Yangshuo

We caught a 26hr train from Shanghai to Guilin...what a marvellous experience....Mandy will fill in the details later.

We lobbed into Guilin in pouring rain and it didn't stop, so our view of the town, which was so much bigger than we thought ( isn't every town in China!) was a little less than positive, so we stayed one night and then headed down to Yangshuo....not on the Li River cruise. Sam and Luce and Seb said we should have done it and it is the done thing to do, but it was the "gravesweeping festival" and the boats would have been choko full of touring Chinese and they took 7 hours or so...we opted for the bus which took an hour.

We did have a night in Guilin and it has a lively bar scene and we even went to the local disco ( they were doing a JB Rum promo that night and it was all a little weird) and had another lesson in Chinese wine education. As we said we had had some pretty good wine, so went into a "wine bar" in Guilin and ordered a glass of red wine from the new owner. He proudly informed us that he had bought the bar last week and was keen for us to try his selection. The first was undrinkable, he took it back, the second much the same, so we asked whether the bottles had been opened long...sure he said and asked us how long a wine lasts after opening, to which we replied maybe two days. It was then we noticed that all of his wine selection on display, maybe 50 or so bottles all had been opened and were at various levels of consumption. He started to look a little concerned at his stock on hand and we wondered how much he had paid for this "excellent wine stock"

We had a beer and left.

We arrived at Yangshuo bus station did the mobile trick with the cab driver and were taken to the "Outside Inn" our default accommodation 5 ks outside of the town. It was delightful. I should have said Yangshuo is in an amazing area of limestone karst formations intertwined with rivers and lush vegetation. A very beautiful landscape. The Outside Inn is right in the country surrounded by great walks, and because it is out of town there is a lovely communal feeling to the Inn. We spent 3 days walking and eating and drinking and meeting some wonderful people. We spent time with two lovely Dutch couples one of whom Els and Pieter had been in Yangshuo 4 or 5 times and had flown straight to the Outside Inn to spend the 3 weeks of their annual holiday....it could be done!!

It was a bit cold still so we would spend the nights huddled around a combustion fire drinking Chilean red wine......(we wiped out their stocks!!) and talking travel and families...it was great. Nadine and Mike the managers were wonderful, with two lovely boys (one of whom attached himself to Mandy ) and a red Dachshund, Lulu (check out the photo Gude).

We had to leave after 3 nights as they were booked out, and went to some totally different accommodation in another village which is famous for its moon shaped hole in one of the limestone hills...its called Moon Village ( wouldn't ya know!). The source of entertainment here is watching the Chinese tour buses roll in and the occupants standing on platforms designed to capture a photo which looks like they are holding the moon ( the hole in the hill moon) in their palm.......man that is hard to describe! So much so I took a picture of Mandy holding the moon in her hand!

The family that ran "Moon Hill Resort"' our accommodation ( resort takes on a different meaning in China!) were delightful and it was interesting watching a family at work. There was also a local bus into town (there wasn't at Outside Inn) so we went in and hit the town every night. Yangshuo is a party town, an old hippy enclave, that has grown into the typical kilometre square of bars, souvenir shops, restaurants serving vegie burgers, french fries and cold beer. Think of parts of Kuta, tacky tacky tacky...but fun , fun ,fun.

We visited some great produce markets in nearby villages, spent some days having a leisurely lunch on the rivers watching the world (and many tourists) go by and generally chilling out.

Oh yeah, we also went and saw the famous sound and light show, which was pretty good, except for the rain.

AND, I almost forgot...I had my boot fixed. Before we left I had my favourite walking boots resoled. Well after three weeks the soles were coming apart, which was a worry. We showed the problem to a taxi driver and he dropped us off in front of this women on a street corner and gave us the thumbs up. The women took one look at the problem quoted us a price and proceeded, over the next 50 minutes to glue and invisibly restitch the sole to the boot. The technique used is too intricate to explain but we reckon this sole is never, ever going to become detached again!!!!