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Hello,
We have got slightly behind in updating the blog because we have been very busy doing a lot of travelling.
After an overnight train from Guangzhou to Guilin, we travelled by local bus onto Yangshuo. It is a very beautiful town on the banks of the Li river, surrounded by other-worldly limestone peaks. The producers of the movie "Avatar" got their inspiration from this stunning landscape.
The first day we arrived we were very tired after our train but we had a relaxing day and a wonder around, culiminating in a few rounds of cheap chinese beer in one of the very nice local bars. The following evening we decided to take a trip up the Li river on a bamboo raft. We went at sunset and had the raft all to ourselves. Watching the sun go down over such spectacular scenery was incredible. The next morning we took a cookery course which began with a trip to the local market. This was, as can be imagined, quite a shock. The pictures speak for themselves! Luckily though, the course itself didn't involve any alien meat and we learned to cook some very tasty chinese cuisine. In the evening we went to the most impressive show either of us have ever seen! Directed by the man behind the Beijing Olympic's opening ceremony, the show involved over 600 performers singing, dancing and floating on and around the Li river after sunset. It was truly spectacular and very fitting for the beautiful surroundings. Even better was our final day, when we rented mountain bikes and set out exploring the surrounding countryside. We cycled about 20km and saw lots of amazing scenery and many local villages. We really enjoyed our secluded adventure around Yangshuo county.
On the 17th Nov we took a train from Guilin to Nanning where we stayed overnight before taking a bus across the border into Vietnam. Everything ran very smoothly apart from when we tried to make our way around Nanning. None of the taxi drivers spoke any English and our Chinese was not too fluent either! This made comunicating the hotel we wanted to go to quite a problem. Eventually however, we made it! Crossing the border to Vietnam was very easy.
China has definately been the dark horse of our trip so far. We were certainly looking forward to visiting other places more. Yet, China, and Yangshuo in particular, really was a spectacular surprise! In fact, Yangshuo has been Simon's favourite place so far!
Once in Vietnam we spent a night in Hanoi. This was very pleasant and the people were extremely friendly and helpful, especially after we changed our minds at the last minute about which bus we wanted to catch! Simon made friends with a man who turned out to be a massive fan of English football and Chelsea in particular. Him and his friend gave us a lift to the bus station on the back of their scooters and Simon gave him an old Chelsea shirt as a thank you. He was very happy and said that he would treasure it forever.
We have just taken a bus to Cat Ba Island in Ha long Bay. We will hopefully update this again soon!
- comments
Mum2 Great blog, and it's wonderful that it hasn't all been a disappointment after the tigers, rhinos and Taj Mahal! Lots of love from us all xxx
Mum It sounds amazing- we are so happy that you have both enjoyed China. The photos are awesome!! We hope Simon didn't buy that huge Buddha!! Love from us all xx