3 days and 5 pairs of chopsticks down...

Hi everyone!

Its been a bit of a whirlwind of rice, rain and bamboo since last writing to you but the most significant event to have happened is without doubt Jos conquering of the chopsticks! Its only taken 2 meals and a total of 5 (6?) pairs but she is now in possession of some wicked skills, and quite a lot of shame after having to admit to having droppped her third pair in 5 minutes.

'This looks like brocolli, this looks like father christmas, but from this angle also like a caterpillar'

We somehow managed to fit the sights of Guilin into one day, but the highlight of our whistle stop tour without doubt had to be the caves. We knew it was going to be good when the ticket inspector decided that we were lost and made us join an American tour group. From then it only got better and better as we got led round by a guide pointing at identical looking rocks going 'This looks like brocolli, this looks like father christmas, but from this angle also like a caterpillar' (you think this is an exaggerration, but would I lie to you?) and got treated to a psychadelic light show. In slightly more cultural news we met up with my friend Bree from Peking uni in the evening and went round the city with her which was a whole lot more interesting that it would have been on our own as shes a local and actually understands the dialect!

The next day we headed off to Ping An with some people from my class which was absolutely amazing - green hills covered with tiered rice fields, wooden huts (that looked startling like ski chalets...) and windy little paths. Our hostel was so high up it was in the clouds, the only problems were that it appeared to be guarded by an insane four year old who, we all discovered, could pack quite a punch & when we got back from our soul-soothing evening wander we found our path blocked, not this time by a hyperactive child, but by some men cooking a  freshly killed dog. With a blowtorch. On the pavement.

From Ping An we headed back to Guilin to get train tickets for Chengdu. The tickets went on sale at midnight so we ended up queing in the the staion for 45 minutes in the wee hours of the morning. It was bizarre, it seemed like almost everyone in the city had also decided to join us, although none of them seemed to have any idea what train they wanted, where they wanted to go, or indeed what city they were in which made for a rather long wait!

Our final stop has been Yangshuo, which is completely like picture book China. Weve spent much of the last few days driftin up rivers on bamboo rafts & bargaining in jewellery stores with Bree which has been really good fun and a pleasant change from the hectic rushing of which I am apparently so fond.

Missing you all!