I'm sitting in yet another hotel lobby, this time in Yangshuo in Guangxi Province.
You know the place (if you are from the UK) - its the area in the HSBC advert where the fisherman uses Cormorants to catch fish in the river and the background is a stunning maze of limestone peaks.
This has always been my top destination in China so I was excited to arrive in Guilin after another overnight train - from Shenzhen on the Chinese mainland side of the border with Hong Kong. We didn't expect to be in Guilin for long before taking the boat down the river to Yanshuo, but it had a lot of charm about it.
For a start, as busy as it was, things have been (on average) getting smaller and quieter and more sedate as we head further South. It was lovely to be able to spend a few days around the lakes and rivers of the city as well as arrange a tour to the Dragon's Backbone rice terraces a few hours North of the city. We're getting a bit tired of organised tours in China - the herding and the noise. If I were to visit the terraces again (which were pretty nice) then I'd try to do it independently and stay the night in the villages to avoid the "rush hour". Of course we also booked the boat down the Li River from CITS and actually, once we were onboard, it was alright. To be honest you could have floated down the river tied to a fairground with lunatics whipping you with bamboo and you'd still be happily distracted by the amazing scenery. Suffice to say I ran through memory cards like someone with DTs in their trigger finger. I was sure you couldn't take a bad
photos of the rocky karsts decorating the meandering river on both sides but on reviewing mine later on I found this is not the case.
The boat (or fleet of boats) finished its tour in our present location - Yangshuo. It is so easy to be in this town as a tourist. Plenty of good food and easy to access scenery and a buzzy sort of place. I'd love to see what it was like 10 years ago - probably a bit more laid back - many of the Chinese tourists here seem to be into very loud music and partying. I fear that in 10 more years this place will no longer exist but will turn into Blackpool (visitors from years ago may say this has already happened).
But it is easy. So on day 6 we are still here. A few days of cycling around the Yulong River and a Bamboo raft ride down the river from Dragon Bridge were just brilliant and peaceful - you really felt like you had got away from everything. We also went to see a show "Impression on Sanjie Liu" by Olympics ceremony director Zhang Yimou - it was fantastic - hundreds of people, amazing lights, and the karsts lit up in the background - the whole performance was on water.
Anyway, some more difficult decisions today about where to get lunch so I shall leave you now. Tomorrow we begin our journey to Hanoi and our last month in Vietnam...
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