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Ok I think this journal could be a little stop/start. I'm now on a train to Kunming after spending two nights in Yangshuo.
Me, Matt J and Jonny arrived in Guilin from Changsha at 4am on the 2nd January. I managed to get my train ticket to Kunming (they weren't so lucky) then we waited for a while and found a McDonalds to hang out in until the buses to Yangshuo started at 8am.
When we arrived at Yangshuo and checked into the hostel, first thing I did was have a nap, we'd got hardly any sleep on the train. Then I had a temperamental shower and we got some lunch. We then booked ourselves into a few sightseeing activites and rented a bike for the rest of the afternoon. We got a bit lost but it didn't matter, the weather was good and the scenery was beautiful.
Back in Yangshuo, Jonny had a beer fish (the local delicacy) and we decided to try out some happy hours. At 7pm we joined a tourist boat to watch a man fishing with cormorants. It was pretty cool and afterwards he stopped and showed us what they'd caught.
We had some BBQ a bit later (although it wasn't quite to the Hunan standard) then we stayed in the pubs for the rest of the night and even saw a live Chinese band.
The next day we were up early and had an English breakfast then left the hostel at 10am to get on a bus for Yangdi. From there we planned to take a bamboo raft down the Li River but we got ambushed by old women selling fruit when we arrived, and it took a while to work out who's raft we were supposed to be on.
The river cruise was beautiful and the weather was still good so we just relaxed for an hour. I think it'd be a perfect job for dad!
When we got off the boat we caught a crazy taxi golf cart thing to the main town then sat on a sardine tin bus back to Yangshuo.
We had a delicious Chinese meal in the sunshine next to the river, then we did some shopping. I learnt some bargaining skills from Jonny and I got a new coat. We then had a few beers and spent a lot of time in one bar where matt had lots of cocktails, played Connect 4 and had to impersonate animals, and Jonny became a teacher.
That night wasn't too late and the next morning we checked out at 8:30am. After breakfast, Matt and Jonny got their bus back to Changsha and I spent some time on the internet then went for a walk in a park.
I wasn't sure what to do but I found a path up a hill and at the top it was a great place to relax and read my book.
I left Yangshuo at about 12:30pm along with Jonny's jeans that he'd left behind. On the bus a very friendly Singapore man talked to me and told me I should go to Singapore and I could stay with his family... He gave me lots of useful advice about where to go in China though.
I arrived early in Guilin, posted my postcards then waited for my train to arrive. Once on the train I settled to read and sleep. This morning I awoke to beautiful sunshine and different scenery.
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