Yanks and Yangshuo

Three Americans are following us around the country, and they keep having birthdays! This time it was Nat's and he decided Yangshuo would be a nice place to turn 30, so they joined us down here a few days ago - and naturally we went out to celebrate.

We spent the day exploring the Black Buddha caves just outside Yangshuo. We went fairly deep in through narrow nooks and under low hanging stalagtites - it was hot and clammy, and just a wee bit claustrophobic. Some of the stalagmites and stalagtites bear vague resemblances to the Buddha, but whether you saw the likeness or not, the formations were impressive.










Later in the day we enjoyed a mammoth Chinese feast and several LiQuan beers, followed by a very bizarre midnight massage! Nat bargained with a very, very drunk and excitable receptionist to get us a deal of a couple of quid per person for an hour - four of us chose a long foot massage and the others went for the full body.

Deep in our squishy armchairs, we were treated to a very aggressive shoulder massage (it still hurts) while our smelly feet soaked in a bucket of green tea. Then followed a very ticklish 45-minute long foot rub, in front of Tottenham v Blackburn, with Chinese commentary. Simon, the big Spurs fan, was in his element, and I did everything in my powers to change the channel. Our relaxing massage was interupted on several occasions by screams from the next room - the full works was obviously not quite as soothing! An hour later we emerged, minus one who had fallen asleep on the table, to find that our drunk receptionist had vomited all over the bathroom - he was totally wasted!


Unfortunately our time in Yangshuo has been really foggy and damp, so not the best weather to appreciate the stunning landscape. Like Guilin (but even more impressive) the town is surrounded by enourmous limestone hills. The main street, Xi Jie, is nicknamed 'foreigners' street' by the locals as it is such a haven for travellers, which is nice in some ways - we can eat pizza and cheese toasties and salads and burritos - but it's not very Chinese. The streets are lined with tourist shops and all along the river banks stalls are selling the same old tat. But it's fun, there are lots of bars and we have met lots of cool people. The hostel we are staying in is run by a bunch of young Chinese people who are really fun to sit with and they are all learning so many different languages from their guests. In the rest of China, bar Beijing, we were pretty much the only tourists and no one spoke English. Here there are so many backpackers from all over the world. It's strange.







Today we took a little boat trip up the Li River and saw all the amazing rocks up close. Luckily it began to clear as we were heading up stream, and by the time we had turned around we had fairly good visability - at least far, far better than we had had the day before. It was beautiful - the peaks seemed to emerge from the water, shrouded in mist, as we rounded each bend in the river. Hopefully it will stay clear - tommorrow we hope to hire bikes and head out to climb one of the peaks...