

The evening finished with us standing out on our hotel balcony watching an incredible fireworks display.  We know that the Chinese invented fireworks but hadn't expected them to let them all off on the one night.  The show must have gone for almost 50 minutes and just got bigger and louder as it went on.  Of course, with less restrictions they were free to break the sound barrier with almost all of them.  Each time there was a particularly loud bang, the car alarms would go off and add another layer of sound to the experience!

And so we said farewell to Yangshuo and headed off to Nanning (our last stop in China) on Monday morning.  Slight problem in endeavouring to get our key deposit back at 7.15am as none of the hotel staff appeared to be awake yet.... not to worry.... Keith was determined to retrieve his $10!  He banged his fist on the desk and shouted out until a very bleary eyed hotel employee appeared!  Success!!

The bus ride to Nanning was enjoyable despite the first really inclement weather we've had.... we had to keep wiping the window so that we could see out.  Our very flash express bus monitored the outside and inside temperature for us.  It hovered around 6-8 degrees outside.  We refused to believe the inside temperature reading though as it didn't feel that we were really enjoying a balmy 24 degrees.

Overnight Nanning.... next stop Vietnam.  We are off to the border on the 8.00am train out of Nanning.