Dong Jiang Golf Resort Guilin

... making our way to one of the adjacent, smaller villages, called Zhonglu. All in all, the Terraces were the most successful part of the trip.

Yesterday was spent in transit - two buses and a 15 hour overnight train back to Wuhan. The tickets for the train were paid for in advance yet ridiculously difficult to attain. When we got to Guilin we were to phone a non-English speaking Chinese lady, who then called one of our ...

... remember what 7 was so they can't be that bloody popular!

Arrived in Guilin after 6 hours on the train (which flew with all the entertainment) and poor old Zhong Ling was spotted with us by an Australian lady who stole her from us so she could get help booking her train ticket. As I said, English speakers are rare in China! We got her email address and phone number anyway as she has tempted us to go visit her home town which she claims has the biggest ...

... stairs into the Vietnamese border area...
... which was a total free for all. Far from the land of queues, this border control spot involved pushing your way to one of the little ovals in the glass divide between us and the passport staff and then chucking your passport onto a shelf in front of them. Expect all vietnamese passports to go first and then for your passport to be ushered back and forth until the guy who ...

... hotel were some small cafes. So I decided to check on out for a late lunch. As I walked down the street for a while it got narrower and narrower till only traffic was people, bikes and motorcycle but they were all going the same direction so I continued. After about an hour I found myself on a dirt road (mud) in the middle of an old residential area. There were a few shops but mostly light manufacturing stalls for welding, bike repair ...

... next week. Now we're back at the Zelin hotel, which seemed like a bargain at first; however, we quickly discovered that like everywhere else there is no heat, and this room comes with a particularly pungent bathroom to boot. It'll do for a night though. tomorrow we're off to the dragon terraces, which are a gorgeous yet functional method for growing rice in the mountains. then it's back to hong kong for a night before we hit up Delhi. Soggy love from China M & Kbone

... such an attraction for tourists. Elephant Trunk Hill Ossifrage on the ...

... very unlike Tom and me, we didn't look into the mud caves much before we left... we just got directions, got a ticket and got a bus... Later that evening we found out that actually, the famous natural mud caves are down the road, and what we visited was just a cave... with imported mud... which isn't quite the same, is it??!? Bloody ridiculous - I know China's famous for its fakes, but seriously... fake mud caves?!? Ah well, you live and ...

... for centuries. Standing atop of the mountain one really gets a feeling of the peaceful, quiet and almost idyllic lifestyle that has been shared by the villagers for generations. Getting to the fields is almost as big an adventure as spending time there. To get there our journey began in Guilin. We decided to take public transportation rather than be involved in an organized tour, which I should mention, can be obtained through local travel agencies and guide services ...

... almost an hour. Next I took a countryside tour in Yanggshuo. WE drove by some areas ...

Driving from Guilin to Yangshuo In the shadows of the yawning jade mountains lie neat patches of vibrant, green rice paddies. Slight figures, bent over and wearing pointed straw hats, inch their way through the wet fields. Here and there oxen trudge though the muddy rows, being driven by their masters, as the thick sun beats down. Go another mile and it's a ...