Yangshuo

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Yangshuo has the same spectacular scenery as Guilin with a much more welcoming community. In fact, the main street (West Street) is nicknamed "Foreigner Street".
Having checked into West Street Inn (not on the West Street), we were overjoyed to discover the heater in the room along with the obligatory flask of hot water for tea.
On Sunday, we hoiked up Seven Star Hill (a striking karst structure in the centre of Yangshuo) through a series of caves and pagodas to the great view at the top. We followed that with an afternoon boat trip up river from Pingyin. The bus trip was fascinating. It seems imperative to obtain as much money as possible on each trip, so each bus has a "conductor" who will shout out to all potential passengers to convince them to board and usually drag them on and squish them into the smallest space as well. On arrival at the pier, we saw a actual cormorant fisherman (vs. the tourist version in town). The trip itself was fab, the little wooden boat chugged slowly upstream and the scenery was spectacular and each hill has a great name to stretch the imagination (e.g. monkey eating peach). The return trip was much faster and colder, downstream. Then on the return bus trip we ended up in the centre aisle on tiny wooden stools, not dodgy at all.

Favourite restaurant: Drifters cafe; excellent food (apple crumble) and lovely staff who speak fabulous english.

Drink of the Day: 50p Bottle of Rice Wine

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