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After leaving Gullin at abouit 9am we had a not so compfy local bus journey up to the Longji region where there are rice paddy terraces scaling the heights of the mountains and where traditional dress and values still very much remain with the local people. Our first stop over was in the village of Dazhai. Lucy our guide from yesterday was escorting us and we had a 45minute steep climb in the pouring rain up to our simple, stunning wooden guesthouse on top of the mountain. We had left our main ruck sacks in storage at the train station so luckily were only lugging our day packs!
Intrepid who im touring with are keen to get off the usual tourist routes and we we seemed to be the only westerners staying here. The large chalet type homes usually house a large extended family and the task of buildings these homes are a community effort. The village people are mainly famous for their tribes women having VERY long hair..they wear it up in a very unique style and will take it down and re-do it up for a price!!!
The weather cleared up fro a spell and we sat outside and ate a superb home cooked chinese meal...it was good to see what meat we were eating exactly and not to have veg covered in corn starch (whcih is really gooie). We also had a treat and watched a dvd but were all to pooped to finish it!! Had a good giggle when bed time came around as the building is made of wood you can hear ever word, snoor and footstep. The brit girls came in mine and goodies room for a 'sleepover' as their room was so covered in varnish/ wood stain that you choked just stepping a metre in!!
The plan for Friday was to trek the dragons back along the Longji terraces to another village, throughout the night there was very heavy rainfall and we were advised not to go on the trek but could do so at our own risk. I decided that 1. I didn't want to break my leg and 2. that i didn't want to spoil the memory i'd have of this beautiful place by trekking 5hours in the rain and fog!! The people who didn't go trekking got a treat anyway. The local women came to sell their hand made goods and we had some really good sign language banter with them. One of them was about 4ft and kept on falling aslepp, then waking up and checking that the other 2 women were charging us the right amount for the goods ha ha. Again one of the other girls have got a pic of this and i think its my fav pic so far...we all look so happy!! Plus i gave them a 20p coin each so they were chuffed...i taught them bout queenie liz!!
We took a private bus to the next stop....yesterdays journey had been hair raising with the heavy rainfall, mud slides and random water falls and today wasn't much better but at least we had a smaller vehicle so could take the corners better!!! By the time we got to the next guesthouse in Ping An and showered, the hard core trekkers were coming in...they had had two accidents but had enjoyed oooerrr.
That evening we had a right treat, after another fab home cooked meal and some rice wine we were entertained by the local women. These women wear a different dress again and the people have different traditions too. They performed a 'match making' ceremony through dance and Ben picked Goodie to be his wife...he was blind folded otherwise he'd have choosen his girlfriend Nic ha ha!! We all had a go at bamboo jumping...the boys proving to be better and giving us a quartet finale afterwards. Also the people wanted us to sing to them and we seriously let ourselves down.....we sang 'we wish you a merry christmas'...considering we have all been singing the whole trip and that its not even christmas this was a very poor choice!!!!!!
One of the Brit girls Carly sprained her ankle after getting carried away junping the bamboo but she still joined us on the terrace for a beer afterwards. This was to be our last 'party night' as unfortunately myself and the brit girls can't go to Hong Kong due to visa problems . We have one more night train to do then we have to say bye to half the group as they're not carrying on to Hanoi.
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