Jasper Internation Hotel Yangshuo

... doing the same ride as us and between us we identify the track we have to follow. The valley floor is flat and though the trail can be bumpy at times we never fall off and in fact you can go quite fast on a tandem. There's a lot of tourists and locals out and about and all very friendly. We collect a tail who is determined we will go rafting when we get to Dragon Bridge and is actually very helpful because the trail is not well marked and twists and turns through villages ...

... cut stem on a sharp diagonal and use as toothpick to close flower petals over mince
Eggplant - slice 1/4 in rounds and then slice those 2/3 way through. Stuff mince inside.
1/2 small peppers

BEER FISH - PIJIU YU
100gms fish (firm with skin on) - we used 2 small fish fillets with skin on.
2 tbs peanut oil
Half tomato - chopped in 8ths
Half green, half red ...

... 1500;שייט באיזו 12;. כעת הבנתי את מימדי היחוד 97;יות של האיזו 12;, אם עד כה נתקלת 97; בגבעה פה וגבעה ש ...

... just bought you a ticket with the money you give them and keep the change, as making a profit. After we found the main ticket hall, it cost Y15.

We are now staying in, 'Senior leader youth hostel' it is right in the center. We have heard
that Yangshou is a very tourist place. We expected to see loads of Asian tourist, I'm afraid to say but it is full of westerners. West street is the main street with loads of stalls, shops, restaurants &
bars. Its like being anywhere else ...

... fue increible, es super suave, no se escucha nada y las vistas son de otro planeta. El vuelo duro en total una hora, subimos hasta 480 mts. y vimos la puesta del sol sobre los Karsts. El lugar de aterrizaje es azaroso, y depende de para donde sople el viento y donde pueda bajar. Abajo van siguiendo al globo con unas minivan, y cuando deciden bajar, cortan la ruta y bajan sobre el pavimento. De mas esta decir las puteadas que ...

So we had a day in Guillin first. What we considered be just a jumping off point for Yangshuo, ended up being a genuinely nice city. It had the benefit of shady riverside boulevards, a lake with two stunning pagodas,a bustling night market and restaurant pedestrianised areas.
We were though more looking forward to the well-known charms of Yangshuo with greater accessability to the iconic karst limestone peaks that rip their way out of the otherwise flat landscape, often meandering ...

... not a seafood area so things will be very different when I head up to Dalian. That will be interesting too.

Oh, one more thing. Only foreigners use chop sticks!! Well, that is not true, but more and more Chinese are using spoons. They always used a spoon for their soup and I guess decided to use it for other meals as well. Pictured with me are my three language teachers and I tease them because they eat with a spoon and I eat with chopsticks ...

... the story no translantion was needed. The kids loved it and all had their little Chinese flags to wave approval of the performances. They also had a display of class projects. The local community all joined in to enjoy the show and displays. It was kind of fun to see this one old gent dressed in 60's chinese outfit (blue suit and Mao hat) and tennis shoes. Supporting a big magnifying glass to view ...

... was it more true than in Wouzhou. We stayed in what I will call a three star hotel. Quite nice, but not terrific. It was in a big building, 20 or so stories, just off the West River. It overlooked a square with a "fantastic night market" (as the sign read in English) and lots of restaurants, including the one in which we ate. And yet, on the other side it overlooked the slums. To the right was a throughly modern apartment building ...

... is why you would offer rooms that were constantly plagued by damp? Myself and Simon got to our room and immediately crashed onto the bed (after 25 hours on a cramped sleeper train bed, a real bed was amazing) but leaped up a couple of seconds later with wet backs, the sheets were damp! Simon's were actually closer to wet and it wasn't just the beds, the walls and the floor were also plagued by it, however there wasn't much we could do about it so we just had a ...