Here's the second entry of my journal, as you may have noticed it's come a little quicker than the first one. To pick up where i left off last time, i was in yangshuo for 3 nights, it's such a beautiful place you could easily spend longer just cycling through the hillsides and climbing up a few. So on my second day there i cycled out to one of the more famous hills called Moon Hill(in the picture attached to this entry, i'm standing in the moon part of the hill), it was a sweaty 7km cycle out there, due to the humidity and heat, then i embarked on the 1200 something steps to the top, at which point i wished i'd brought a towel and more water with me, not to have a bath but to drink the water and use the towel to mop myself up as the sweat was pouring out of me, so much so, a kind chinese couple gave me a packet of tissues to stem the flow. So after taking in the views for about 20 minutes and regaining myself, iwent down the hill and had a cycle around the countryside, through some small villages(more like groups of huts really) before heading back to my hostel for dinner. The food at the hostel was outstanding and plentiful(as it was included in the price, and we had communal meals it was basically eat as much as you can, we never did manage to finish the whole lot!). That evening i perused the night market on west street(the main street in town) before going for a couple of drinks with an israeli guy from my hostel. The next day was perfect for cycling(or doing anything energetic) as it was cool and overcast, so i decided to head off with a german who had arrived the previous day at the guesthouse, to cycle along the Yulong river, this time on non-mountain bikes, but those french-looking things with the baskety and such. It was fair to say that these machines weren't made for the terrain which we undertook that day, the look on the guy's face who rented us the bikes was one of disbelief. It was a nice ride tho, except for the rain, which obviously added to the difficulties with the bike. We took the main road back to Yangshuo once we had reached the next village. The map was unreliable to say the least so when we thought we only had about a third of the way to go, it turned out that this estimation was quite far off and we probably did another 3/4s of what we had already done. It was a fun afternoon. The next day was my last in the Guangxi Province, before i headed west to Kunming and the Yunnan(the province,which borders tibet and Laos and Burma. I didn't really do too much , as i had to catch a bus back to Guilin as my train left from there the next morning. I did come across some rather interesting items on the menus in Guilin(it is notorious for serving weird food) my favourite was bull's sexual genitals, or bullocks b******s(it does have a cerain ring to it), snake soup, and wild rat(au van) to name just a few. I decided to eat at the hostel, instead as it was a much safer and cheaper option. Monday morning, i boarded the train to Kunming, a 22hr slog through the south west of the country, for company all i had was the Tess of the D'Urbervilles and a John Peel biography, and of course the rest of the carriage. This sleeper train was much more 'basic' than my previous, i have come to expect a pungant smell when i open a toilet door in china, but the smell on this one made me feel naeseous. The floors also had that sticky feeling when you walk you have to pick your feet up. On the whole it wasn't too bad, i came to china expecting to experience some differences from back home. So i arrived in Kunming early tuesday morning and spent the day looking around the town. The first thing that i realised was there was no humidity which made an relieving change, it was just hot, like we get in Europe(a bit hotter than we get in blighty tho!). I went to another Buddhist temple and had a wander around a lovely park then went to read a a place called French Cafe, as the title suggests it wasn't very chinese but a cool place to go and read and relax and get out of the sun. Today i ordered my first meal from a menu whcih was completely in mandarin, i reckonised the chicken symbol, and then the realisation hit me that it may have been chicken feet, as you can imagine my heart sank) then after an anxious wait, there were no feet to be seen and in fact it was a chicken soup with an egg fried rice dish, all for the princely sum of 25p. I had booked two nights here but i forgot that i have to come back through here to go to the next province so decided to keep some of the sights until then, so the next day, got on a bus heading for Dali. After a 5 hour trip through the hills which reminded my of Croatia and the mediterrenean countries, lots of conferious trees and such with a similar climate. Dali stands at just under 2000m whcih is really strange because the only time i've been this altitude is to ski! Dali is an old ming town which still has its cobbled streets and is encased within its walls so it does feel like you're in a intimate surroundings. As this is china tho, most of the town has been converted into tourism driven activities which makes for a traveller atmosphere. Just to the south is a huge Lake, which i cycled down to today, the going down was preferable to the cycling up. Then i got ripped off (the equivalent of a weeks' accommodation!)to go to another temple complex, but within the complex are the Three Pagodas which make for a must do photo opportunity, but i walked around for nearly 2 hours and as you walk up the mountain side the number of chinese tourist groups reduces so i managed to find some peace and tranquility. The views were ok, but they are better from the top of the hill, which i'm doing tomorrow. Apologies again for waffling on, i promise to make the next one shorter! Hope you are all well. Matt