Sorry we haven't updated in a while, these past 10 days have been busy busy busy, so today we're catching up with the blog & photos so stay tuned.

Yesterday afternoon, carrying on from our last blog entry, we made the most of our last day in Yangshuo town central, despite the rain, shopping along the market stalls and whiling away the afternoon in our temporary home that was MC Blues. We discovered a bar which sold apple crumble (!!!) aswell, not a patch on Mummy Reynolds' but still rather yummy J

In the evening was our bus journey to Chaolong. We found out Rosie and Becky had inadvertently seen some dogs be slaughtered for the local delicacy hotpot, and of course having seen that neither of them were in the frame of mind to try it. Our hostel in Chaolong was in the middle of the mountains, in a tiny village away from the hustle and bustle of the backpacker orientated Yangshuo. There was no airconditioning, only mozzie nets which we soon realised didn't work very well. We also realised that Claire is much tastier than Liam, as he didn't get bitten at all, and Claire was eaten alive overnight!

The next morning (today) we got up pretty late and didn't fancy the optional daytrip back to Yangshuo on a mini bus. Instead, we befriended the 'entertainment & security' ie the cutest sausage dog you would ever meet living in the hostel, called Lulu. Bobo had told us she would quite happily take guests for walks, but we were pretty sceptical - a dog talking us for a walk? We were proved wrong however, whenever we got lost up in the mountains - which was pretty often to be fair - Lulu would be waiting patiently in the right direction. Our walk took us up the side of one of the mountains, away from the visible paths, where we heard some very strange noises! If you watch the panorama video of the mountain walk you'll hear some hooting, we reckon it was gibbons or something, but very eerie either way! We also walked past the farmers in their fields tending cattle aswell, everyone hear is very friendly and we received several 'Ni Hao's along the way. There was one point where Lulu went trotting left, away from the path. We were certain that the hostel was further up the road so we called her back, but she just stopped there. Thinking she was tired, Liam picked her up and carried her along the way for a bit, the way we thought to go. Back on the floor a little later, she turned left again, so thinking, 'oh let's follow the dog anyway,' we went left too, only to see a sign pointing 'Outside Inn, 150m Left' Lulu had been right all along! Clever dog.