The Lonji rice terraces

Religious parade on the street

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Escaping the crowds for a while we headed to the Lonji rice terraces near Yangshuo. A huge area of hills covered in loads and loads of rice fields in great formations. Although we were still met by a million women trying to sell us their junk along the way, it seemed a lot more chilled than Yangshuo. This area is inhabited by a minority tribe called the Yao. The women have one ritual hair cutting ceremony at the age of 18 and then don't cut their hair again for the rest of their lives but instead carry it on the top of their heads in an ornamental bun. They also wear very brightly coloured clothes and are tough as nails not unlike the mountain people in South America. We were met by a little guide lady called Anna who apparently was our designated friend for the day. Very sweet. But as everywhere in China the women here seemed to do all the hard work! So there was little old ladies lugging up the visitors' luggage on their backs in wicker baskets! Unreal! And all that while wearing only plastic sandals on their feet. Even worse though were the portable throne-like pasha-chairs that people actually sat in to be carried up the mountain in! Couldn't believe it! Most people left after the day and so at night it was only Jacq and me and a French couple staying in the village in a lovely wooden house in the middle of nowehere. So peaceful and lovely. In the evening there was a local singing show on in the village and from our vantage point up at the top we had the best view...and then in true form the electricity cut out and added another edge of romance to the whole situation. Lovely! I got so swept up by it all I actually suggested to get up at 5.30am to see the sunrise. But sadly it was overcast so back to bed for a few hours kip for me it was. A bit later on we met up with a Belgian Couple to walk the 18kms to the next village along, Ping'an. Was all great to start with, through the rice fields, up and down and along the flagstones...about an hour in it started to piss it down like there was no tomorrow! My carefully waterproofed shoes and 6 year old gore tex jacket didn't really do what they had promised to and I was soon drenched. Not as badly as poor Jacquie however, who was trying desperatley to cover herself up in plastic bags! So our little guide lady took her under her wing and grabbed her and shoved her under her umbrella. Very sweet in principle, but being about a metre shorter than Jacq it didn't look like the most comfortable thing to be doing! And out shoes had no grip whatsoever so it was actually better to be walking inside the quickly forming river than on the slippery flagstones! And so four hours passed! Ah the joys! You think you're soaked and then you realise there are whole new levels of wetness!! The funniest thing was when we finally arrived we came across a group of women all sitting under a shelter wearing their traditional dresses and huge glasses doing their sewing. And the state we were in, knackered and drenched, they still tried to sell us things. Tablecloths of all things!! Like we wanted table cloths at that stage!! So funny! But the Belgian girl was not impressed! Especially when one of the little mountain ladies started laughing at her legs and making fat signs at them and then pointing at her own and making thin signs!! Ooopsi! Not appreciated!

A grave yard along the way

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But all in all I still enjoyed it, but then I'm weird like that anyway! And the village was so cool, loved it.