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Published: August 29th 2014
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In the morning Bhavisha and I had a lie in as the others had opted to do the cooking class. Stuart should have also gone but he was way too hungover. Nitzan came back and said it was really good. They had been to the market to get the ingredients and had also visited the meat market, but on the advice of their chef he didn't go in. However Ged and Lauren did. Apparently Ged said there were cats and dogs in cages on top of each other, dead ones hanging from hooks, he also watched as a dog was slaughtered and it's head removed! Not for the feint hearted. Nitzan also said even from the street the smell was horrendous. So I'm glad I didn't go.
So after a morning spent chilling it was time to meet up, and to meet the 6 new members if iur group. They are all on internships in sangdu but didn't know each other before the trip. John is from Ireland, Franklin is from the US and Frank, Kirsty, Tom are from UK and Roman is from Lithuania.
Our afternoon activity was a 40min bike ride, hour hike
then to visit caves, a mud bath and hot spring and then cycle back.
We donned our cycle helmets at Monkey Janes then walked through the town to collect our bikes and test the brakes lol. We all headed off following Sally and joined the busy flow of traffic. We eventually had to negotiate a busy roundabout criss crossing the traffic as we did so. However we managed to lose 3 of our party. Nitzan and I stopped to see if they would catch up but they didn't. I got off my bike and walked back to the roundabout as it was easier, and saw the stragglers on the other side. I negotiated my way through the traffic to collect them and tell them where to go and then walked back. As I got there I could see that Sally had done a U turn as she had been advised she had lost some of us.
So with everyone back together again we cycled off along the main road. We headed along the straight flat road avoid hazards in our way, luckily we seemed to be in a very wide cycle lane which made
things a little easier. Hazards included other cyclists, moped users, parked vehicles etc. the road was very busy noisy and dirty and the usual horn blowing from vehicles letting you know they are there was going on.
We had one more roundabout to negotiate and we all made it safe and sound. Slowly we headed out of the city into the country side. There seemed to be lots of touristy places along the way as there were lots of coaches parked up and people walking along the road and at one point we got stuck in a traffic jam. We also stopped to take some photos of the river, and to wait for Stuart who had stopped to buy an ear of sweet corn as he had the munchies lol. Later on he had to avoid a coach pulling out and ran in to the back of Geds bike which caused them to fall off. Luckily there were no injuries, but Stuart had Ben some of his spokes in the front wheel and the wheel itself was a little out out of line. But after a quick repair we were on our way again and soon reached
our first destination the moon rock.
To get to the moon rock we had to climb over 800 steps. Sally stayed at the bottom of the mountain with our bikes, cycle helmets and back packs. We only took water and our cameras and started the climb. It was a gentle climb first with sloping paths and long steps but soon we were just left with steep steps to climb. I didn't do so bad only stopping now and then to catch my breath, drink some water and rest my legs but eventually after about 30 minutes we got there. We were all very hot and sweaty, in fact dripping with sweat - nice not! :-) but the views were amazing. We stayed up there about 20 minutes and then headed back down which was of course easier, but hard on the knees.
After a rest and a photo opportunity we cycled a couple of minutes to the caves. We left our bikes and helmets outside and headed in. We had to remove our shoes and put on the flip flops provided and out all our stuff in lockers, just taking cameras water and a
towel. We had our swim suits on for later.
We had a wander around the caves which were all all imitated like a grotto and some of the scenes had been given names like journey into the Wild West or petrified forest. When we had finished in the illuminated caves we headed for the mud bath! Here was a big pool of brown mud which was tepid in temperature where we could float and wallow like hippos and elephants. We got very muddy and also used the mud slide. This mud was much thinner and less sticky than the caves in Vietnam but we still had good fun.
After messing around in the mud and getting down and dirty we showered off in cool water and then headed for the warm mineral pools. One pool was much warmer than the other and it was very relaxing just lying there getting oar boiled lol. After 10 minutes or so I got out and soon after everyone followed. We headed back to the lockers and got dried off and then got back on our bikes and headed back to Yangzhou. The sun was setting and the
roads had calmed down from earlier on and theorise back was less hazardous and quicker, although by the time we had got back to city it had gone dark and we had no lights. Back in the town we had to negotiate our way through the busy traffic and pedestrians walking on the road.
We dropped off our bikes and by this time it was gone 8pm and we were all very hungry so we headed straight for some food and then back to the hostel for showers and an early night as we were knackered from such an exhausting day. However the guys who arrived this morning went out to the roof top bar to meet monkey Jane, play beer pong and party a little.
Xxx
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