Zhong Yuan Hotel Liuzhou

... with your fingers differently and you have to be really careful when you are bargaining because what you may think is a two would actually be seen as a six to the locals and ten could be seen as 55. Two of the girls are vegetarian in the group and it is turning out to be abit of a problem because China just doesnt do Vegetarians. Even the vegetarian dishes contain meat because not having meet is seen as a ...

... typically eat close to the ground on footstools, contibuted to my unease. Furthermore, the barbequed dogs piled up in markets were a bit off-putting. As much as I wanted to try it, I resisted the urge to sample this delicacy and hear I'm not missing too much! Instead, I tried the safer vegetarian options like pho, a tasty and fragrant noodle soup, and fresh spring rolls that I could roll myself. I'm sure the flavors would be delicious to a normal palate but having ...

... one and the Osmanthos Hotel in Guilin. As we would be homeless for the afternoon, we made the most of our air-conditioned room for the morning, but were disturbed by an unwelcome knock on the door at 11:30 am. When I eventually got myself into a fit state to open it, there was Thomas pointing at the time on his mobile phone. I got my watch and pointed out to him that we had another half an hour and assured him we would check out by twelve o'clock. He seemed to be saying there ...

... and Key West for the level of touristy-ness. Anyone who wants to see China and goes to Yangshuo is beautifully deceived. That's not to say it's not a fun place to stop. The scenery is gorgeous, the services were top-notch and we found happy hours at restaurants all over town. It's just not a Chinese city, that's all. At our one happy hour (which lasted several) we met some Canadians who had just ...

... flowing and Andy made friends with the locals who loved downing shots of beer with him. Singers would pop up at different points in the bar and sing along to a backing track to western pop songs, getting the crowd going. At one point I saw most of our Intrepid group dancing on a stage in the middle of the crowd, and I have the photos to prove it. Most got home around 3.30am so it's lucky we've got the late bus to Chengyang today. There's bound to be some sore heads.

... than 60,000 'karsts', which are bizarre spires of rock sticking up out of an otherwise flat landscape. The climbing potential here has barely been touched, with only a dozen or so sport climbing locations created so far. But all the climbing is reachable by bike and most of it is excellent quality. Things started slowly with the confusing US grading system, with warm-ups (and sometimes epics) on 5.8s and 5.9s. Once a little confidence had grown, we moved on ...

... fish in it hidden amongst the vegetables, cooking on hot coals on your table. They also had loads of stalls of fresh fruit, vegetables and various meats, on skewers which they fry or barbeque (after coating in chilli sauce) and bring to your table. There wasn't a great deal of choice being vegetarian (in terms of getting a wholesome meal). I had a cake from the bakery and a chilli corn on the cob for dinner. We walked around the main street after ...

... the local markets (i.e. those where the locals buy food) at 3pm and find that business stopped for the tens of card games taking place. - Go down XieJie at 8.30 in the morning and find that the prices are 25% of those at 8.30 in the evening as the shopkeepers either haven't woken up or seek the first lucky sale of the day. - Swim in the Yulong River - And potter, study, and potter, and don't count a single minute, hour or day...... Long may it last.

... ferry-like boat, filled mostly with Chinese tourists and a few Japanese. The air con was rather welcome though- even at 10am, it's roasting in the shade. That said, I spent a lot of the time outside on the viewing platform as we headed downriver, watching the paddyfields change to sudden vertical rises as we moved from farmland to karst peaks. The haze in the atmosphere actually helped, allowing us to see ...

... I told him I had stayed before he gave us a good deal on the room. The next day we relaxed around the room and wandered about the town marveling at all the souvenir shops. Our third day we rented a couple of bicycles from the hotel and rode out to see a very old bridge in the countryside. It was a very hot day and Frank was a very tired boy when we got back to town. The following day we rented the bikes again and rode out to see if we could find the house of a ...