Yangshou

WOW - China is amazing!

We overnight train'd it to Guilin and then got a bus to Yangshou. We were both shattered from not sleeping to well on a train but the scenery was enough to keep me awake. It was lush and green with lots of craggy, mountains appearing from no where.

When we arrived in Yangshou, there was just enough time for a shower and breakfast before our chinese lesson. This lesson was 1hr long and we were taught a few words and phrases in Mandarin (chinese). Alan can order us a 2 bottles of cold beer - which is very important.

Alan and I spent the afternoon browsing the market stalls and wandering down to the river. The scenery there was amazing, water buffalo grazing on the other side of the river and little chinese people sailing down the river on bamboo rafts.

We had an early night because we had an early start in the morning. Vicki wanted us all up at 5.30am for a 6am bike ride around Yangshou. I think we were up before the birds.

It was quite hard going in some places because the nice, smooth road turned to stoney, uneven dirt track very quickly, once we got out of town. But the views and scenery were stunning! I spent quite alot of time being worried that I was going to fall off my bike, but I was ok. The only minor incident I was involved with was when Anne-Marie (South African) rode her bike up an incline trying to pass me and fell off her bike into me - not chuffed!

Our bike ride was approx 3hrs in total, we did stop briefly for some brekkie but we did cycle for 3hrs. We arrived back in Yangshou absolutely shattered but it was so worth the effort and the early start.