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Published: April 26th 2009
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What an amazing place.
Where do we start, as we left our cruise boat, and sped past all the large and many Chinese tour groups,(hell of all hells) we headed inland to find our hostel.
The town has 2 main streets, full of shops, restaurants, cafes, tourist booking offices, bikes for rent and is buzzing. However, above the shops and buildings you are surrounded by many tall green peaks again. Absolutely stunning. The town is small, but very busy, and our hostel is in a quiet part( except after 10pm, when the 'massage parlour' opposite gets noisy, with one girl in particular, who just shouts all the time, until 5am). The hostel itself(3.50 pounds each a night), is beautiful. Large a/c room, dark new furniture, clean sheets, duvets, hot shower, large clean bathroom, toilet paper, toothbrush, new combs...............
Great place, Steven and Lily(owners) are really helpful, organise trips, tell you were to cycle, give you advice on anything.
That night we went to a huge sound and light show, were 600 performers(inc local fishermen) act out "scenes of colour" for an hour on the river itself in boats and on set props with a light show, surrounded by
12 illuminated peaks.It involves singing, dancing,set pieces involving over 100 actors in sequence every move in time with each other, light shows, group performanes from minority sects and ballet. It was at times magical, especially as it is in time with the folk music. I even bought a program at the end, and I wish I bought the DVD, as it hard to descibe. The audience each night has a capacity of 2000 and there are two shows every night!!!Its is always packed. Unfortunatley the tourist response is varied and some people don't clap (culture) or will stand up to get a better look even though everyone else can't see because of them!! the most annoying is the people who leave whilst the show is still on, obscuring your view and making a huge amount of noise, ooh yeh they don't shut up even through the performances and they don't try to whisper, the volume is always on!!!!
Next day, we hired a couple of bikes, packed our bags, and went cycling. We cycled out of Yangshuo, and in 10 mins you are in the countryside, surrounded by mountains, rice fields, small villages and peace and quiet. We cycled
for 3 hours to reach Dragon Bridge(Reggie, you know this bridge, as you have jumped off ti!!!!), a bridge built in 1412, and it still standing. On the way we met German guy and his Hong Kong girlfriend, and managed to get there together, as the country paths do split sometimes, and you don't see people for a good kilometer or so.
We rode back the country way(there is a main road there), and when we reached pur hostel, we collasped. That is the first decent exercise for months. I was sunburnt, Beck's nose was burnt, and our arses ached, however, the exhilaration of the breeze through your hair, the scenery and the buzz of reaching your destination was worth it. We cycled about 30km in all that day. That night, we went on a boat and saw the local fisherman catch their fish. They catch their fish with their Cormorants, who dive in the water, catch the fish, the man then grabs the birds, pulls them out of the water and grabs the birds by the neck, forces their beaks open as they regergatate the fish(the can't swallow the fish, as they have string tied around their necks,
so the fish are not swallowed). It was ok, but its very touristy.
That night on the boat we bumped into the German man(Soenke) and his girlfriend(Vivien), and we had dinner (beer fish) and many beers (Tsingtao). We crawled in at 12.30am, me pissed, but on the way home I had some cakes from a bakery, as it seems all markets and bakeries close very early in the morning!!!( dan forgets to mention he was so pissed that he asked Viven what type of toilet she uses Western or Eastern, can you believe it? what a tit!!By the way people from Hong Kong only use Western style!!!
Next morning, woke at 8am for our bike ride, but I was still pissed, and it was raining. Back to bed and chilled for the day. We booked our internal flight for USA, and our accomodation for New York, CookIslands and our onward flight from Guilin to Shanghai(2500km), as I am not spending 40 hours on buses and trains, like India. That evening met Soenke and Vivien again for more food(stuffed pineapple, duck, egg plant, and loads of veg) and drinks. Again we crawled in at 1.30am, only to hear the
gobby bitch from across the road on her mobile!!!!!I mean the shouting is bad, and when we asked about it we were told that they are not shouting but talking, the are not even annoyed!!They do it all the time, apparently the worst ones are from the countryside!!!
Sunday morning, woke to sun, left at 9am, cycled for 30mins,( everyone and his dog was on the same path as us that day, so dangerous and we had to follow a guy on a motorbike so that didn't help!) before we got on our bamboo raft, 2 chairs in a bamboo raft, with a parasol and a man pushing us down the Yulong River with his bamboo stick, over several small rapids, excellent fun, we got wet, and we watched the beautiful scenery around us. The only downside is, as its so beautiful around here, its very busy, and there are many people trying to sell drinks, and pics of you on your raft. Something that could be really beautiful, as you breeze down the river and enjoy your surroundings, but they are somewhat spoilt by the sellers. Still worth it though.
Hopped off our raft, and we rode
our cycles for 10 mins to reach Moon Hill. Climbed this hill( we got very sweaty) and stood and looked around us. Magnificent. Views for miles around, peaks, rice fields, trees, grass, and small villages. Then you turn right, and the mountain in front of you has a huge hole in it, so you can see through it, to more peaks etc (hence Moon Hill). Great.
Rode back(10kms), crashed, well I sort of watched the Shanghai Grand Prix(very big event in China)
That night, as we have spent quite a bit of money out here, we sat next to a stall on plastic chairs, and had noodles, spicy gravy, and we picked lots of green veg, and I added some type of sausage and meat ball to mine(not sure what meat it was, but it was good). It cost us 2 pound for both. We have had dimsum but the pork meat was disgusting!! All the different noodles are great, wontons still great, but not enough veg anywhere!!!And there are no lemons in China!!!
Again woke to sunshine, out for a quick 90min bike ride(as we have to check out at 11am)and are now chilling, as we
head back to Guilin for another night and day, and wait for our flight to Shanghai.
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Stuart
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Bahrein Grand Prix 1. Jenson Button 1:31:48.182 sec (from 4th on grid) 2. Sebastian Vettel +7.2 sec 3. Jarno Trulli +9.2 sec 4. Lewis Hamilton +22.1 sec 5. Rubens Barrichello +37.8 6. Kimi Raikkonen +42.1 sec 7. Timo Glock +42.9 sec 8. Fernando Alonso +52.8 sec Football 1 Man Utd 33 15 1 1 41 13 9 4 3 20 10 38 77 2 Liverpool 34 10 7 0 35 12 11 4 2 31 14 40 74 3 Chelsea 34 9 6 2 28 11 12 2 3 28 9 36 71 4 Arsenal 34 10 5 2 26 11 8 6 3 34 21 28 65 5 Aston Villa 34 5 9 3 25 21 10 1 6 25 23 6 55 6 Everton 34 7 5 5 28 19 7 6 4 20 17 12 53 15 Blackburn 34 5 6 6 20 23 4 4 9 17 32 -18 37 16 Sunderland 34 6 3 8 19 20 3 5 9 12 26 -15 35 17 Hull 34 3 5 9 17 33 5 5 7 20 26 -22 34 18 Middlesbrough 34 5 8 4 16 17 2 2 13 9 32 -24 31 19 Newcastle 33 4 6 6 21 27 2 6 9 16 26 -16 30 20 West Brom 34 6 3 8 23 30 1 4 12 10 33 -30 28 Chelsea scraped into the Champions Leage Semis after going 2-0 down at home to Liverpool. The game ended 4-4, but that made it 7-5 on aggregate. Arsenal sailed through 4-1 on aggregate against Villareal and ManU will play them after beating Porto 1-0 away after the 2-2 draw at Old Trafford. Barcelona will meet Chelsea after beating Bayern Munich 5-1 overall. Everton beat ManU on penalties to book an FA Cup final place against Chelsea. It served Ferguson right; he almost fielded his reserve team and was punished for his lack of respect. Snooker Steve Davis lost 10-2 in his first round match against Aussie Neil Robertson, but the big 2nd round casualty was Ronnie O'Sullivan, beaten 13-11 by Mark Allen (NIrl) after being well ahead at the interval. Nigel Bond also went out after beating Peter Ebdon in round 1, where Stephen Hendry beat Mark Williams 10-7. Hendry looks the man in form. Have a good time in Shanghai (massive place).