Yangshuo day two, it begins to dissapoint

Trip Start Mar 10, 2007
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Trip End ??? ??, 2007


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Flag of China  ,
Friday, March 16, 2007

Yesterday evening dramatically changed my opinion of Yangshuo, unfortunately not for the better. Found out that lonely planet described it as a backpacker haven, and it doesn't take long into the evening too see why, with the streets lit by neon signs and Gran canaria style bars desperate for westerner business. Not what i came here for at all, but i suppose with the tourism industry expanding, these types of places will pop up more and more often. Having said that, it is fairly greedy of me to want to be able to come here, see an unspoiled country, yet have no travel problems or language problems (which being with intrepid effectively removes) so i can't really complain.

Maybe i should just shut up!

Today was a much better day in all, after a brilliant nights sleep we went for a 15km ( or so I'm told) bike ride around the local area to moon hill, a local mountain/hill, which we then climbed Bike ride
Bike ride
 . It was 800 steps to the top, not a mammoth climb by any means, but given the humidity and general temperature it was still pretty knackering.
         The bike ride was very cool, much more of what i wanted to see of china, locals seemingly going about there business without paying interest to the tourists flying by. Plus i got some exercise, which is good, as all i seem to be doing at the moment is sitting around and eating (the dragon diet is a nightmare!). My one criticism of this tour so far is that we seem to get all our meals picked for us by dragon, which is cool as we can't read Chinese, but often they are still the antithesis of western 'Chinese food', which i came to get away from.
          The light show in the evening was absolutely spectacular, and probably half of Yangshuo was involved in it! Titled, the third sister, it was basically a play/show about courtship and how the third sister has to sing a song to her suitor and if he is suitably impressed with her song, then her accepts her proposal, reciprocates the singing process, and then they marry. I have never seen anything choreographed soo well in my life.
         A local girl called Chong Ge came over to me as i was sitting in a bar in my free time having a beer and started talking to me. which was pretty cool. she works at the hotel I'm staying in and is a genuinely nice and friendly girl (apparently she is my girlfriend now, according to the others!). 
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