Hello again,

This will be my last entry from China. After about six weeks here I'm finally moving on. I'm of mixed feelings about that - I've finally gotten used to China, but I'm excited to be seeing a new country!

Well, the sleeper bus to Kunming wasn't awful, but I had the benefit of having a lower bunk along the side of the bus which meant that no one was next to me. Also, no one on the bus seemed inclined to smoke, which was a plus. I've heard some stories from other travellers about being stuck in the larger bunk in the back of the bus, crowded in with four other people who are all smoking in the confined area. We arrived in Kunming at about 5:30 in the morning just down the street from Kunming Zhan, the main train station. I walked there and waited for the luggage station to open at 6:00 so I could drop off my things for the day. Then I just went around doing errands. It was a rainy day and I didn't really have the time to go see any of the sights that I had missed the first time I was in Kunming, so I just went to the post office, wandered around the neighborhood surrounding the train station and finished another book. Finally, I picked up my luggage and boarded the train to Guilin at about 6:15.

The train arrived in Guilin the next day at about 1:00. The shift in scenery and climate from Yunnan province to Guangxi province was pretty dramatic. It's almost tropical here, which is good preparation for Vietnam. There were a lot of touts outside the train station trying to fill buses to Yangshuo, my destination, so I was able to play them against each other and lower the price of a ticket by about one-third. Very few things in China are non-negotiable, and I've certainly had a lot of opportunities to practice haggling. I finally arrived in Yangshuo and checked in to a hostel, then took a look through the town.

The next day I took a minibus north to a little town and hopped onto a "bamboo raft" (really more like a PVC-pipe raft) that I had all to myself as I cruised down the Li River. This is a really beautiful area, and a lot of Chinese come here for the beautiful scenery. The 20 RMB note features a picture of the Li River on its back, commemorating its beauty. I saw plenty of other rafts, water buffalo, cormorant fishermen and, of course, the stunning karst peaks lining the river.

While here I also signed up for a cooking course! A representative from the cooking school met me at my hostel early the next morning and took me to the rest of the group. We walked over to the local farmer's market to browse through the selection of produce, freshwater creatures and the butchers' section. The Yangshuo farmer's market is rather infamous for the skinned dogs hanging for sale in the butchers' section, as well as the live dogs awaiting the same fate from cramped cages. There were, of course, plenty of other live animals - chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, hedgehogs, etc. but it's the dogs that most tourists come here to see. Then we took a bus to the cooking school itself. First we learned to create pork-stuffed steamed vegetables, which were placed in the steamer as we made the rest of the meal. The main reason I had signed up for this course was so I could learn to make one of my favorite Chinese dishes - braised eggplant. That was up next, and we were allowed to eat it as an appetizer to hold us over until lunch. Then we made beer-fish, which is a local specialty, chicken with cashews and water-spinach with garlic. Then we ate the food we had made. The verdict? Success! I made Chinese food that tasted exactly like what I've had in the restaurants here! And I came out of it with only one new scar from a grease splatter.

Another day was spent visiting the Longji Rice Terraces. I was up incredibly early to catch the bus that took me to the terraces up north of Guilin. The price I had paid covered transportation there and back and the entrance fee to the terraces. I was warned when I booked it that I would have to pay 12 kuai for the minibus that goes to the top of the terraces and back down, so I was prepared for that. I was not prepared for the guide that tried to convince us all to pay another 60 kuai to visit a local village. The local women have incredibly long hair that they keep pitch black by washing in the rice water, and the 60 kuai that the guide wanted us to pay would cover a show by these women and some tea. I refused to pay so much for this, especially when I hadn't been told about it in advance, and so did several others on the bus. The guide was very put out because it's here that she makes a hefty commission. Most of the bus went to the village while the few of us remaining stayed behind.

I walked around a village with a young American woman who was teaching in Japan and two older women from Australia, one of whom had been teaching in China for the past five years. Turns out, she knew a local woman and we all went to her restaurant for free tea and tangerines. Then the woman offered to give us a private showing of her hair, which she wasn't supposed to do because the official show just down the road brings in so much money. We agreed, and she unwound her hair from her head. It reached nearly to the ground and was incredibly heavy. She had cut it only twice in her life - once on her 18th birthday and once when it became too long - and those two bunches of hair were bound up and placed within her real hair. Then she brought out local ethnic costumes and made us all try them on! Because she was so kind and accommodating we each offered her 5 RMB "for the tea". So for 5 RMB we got tea, tangerines, a private showing and the opportunity to try on local dress. Those who did the official show only got the show and tea for 60 RMB. I think all would agree that I made the right choice. When the others came back we ran to meet them at the bus, then we changed to a minibus that took us up to the rice terraces. The terraces are pretty incredible. I would love to see them in the spring when the paddies fill up with water - it's apparently a very beautiful sight. The terraces were so vast and seemed to go on forever - and they're all planted and harvested by hand! I couldn't believe the amount of work that must go into it every year.

Today was my last day in Yangshuo. I wandered around and did some souvenir shopping before checking with the post office about a package from home that I've been waiting on. Since it has my guidebook and phrasebook for South-East Asia I couldn't leave Yangshuo until I had it. I checked with the hostel it was supposed to be sent to at 4:30 and they told me it still hadn't arrived but to check with the post office to see if perhaps it was being held up for some reason. So I went over 15 minutes before the post office closed and asked. They told me to check the parcel room out back. I went out and asked and - voila! It was there! I'm glad I checked today - otherwise I would have lost two days waiting until it was delivered on Monday! I ran over to the travel agency to book a bus ticket to Nanning for tomorrow morning, and all is settled. I go to Nanning tomorrow and from there I hope to buy a bus ticket to Hanoi for the next day. If I can get that ticket, tomorrow will be my last day in China. In any case, when I next write it will be from Vietnam!