We had a relaxing start to the day as we didn't have to check out until 11.30am and we only had to go to the supermarket to buy food for our train journey. We headed off to the train station where Yisha helped us to buy some lunch before boarding our train to Yangshuo. We were in a soft sleeper for this journey, 4 share with a lockable door. The only thing was that this train was the lowest class train you can get. We shared a dirty cabin with Annie and Pam, Catriona's sheets were dirty and had chunks of food still on them. Thank goodness we had our silk inner sheets to sleep in. We braved the dining car for dinner and it was not too bad.
We played cards to pass the time and watched the lovely riverside scenery. We ended up going to bed at 9pm as we were to be woken at 4.30am. It was a tough sleep as the train was very jerky and had many stops. We were glad to get off.
29th We had a 3 hour bus ride on very rough roads to get to Yangshou and we passed through beautiful countryside There were many farms and small towns along the route and we got our first look at the limestone karsts that make this region famous. It reminded many of us of Vietnam and Thailand. We arrived in Yangshuo and checked into our hotel, had showers and after meeting everyone in the lobby, set off for brunch. Yisha gave us an orientation walk around the area and we had free time until 2pm when we met up again for our cruise down the Li river.
We had a 40 minute drive to where we had our cruise. The place where we were on the river is on the 20 Yuan note. We were split into two groups for our "bamboo" raft cruise. We were on a raft with Anu and Jess and Olivia, Lisa, Steph, Annie and Pam were on the other raft. The scenery was magnificent and much less "mist" than we have encountered so far on our journey.
In the evening 7 of us had dinner together before doing a bit of shopping in the markets. Catriona bought a scarf and two pairs of zip off travel pants and David bought a pair of zip off travel pants and a zip off sleeve travel shirt. The Karsts were lit up for the night and looked very pretty.
30th We had a local breakfast of noodles with meat and a juice for just 10 Yuan ($2). After breakfast we set off for our ride around the countryside. The bikes we had were in good condition and we were able to adjust the seat posts so they were comfortable to ride. We set off traveling down the busy local street then turned off to a minor road before taking a small country lane through pretty farm land with a spectacular backdrop of the limestone karsts. It was very hot and humid, but while we were riding it was not too bad.
We passed small streams and through villages on our way to Moon Hill. Most of the group did the half hour walk to the top. We were followed to the top by a little lady who carried a box of cold drinks. She told us she was 69 and had 6 children. When we made it to the top she was saying how hot it was and proceeded to fan us. We felt sorry for her so bought a can of coke. The view from the top was lovely.
After our walk we rode to our guides house for lunch. It was great food, we had six dishes which her husband cooked for us. After lunch we had a walk around her village and she showed us all her crops. She grows most of the food that they eat. She picked us a piece of a rice plant and showed us where the rice comes from which was very interesting and something a few of us did not know.
We headed back to the hotel and had showers then met up for a couple of cocktails before setting off to the light show. The light show was very good and had been choreographed by the guy who did the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. It was on a grand scale with many performers.
After the show we headed off to a bar for some more cocktails and some dinner for our last night with Annie and Pam as they stayed in Yangshuo to do a cooking course with Intrepid.
1st This morning everyone apart from Annie and Pam set off for a cooking class. Our first stop was the local market to see all the types of vegetables we would be using in our class. There were a few interesting things such as live eels and dog.
We cooked 5 dishes in our cooking class, Egg wrapped dumplings, steamed chicken with mushrooms, Eggplant Yangshuo style, Stir fried pork with vegetables and Oyster sauce and Green vegetables with garlic. We had fun cooking and it was all very good.
After the cooking course we headed back to the hotel and Catriona went shopping with Steph, Jess and Anu. We had a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to Guilin for our last overnight train trip to Shenzhen. We had hard sleepers again with 6 to a compartment with no doors. It was a good trip and we managed to get a good sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment