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Published: November 12th 2010
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China #3
From Xi'an were heading south to Guilin. This time we took the train a much better option than the sleeper bus!! It was about 28 hours but we actually managed to sleep this time. We were in a hard-sleeper carriage which means 3 bunks in rows on an open carriage. The only thing was that we weren't together, we were a few rows apart, so we spent a lot of time sat in the aisle so we could actually talk to each other!!
We had one full day in Guilin and spent it visiting the seven star park, named after the 7 karst peaks inside. It was a beautiful park, with a temple, some waterfalls and even a peak that looked like a camel!! We were able to climb one of the peaks to get a great view over the city, the river and the rest of the park. The only thing was that there were 'wild' monkeys in our path!! We had seen signs warning of the monekys but we weren't expecting them to really be 'wild', turns out they scavange through the bins and are not happy when you try and walk past them whilst
WARNING wild monkeys!!
Why is the rest in Chinese?! they're eating their findings!! Sadie was quite scared and was shaking the whole way back down!!
The next day we got the bus to Yangshuo which is about an hour or so down the Li river. The hostel that we stayed at was just outside of the town centre in a valley surrounded by farmland. Which was perfect for us to enjoy the countryside and escape the tourist orientated town. The next 5 days were spent alternating between cycling and relaxing (recovering from cycling)!!
We hired mountain bikes from the hostel, grabbed a map and off we went!!
Our first day riding we started following a small road which we soon turned off and onto a dirt track going through farms, small villages and rice paddies. It was so quiet and peaceful, everyone that we saw was really friendly and shouted hello to us! After crossing a main road we followed the Yulong river back into town. There were lots of little bridges going across and at each there was someone there to offer us a bamboo raft back to Yangshuo! This place must be packed in summer, there were hundreds of rafts lined up! We made
Monkey in the path!
Notice Sadies face!! it back to the hostel mid-afternoon feeling a little tired but very pleased with ourselves having done about 30km!!
After the success of our first bike-ride we decided to aim a little higher and planned a longer route. We headed in the oppostie direction to the previous ride and followed the Li river south for a while, the views were spectacular and we hardly saw any other people! Then we planned to follow a track through some small villages towards another section of the Yulong river which we didn't do on our first ride. We followed the main road for a short while where we should then have found the right track, instead we somehow managed to arrive back in a village we had already been to?! We had just gone in a big circle!! So we turned around and back up the main road, we finally turned off onto a dirt road, which soon became a single track, which soon disappeared!! We could see where we wanted to get to just across the field and had gone too far to turn back and so we picked up our bikes and trekked through the fields! We found the path
again, carried on following the river and eventually got back into Yangshuo after about 8 hours of cycling! We were glad to have mountain bikes today! Lots of bumpy roads and hills, i don't know how the Chinese do it on road bikes?!
We were enjoying the countryside so much that we decided to stay 2 more nights than originally planned so this gave us the opportunity for one last bike ride! We wanted to make up for getting a little lost previously so planned to head North up the Li river to a town called Xing Ping where we could then get either a boat or raft back to Yangshuo. So off we set. On the way, about 12km from the hostel, there is a tea plantation so of course we were keeping an eye out for that!! The road was a main road and climbed up through the karst peaks, it was getting steeper and just kept on going up! We had to give up in the end, we could pedal no more and so had to walk our bikes most of the way up. It was hard work, not helped by it being the hottest day
so far, no shade and baking sun. We spotted the tea plantation but didn't go all the way up as it would've added considerably to our ride! And so we went on pushing our bikes up massive hills....the views were definately worth it though, we could see for miles and the river was flowing in the valley below us, we must be getting closer!! Finally there was some down hill, we sped down the hills, going i don't know how fast!! And then the river was gone again...... We saw some walkers and so asked them to point out on the map where we were, somehow we had missed the turning and were halfway to the next town! We had come too far to turn around and go back up the massive hills so we carried on!! We reached the town of Putao 20km away from Yangshuo and followed the main road all the way back at quite a quick pace as it was getting late on! We made it back to the hostel and after looking at the map realised we had ridden about 60km!!
So with all the cycling we were doing we really needed rest days!
What an ideal location for them, the river was a 5 min walk from the hostel and there was even a 'secret' beach! We did see maybe 5 other tourists and a few locals though, so not a total secret!! But it was beautiful, we spent one afternoon there until the sun was starting to set and it was so peaceful. The water wasn't all that warm but Sadie did manage to go for a quick dip!! We spent another afternoon walking through the valley, farms and villages surrounding the hostel.
The town itself is totally tourist orientated, full of market stalls and little shops trying to sell you things, we spent a morning walking around but that was plenty. We visited the farmers market in town which sold all the regular fruit and veg but then there was a whole other section of animals. In the centre there were cages and cages full of birds, chicken, ducks and even pigeons?! They were surrounded by the 'butcher' section, lots of raw meat being chopped up and of course lots of organs. All down one side there were whole animals strung up, rabbits, pigs and some that looked suspiciously like dogs!
We had a quick walk around but didn't spend too long inside!
All in all we spent a week in Yangshuo and loved every minute of it, but we must move on Vietnam is waiting!!
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