31/01/11 - 17/02/11 - Guilin to Yangshuo to Hong Kong

Being mugged by a pesky 15 year old boy is not something I really wanted to add to my personal CV, imagine the ripping! We had decided to be true to our traveller ways, i.e. be as scrupulous as possible and therefore stay the night at Xian airport terminal to await our morning flight to Guilin. However, what we didn't realise was that this small, yet shiny new airport terminal was the stomping ground of every waif and dodgy stray in Xian after 10pm. Two hours in, we were being uncomfortably stalked by a ferrel looking local, who by his grubby demeanour was not at the airport to peruse the duty free but more likely to relieve us of our dutiful goods. I tried to display the fact that we had nothing for him whereas he just discreetly displayed to us that he was 'tooled up'. Hence, we made a dash for the busier check in area. Whilst Micki slept, I sat on the bags and acted as nightwatchman fending off every hawker and scally that attempted to get within 5 yards. With morning hindsight, albeit with both of us being a tad ratty, we decided it wasn't one of our better ideas.

Guilin is a major city transport hub set amidst dozens of karst limestone peaks that make this city a must see destination for all chinese, especially at New Year. The town itself is lined by the turquoise waters of the Li River that, really is the lifeblood of the city. However, as magical and dreamy as Guilin is, we found it to be just a mere warm up to the main attraction, that is Yangshuo, 60km to the south. There is not enough superlatives to describe Yangshuo, in short, the most stunning location worldwide either of us have ever visited.

In Guilin we managed to scale Folded Brocade Hill to view the city in all its karst glory. This was a place where we truly realised that the holidaying rural chinese are fascinated by us, as no fewer than 8 chinese locals lined up for personal photos with me at the top of the peak. A fact epitomised by locals all over Guilin and Yangshou either sneakily having their photo taken by the side of our table in a restaurant or them more blatantly 'papping' Micki at serious close range. She loved it, no mind! Always working those angles! The location and views of this city certainly also made up for our hostel that, although was great, managed amazingly, to be colder inside than the 3 degrees it was outside.

The RSPCA would have a field day here in China. Our trip to the local farmers market one morning included such 'wake up' sights such as; dogs being beheaded and skinned, cats being killed and plucked, fish being killed and gutted all by hand, chickens having their necks wrung in front of you and more heart wrenchingly, tiny steel cages packed with live dogs, cats and rabbits who were all waiting on death row. Local markets in China really are more a debauched take on the British TV show; 'Kill it, Cook it, Eat it' . China's take on it is more like; 'Find it, Cage it, Pick it, Kill it, Skin it, Cook it, Hang it, Devour it'! Not surprising then that one of the local specialities is dog hot pot. Apparently, its all about poodle noodles too! ! I have to admit to paying 5 yuan (50p) to the butcher for that photo, just for memories sake of course. We had to restore our bad karma that day.

We arrived in Yangshuo on New Years Eve with another English couple, Jenna & Andy, whom we had previously met in Beijing. NYE was uber cool as huge fireworks, more like TNT, lit up the night sky against the dreamy backdrop of hundreds of these karst limestone peaks. Truly amazing! Oh yea, plus the obligatory shots of tequila helped make it a proper New Year.

Yangshuo is Bear Grylls heaven, an outdoor activity paradise of towering limestone peaks and meandering rivers that turned our initial 3 day trip into a 10 day New Year holiday. We totally fell for this place on the second day when we biked alongside the Yulong River to Dragon Bridge. Biking 30km through rural villages, where hundreds of 100m karst peaks flank you for miles and where life is very very simple; men sit and play checkers, women wash their clothes along the banks of the river, chickens and ducks wander freely and kids as young as 3 throw firecrackers at each other as if they were playing catch. To be honest our biking trails haven't always been story perfect, comical events have included; 3 punctures with no repair kit ('backies' for 6km isn't fun), a crazy scamming local lady not letting us through her supposed 'ancient' village in want of cash by holding onto Micki's and Jenna's bike (after a bout of tug of war in which crazy lady sadly lost we sped off) and finally, getting so lost amongst rural farmland we had to resort to following the campest of chinese men, who for all his genuine, yet misguided help was riding a pink alice bike. Not ideal!

After 3 days of biking and extreme saddle soreness we managed a 25km walk from Yangdi to Xingping, which is just north of Yangshuo. Again the scenery was incredible and well worth the next day aches. Micki's wee pins were struggling the last stretch so I coaxed her along with the promise of red wine and wood fired pizza later that night which, seemed to do the trick!

After an eventful sleeper bus journey from Yangshuo where we were told to ''get off the bus'' a full 30km from the train station at Shenzen, we finally made it to the mecca that is Hong Kong and our delightful accommodation in Chungking Mansions, right in the tourist centre of Nathan Road. If you have never heard of it, then you have got to google it. Unfortunately for us, the only similarity between Chungking and your customary mansion is the size. Pretty it is not, but cheap it is, which suits my travelling mantra (lucky Micki eh!)

Hong Kong has to be one of our favourite major cities with the imposing skyscrapers on HK island, that create a stunning skyline from the harbour side of Kowloon, especially at dusk. Micki has developed a 'love hate' relationship with the many shopping malls; she loves the fact that there is a Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Christain Louboutin etc on every corner and in every mall, but hates the fact she can only window shop!

The HK highlight so far has to be going to Happy Valley racecourse on Hong Kong island. Unbelievable sight seeing this racecourse set against the backdrop of skyscrapers and the multitude of high rise apartments. Micki stuck to her betting principles, betting only $2 each race and Lady luck appeared be on our side all night. Amazingly, we selected 4 out of 6 winners all based on Micki's expert racing knowledge on thoroughbreds, i.e the likeability of their name and matching colours. Genius!

Being in Hong Kong I also managed to get my first hair cut or scare cut should I say. You know your in trouble when the stylist (in the loosest sense of the term) doesn't even ask you what you want! The guy hardly stopped cutting for a whole 45 minutes, only pausing briefly to twizzle his scissors in his right hand before slinging them into his holster like pouch and then back out again as if it was his party piece which, resulted in me now, as Micki put it, looking like I am about to enrol for the marine core!

Anyway must dash

Next stop, Vietnam.