Leg 6 - China - Wok on the wild side

---

Top Times

* Cooking our own Chinese food
* Cycling through the farmland
* Getting lost in translation
* Nightime fishing with Cormorants
* Getting well!



For our next venture, we took the train from Hong Kong and walked across the border into China proper. The border city is Shenzhen, quite possibly one of the largest conurbations there is - easily an hour on the motorway through solid tower blocks and factories. Everything that used to say "made in Hong Kong" on it now is made here. We only stayed one night in Shenzhen waiting for our flight to Guilin/Yangshuo, 300 miles north.

The landscape in Yangshuo was very different, the tower blocks being replaced by karst/limestone outcrops. Very picturesque. The lower standard of living was immediately apparent (people carrying big baskets around either over their shoulders or on rusty bicycles) and it had a kind of "wild east" feel. It was also surprisingly much colder than HK, about 18C/60F in the day and 7C/45F at night, and strangely all the restaurants and bars kept their doors open with no heating so therefore everyone including the waitresses kept thick jackets on.

We came to Yangshuo specifically to do a Chinese cooking course (hence the title). We both really enjoyed it. I would not say we ended up as experts but we both had 10 fingers left and the place had not burnt down, so we class that as a major success. The only slight negative to the course was that it included a trip to the local farmers market, which was great except that our timing unfortunately coincided with the dispatching of a few dogs...Vegetarian for us that night!

Luckily we had a couple sunny days at the end of our time in Yangshuo which we spent cycling (one day on a tandem, brilliant!) through the hilly farmland and by the meandering Li river. Very peaceful apart from the occasional "Herro, Herro" as people (especially kids) tried to entice us to take a photo of them for a few pennies. We shunned a couple of touristy show options, but could not resist the local night fishing with cormorants (you may have seen it on the telly). Our last stop in Yangshuo was to take advantage of the Chinese laundry...where better?

Guilin was next. The outskirts were much like Yangshuo - driving on either side of the road seemed optional, but one hand on the horn manditory - dodging the numerous mopeds (most of which were interestingly electric.) The centre though, was much more upscale and a bit like a low-rise Hong Kong. The constant reminder that you were in China being the sound of someone phlegming or burping every few paces, or the stop-staring at Daves height and Christinas blonde hair.

Keeping to our backpacker mindset, we checked into a 5 star hotel, apparently famous for having the worlds largest artificial waterfall. The advantage of this exuberance was that at this point Dave had picked up some kind of infection in his nose that made it and his top lip swell. A visit to the hotel doctor had them telling him he had "unusual flute up nose," which even if they meant flu, seemed very unlikely. Therefore, an exciting trip to the "Peoples Hospital" ensued, the result being a bag full of antibiotics (which at the time of writing seems to have done the trick).

Fancy bakeries were very prevalent in Guilin, so we gorged ourselves on tasty buns for breakfast each morning before trying to burn them off by wandering around, e.g. to the Elephant Trunk Hill which, with the correct lighting, does indeed look quite like its name.

A short early morning flight took us back to Shenzhen where we transfer to Hong Kong and a flight to India!

---

Photos

Market
How much is that doggie in the window

Cooking school
The dog is a pet, not dessert!

China Airlines clarity award winner
What happened to the 70s spirograph thingy?

Peoples hospital
no flute could be found