Zhong Jiao Liuzhou

... from because it has the best hotels (they are actually the local villagers’ homes) in the area, and is in the center of a large number of villages. No matter which direction you take out of Da Zhai, will take you to another village. What makes these villages so unique is that there is little evidence that it is the 21st century. Most of the local people still wear their traditional minority clothing, and the local government has made ...

... in business for 5 year and NEVER HAD ANY WHITE PEOPLE! They were so excited and we had a great meal for 16 Yuan (about 2 dollars!). They gave us watermelon for free to "welcome" us as new guests. It was such a cool dining experience because it was authentic and good. We tried some rotten egg dish (literally the whites of the eggs were black, same consistency as a boiled ...

... just scrambled eggs and cooked tomato) and a small plate of essentially dried pig fat, we realized that the meat dish was served ONLY on special occasions to honorable people (ourselves, who in this case, could in no way appreciate it nor hide the fact that we could barely touch it). We later found out that a family will usually sustain themselves on an entire pig for a year since each one costs about 700 yuan, or about $90, so we felt a bit guilty. Now it's time for the gory details and ...

... this time in XingPing village, a small town about a half-hour minibus ride from Yangshuo. Heralded as one of the most beautiful places to take in the karst-formation scenery along the Li River and a short way from the famous mountain cluster immortalized on the Chinese 20-yuan banknote, XingPing was a fun stop for us. We seemed to be the only foreign tourists in town, and definitely the only ...

... view of the nearby town and the surrounding mountains. The next day, Julie, the hotel manager, signed us up for the Bamboo Raft trip down the Wuhong River. That is an experience I will never forget! We rented bicycles again, and we followed a man to the start of our adventure. We arrived and saw the Bamboo rafts-- about 12 ft. long and 10 bamboo trunks across, with 2 metal lounge chairs securely fastened with rope. (YIKES?!?!?!) It didn't look like it could hold our weight... but it DID ...

Well here we are in China, in a city called Liuzhou. It's a largely industrial city with about 1.5 million people living here. It's strange to think that there's about a quarter of New Zealand's population living in a place I've never even heard of and is barely on the map. We crossed the border from Vietnam (Langson) to China which was an interesting experience. At both sides we got the usual pursing of lips, waiting around (as we were all foreigners - the ...

... Oh yeah the other special thing about them is that they are halfway up the side of a cliff face. I'll gett piccys up soon. Beer I've only tried one type of beer so far (LIQ) I think its called, that's what was on the label and its pretty good. Bottles are 640ml and cost 25p truly outstanding!! Anyway back to China. Food is fantastic, best thing I've had so far is Eggplant with Garlic. Sounds bad is actually good. They use ...

... days instead of exploring the west of Sichuan. Oh well, at least it's a chance to chill out I suppose! God only knows why I can't use the two visas back to back. I'm just glad I found out when I did as if i'd have out stayed my welcome by a month I would have been charged a grand total of 1000 pound sterling (man, I hate not having that symbol on the keyboard!).

... and in any case I think he deserved a full 40p in return for being woken! I was in a hurry because I had another class- this time, cookery. We were first taken to the market to buy much of the ingredients we would be using. I think this was a rather scary experience for some of the other foreigners taking the class, with the dead (and live) animals, but I was raised in a rural market town, and was actually quite heartened by how well most of the meat was being ...

... dry cheese biscuits, and nothing else! One of the sadder things AM and I saw on the way back to base were the flower girls. We'd already been warned that these girls, only seven or eight years old, have often been given away or even sold by their parents, moved to an unfamiliar part of the country, and placed on the street to sell flowers to tourists. What happens to them once they're no longer small and cute?