Longji Terraces

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The Big Walk

We were quite nervous about walking the Longji Terraces as neither of us were in the best of health but we got a feel of it by doing a 1 hour walk up to the first village that we were staying in and even though the terrain was tough going we both felt more confident that the next day we would be able to complete the long trek without perishing. The first village we stayed in was on the side of a hill and consisted of a few shops and a hostel so it was nice and quiet and gave us a chance to relax and soak up the amazing surroundings.

That night with not much of a nightlife in the village we decided on watching Borat with the rest of the group and sampled some tasty deserts before retiring for the evening, only to be woken at the crack of dawn by one of our group singing at 6 in the morning. Yawn!

Trekking! We're trekking!

With almost half the group dropping out through ill health or lack of fitness we pressed on up the hill. It was completely worth it though as the many photos suggest, the terraces were an amazing view and to walk through some of the hillside villages and see proper village life was fantastic. Towards the end we were pretty shattered but we got to the second village just after lunchtime, which was slightly bigger and busier than the previous villagem Paul managed to cram in getting beaten at basketball by two Chinese children (another theme running here too...)

That eveving we were treated to a tribal song and dance, obviously we winced and so as they mentioned interaction but we managed to survive without embaressing ourselves too much or breaking any bones during the dancing over the sticks. The following morning we set off for the transport hub town of Guilin (think souless and smoggy) where a rat ran over Suze's foot so it was with haste that we left the area on to our final port of call - Hong Kong.

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Photos

Longji Entrance
Bottom of the hill

Suze Starting The Walk
That smile won't last long

Suze and Paul
Just chilling

Terraces
It was humid

Tribal Woman
In need of a haircut

Paul, Suze & Jamie
Great poses all round

Alisha & Paul
Hi-jinx

Paul trekking
It's Paul honestly