Time flies when you are having fun....

Yangshou, China

Saturday 21st October

Time is a curious thing. I feel like I have been travelling for years yet it was just yesterday when I was hugging mum, dad and haylee at the airport, feeling scared at what I was embarking on. Now I feel like time is picking up in speed and the days are flying past.

Yangshou is beautiful. The scenery is like Thailand with its limestone peaks covered with green foliage, but instead of aqualine water filling in the spaces it is rice paddies. They look like old people hunched over waiting for the next season, but waiting too long and shrubs started to grow on them. There are some cool shapes.
Yesterday as a group we rode bikes throughout the peaks on the city streets (which was challenging seeing as it was traffic in China - not known for their good driving skills) and over back roads inbetween rice paddies and past little villages. It was amazing. So nice to be outside and a part of the scenery rather than seeing it fly by from the window of a bus. The bike hire was included in the tour but we got to a river and had to go bamboo rafting to get to our next destination - cost 80 yuan. Sneaky! I am learning that everything is not as it seems in China. They are beautiful people don't get me wrong but I am pretty sure some shifty things going on. I will explain more as we go. The rafting was very cool and definitely worth it. We cruised on 8 large pieces of bamboo tied together with wire. I sat on lounge chairs made out of bamboo with my bike on the back and being steered by a pole weilding Chinese man. It was bliss! Like a Venice gondola ride, except no buildings just mountains and green fields, except no cushions and your feet got wet, and vendors sold cold beer (from a fridge) from the middle of the river. Actually it was nothing like Venice but it was fantastic. Dad, you'd love the electrical standards here, as I mentioned they had an electrical cord running directly in water (no conduits-just extension lead) and later in a cave there were semi live wires next to dripping stalagmites. We were on the river for over an hour and I could have continued on to Australia like that.
Next we stopped for lunch and had some nice food from a farming family (green vegetables for me - yippee - more than I could eat). At this point we were meant to go caving and have a mud bath. Everyone but me knew this and wore the clothes they didn't mind getting trashed on the ride. I though we were going back to change. Oops. I didn't want to miss out so went in what I was wearing at the time. Luckily after 10 weeks I am sick of my clothes and a mud bath seemed the perfect funeral for them (I did try and resurrect my 3/4 Roxy pants but after 4 rinses and mud still coming out of it - I gave up)
The cave was pretty and it was a bit like cloud watching. Our guide tried explaining what several rock formations were but what she said was a bear kissing a dolphin, I saw a crouched dragon reaching for its baby and others saw a lump of rock. The caving was great for the pure Chinese experience of it. We had no Geckos guide (where sent off on our own) and we all felt like we were a part of a Chinese game show, one were they trap western tourists in a hole in the earth and watch what they do. It is interesting to see what they call tourist attractions. If that cave was in Australia it would have guard rails, glass panels so you couldn't touch anything, you'd have to sign a waiver to not sue if you slipped over on all the mud. A bit like the Great Wall - it would have spoiled the fun if it had all those things. We got to the mud at the end and boy was it fun!!!! We slipped and slided and threw mud and another girl and I did the full beauty mask routine. When it was time to go I kept the mud on me to dry for full theraputic benefit and got out of the mud pool several kilos heavier. The same is true of mud as sand at the beach in regards to the places it gets into. You needed to know that, didn't you?!
We washed ourselves off under a waterfall (mini) and jumped into there pool. It was really nice until I got out and someone noticed tiny leeches on them. EEEK!!! I freaked out. It was a reminder that I was in China and not Italy. I certainly scrubbed off several layers of skin back at the hotel to be sure.

Tea that night was divine. Yangshou is a bit more westernised and I am grateful - first really good food (that I am used to) in awhile. I had a veggie burger and then walked around the cute town. I decided not to go on the 'included' cruise today (for fear of the included part being the trip to the opposite side of the river and you had to pay to get back) and because I wanted to really cruise for the day. We have another sleeper train ride to Guangzho (?) and will arrive in Hong Kong about Sunday lunch time. Our tour guide cannot follow us into HK because of travel restrictions on Chinese citizens (they think they will leave and not come back - which I can't blame them). He has been good, but I am sure many of the places he has taken us to, he has received kickbacks (tips for bringing in the tourists to certain restaurants and doing certain activities).
I saw blue sky yesterday for which I was delighted (but got really burnt for which I was not so delighted). The weather here is lovely. Humid and warm. The weather in China has been fairly good. Only one rainy day and one cold,windy day. the rest pleasant.

Well I will blog from one of the shopping capitals of the world (I can here the groans from here - not another suitcase Kym!) But I am no longer the only one in my tour group with an extra suitcase. But I am still the 'princess' who travels with her own pillow.

Only 4 more full days of holidays left. Time sure is passing me by with barely a smile and wave and before it is out of sight.

Thanks for reading.

Love Kym