Up early ready for a 7am collection for the Rice Fields. We drive for about 3hours and make a toilet stop in between I decide not to bother. It is just a whole, disgusting. Makes the toilets in India look like a private dressing suite a fancy hotelin London. OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration maybe a hotel bathroom in a travel lodge! Our first stop in the Long Hair village. We learn that the ladies cut their hair once when they are 8 years old and then never again ( I think though if they dont get married they have to cut it, I was getting a bit lost in translation at this point). We also learn they like to pinch your bum (woman pinch, men are not allowed though) and they love glasses as it is a sign of cleverness. The woman work all day and the men stay at home and be house husbands. In the man's pursuit for a woman, he goes to her house and he takes the following, Rice, Bamboo and a Hat. This is for the following, The Rice to give to the dog if it attacks him The Bamboo for climbing up to the window The Hat in case she throws water on him We get on another bus. I have to put my ipod on at this point as there is a Chinese tour on it and the woman just waffles on in Chinese, very loudly and without stopping for breath...what the hell was she telling them that needed that much speak! At the long hair village, the woman all have their hair tied up in kind of rolls. We got in to see a show by them and they do the normal tourist stuff were they get men out of the audience and dance around with them, pinch their bums etc. I always find it strange that woman can get away with doing this but if men done it for fun there would be public out cry, double standeds but anyway. They then let their hair down. I think it's horrible. They swish it around and wash and brush it. It would look so much healthier with a good cut and a few layers put in it! We then head off for some lunch. It's fine. Typical Chinese. We then have a few hours to walk hrough the villgers and explore. It is interesting seeiing how people live and going about their daily business. We learn that they dont have toilets and use newspapers. They also use newspaper to cover their eyes as a sign of privacy. They reuse the paper for this and not as I first understood that they reused the paper for everything! The climb down is steep and you can get villagers to carry you down but they charge by the kilo! We head back to Yangshao. I think mine and Sally's constant waffling and giggling annoys the driver as he puts his ipod on! That night we have dinner and about 4 bottls of Chinese beer. I really like the Chinese local beer. It is pretty weak and I guess it would not do a proper manly beer drinker but I like it. The next day I get up just before 9 and Sally has a lie in. We head out for breakfast and again get 2 breakfasts. Omlette and pancake ( the ommlette still not as nice as dad's). We meeet a guy from New York called Youv, we arrange to head out for a drink with him later in the evening. I have ear ache, that has been niggling for a few days ( i think it's caused through the pressure when flying). We brace the pharmacy and try and describe. My description consists of me banging my ear and saying ow ow ow. The pharmacy shakes his head and implies he does not have anything for it. Im not sure if this because he generally does not have any ear drops or becuase he thinks I have a mental disorder! I decide to give up on the idea, We then head out on the bikes again to a village. We cycle miles. Which involves even being chased by a rabid dog! I think that day we must cycle over 25KM. We get back before it's to dark and head for coffee before dinner. I get a hot coke with fresh ginger, it's lovely. I'm deffo going to make this when I get home. A few of you have been messaging me about the food and what am I eating, am I sticking to fried rice . Fried rice with every chinese meal is actually more a western thing. They tend to order a few meat/fish/tofu dishes and some vegtables. If you do order rice it tends to come at the end of your meal. We have dinner and head back to meet Youv. He has also met up with a Chinese guy (who speaks very little english if any) and also an English guy, Jamie. Jamie does speak a fair bit of Chinese though. So we all headout to a local bar and have a beer. I'm abit bored of beer though and struggling to drink it. The Chinese guy then speaks through Jamie that we can go to his friends house and drink tea. So off we head. It is about 15 mins walk from the centre. Whem we get there the guy is sitting behind his tea set. He looked slightly like a drug baron. For a moment I do think oh dear, what have we done. He could be Chinese mafia or a Triad! Anyway he clearly isnt. He just makes us Chinese tea (lots of it) and offers us sunflower seeds. He is a photographer and has a studio with loads of props. He lets Sally and I fool around in there for a bit. He also has tons of animals. The funny thing is the cat Mee Me (all cats in China re called Mee Me. It must be like our Kitty Kitty), drinks water from the fish tank and the fish does not seem phased by this at all! We head off close to midnight as we have our cookery course early in the morning. xxx