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I haven't done this in a long time so I do apologise yet again its been mad time with no time for internet things.
Right well after Hong Kong we all gathered in Donguan for about another 4 days. Me graham and Farrer left for Guilin by plane form Guanzhou on sunday the 6th of July.
General prices in CHina have unfortunately shot up with the Olympics which is a pain as an 45 minute plane ride to Guilin cost 45 quid, which is expensive for china.
Anyway in Guilin we would meet up with Grahams Brother and Sister (Mike and Kate) in a pre booked hostel near the Li River.
Guilin is not the place I expected, its basically just another massive chinese city and the real beautiful countryside can be found in the nearby town of Yangshou. However despite this there are things to do in Guilin and what's great is you get to see just a little taste of things to come because the city is surrounded by the classic limestone hill's you see on tourism adverts for china
We spent three days in Guilin, and went to the Reed Flute Caves, The Rice fields and Elephant park (no real Elephants). The limestone caves were really impressive and the surrounding area was great to climb up and view from.
On the 3rd day Phil and cooper arrived in Guilin, and we went on a tour to the Rice Fields.
Part of our tour was to stop off at a village to see women who as part of there culture never cut there hair, some have been in the Guinness book of records. The whole thing was... weird, the women danced around in traditional colourful clothes and sang with high pitched voices while loads of people watched in a theatre type surnario. They showed you their marriage ceremony which involved people from the audience. That was also weird because part of it involved the slapping of bottoms. 'Apparently' the women do this to tell you that they like you and on the way out they do this by pinching you as well. They pinch really hard! (they pinched everyone)
Anyway this mockery of traditional values for tourism aside, we then went on to the Rice Fields.
It was about a couple of hours trek to the top of a massive hill through dirt paths, plants and little towns. The trek wasn't hard but it was really hot and the views from the top were amazing. The rice fields from the top look like the contours of a map but in 3D, and they stretched for miles.
A big highlight.
Then the next day we headed off to Yangshou by boat up the Li river which proved to be one of the best things I have done yet on this trip.
The boat was a little barge thing which you could walk out on, or even sit on right to the edge.
The boat ride took about 2 hours and we just sat there cracked open a beer and watched as the majestic looking huge hills pass you by, I real treat. There were points along the ride which the boat stopped and you could walk about take pictures and splash your feet in the river.
When the boat stopped the next part of our journey began. Not knowing if we were at Yangshou yet we were piled on to what can only be described as a motorbike with a trailer attached for people to sit in. It was the bumpiest ride but a fun one all the same and what was great is that you got to see a bit more of rural china.
Half an hour later we arrive in Yangshou, a tiny little mega tourist town next to the LI river. Its backpacker crazy and not in a good way, all you can see is shop after shop selling the same stuff and hostel after hostel with western bar after western bar. however you cant help to foget all of this when you simply look up and see the same massive limetone hills surounding you.
We spent 3 days in Yangshou alltogether mostly eating drinking and seeing the amazing countryside Yangshou has to offer.
My bargining skills were but to the test, because its such a tourist place they really wack up there prices for westerners. I bought something for someone, got them from 85 yuan to 15! go me (the shop owner wasn't happy).
One of the days I wanted to see the really rural areas outside of where we were staying. So me and farrer went to get mopeds. (it was far too hot for pedal bikes)
Farrer tested his bike as a try run before we hired one... went fine (hes riden before)
I went on one (never been on a moped before) was fine for about 15 seconds... had to break..... forgot where the break was and accelerated instead.... crashed into the back of a stationary tiny little bus thing.
It was really funny, didnt hurt myself at all, was goning about 2 miles an hour.
So we decided to get one bike, he would drive and I would sit on the back.
We had a really good day zipping about the coutryside with some amazing views, going through little villages with people driving ox, it was cool, pictures to follow.
We said our goodbyes to Graham, Mike and Kate who went back to Donguan, while we (me, phil, farrer and cooper) went back to Guilin for a couple of days before we got a train to Xian to see the Tericotta army.
Unfortunatly we picked the worced week to book train tickets as all of teh univercity students in china left for there holidays and the trains were impossible to book.
So we decided to go somewhere else for a week instead, we chose place know as Chinas Hiwaii, probably know as Hianan.
Hianan is a beach resort island just off the south coast of China.
With no trains available getting to Hianan would have to be done by bus. This turned out to be quite an interesting journey.
The bus was a sleeper bus which means beds on board and over night travel. The 'beds' were alright if you were 5 foot tall but for a 6 foota it was... tiresome. They place was cramped to say the least and with masses of chinese people with anoyingly loud kids wasn't amazing but it was an experience all the same.
The bus took 20 hours! with a 3 hours boat ride to the island, which I just slept on.
Hianan is palm trees long beaches and plenty of sunbathers. Which was very much welcome sight after our cramped bus jouney. Currently we are at the very south of Hianan in a place called Sanya.
As I write this its the 24th of july at 2.20 in the afternoon and the last couple pf days here has been great, just lounging around on the beach and in the sea.
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