Yangshuo, China - 19th October 2008

Bamboo rafting on the river
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After a 20 hour train journey and a 3 hour bus ride we finally arrived at Yangshuo. The scenery here is phenomenal. There are limestone peaks that jut out of the ground all around. They are very steep and have been created by a mixture of earthquakes, land plates pushing together and the sea which used to run through here. For an out of the way place it’s very westernised. It’s crammed full of bars, restaurants, shops and tour shops, all catering to tourists. The best thing about Yangshuo was the name of the hotel we were in...check out the pictures! We went bamboo rafting on the river which was good, especially as you have to go over rapids. After a 2 night stay in Yangshuo we headed 20 mins outside to a tiny village containing not much more than a couple of houses, a hotel and a cooking school. The cooking class was great. We were first taken round the market (in Yangshuo) and shown all the fresh fruit and vegetables and the fish. We then went into the meat section but I couldn’t handle the smell or the sight of it so I left that bit pretty quickly! At the cooking school we each had our own hob and wok, and chopping board complete with huge cleaving knife. We learnt to cook 5 dishes. My favourite two were egg wrapped pork dumplings and steamed chicken with wolfberries. We are really going to have to find a Chinese supermarket near home as there are some ingredients we need that won’t be readily available in normal supermarkets, such as the stalk of garlic. The Outside Inn we stayed in was brilliant. There were little huts with 6 rooms in each and after all the spiders and cockroaches were dealt with it was fine (the spiders were massive and hairy, nearly tarantula like!). It was nice to be out of the town as it was so quiet. The following day we went out on a bike ride. The bikes did have gears but they were a bit dodgy. Every time I peddled harder to go uphill the chain slipped on the gears and I couldn’t go anywhere! The first half was difficult as it was all off roading on narrow rocky paths so we couldn’t look at the scenery as we had to concentrate on looking at where we were going! We stopped for an hour at a cafe and Mat climbed up the Moon Hill, which is a massive limestone peak with a massive hole in the top that looks like a moon. There are about 800 steps up it so I decided to stay at the bottom and rest and play cards!

FAWLTY TOWERS!!!!
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We then went to a little village for a home cooked meal which was very tasty, before cycling back. The ride back was on better roads and paths so we could enjoy the scenery more. After getting back to the hotel we picked up our swimming stuff and headed to the river for a swim. The water is quite clean and very refreshing. We really enjoyed it.