River Deep, Mountain High

Yangshou, with its warmer climate and lots of cafes had a somewhat Mediterranean feel to it, a nice change from the hustle and bustle (and smog) of the cities. Yangshou sits alongside side the Li river and in amongst the mountains, and as one of the most beautiful parts of China, it has long been a favourite tourist hot spot and is therefore somewhat an international town in China, with a range of western bars and cafes. Ammy, our loveable local expert, informed us that even George W Bush had visited Yangshou.

We were staying in a hotel called Fawlty Towers, which as Luke pointed out, is a name you can only really get away with if you run a very good hotel indeed. Sadly they didn't, and it wasn't, as Luke constantly reminded me over the course of our three day stay.

Yangshou is also place for outdoors-types and activities, and was where we would spend our last day in the area cycling. Having not ridden a bike since I was 12, I was very scared at this prospect.

Before that, on our first full day in Yangshou, we decided to relax before our day-long bikeathon and go on a bamboo raft trip down the river. You can imagine my delight when we turned up and found out the rafts were only... an hours bike ride away. Despite being called a village Yangshou has a population of about half a million and has the kind of traffic, roundabouts, lorries, etc you would expect in a place of that size. And some tractors, rickshaws, and pedestrians that you wouldn't. Its fair to say that the Chinese don't stick to the highway code quite as rigidly as the Brits do. Still Ammy had some helpful advice. "We don't use bicycle helmets in this country, so you just need to be careful." Despite thinking I was going to die as we went straight across a busy roundabout I lived to tell the tale.

The raft itself was very calm and quiet along the incredible beautiful Li River, or so I thought, but turns out Luke is scared of small boats. (You learn something new about someone everyday.) He maintains he is not scared of boats, per say, just small rafts made of bamboo being punted along by a lunatic who speaks no English, laughs when we tried to put the life jackets on whilst chatting on his mobile phone and crashes after the first five minutes. Turns out the bamboo raft trip is not so romantic when the person next to you is saying "this is dreadful", "we're going to die". Still I took some nice pictures during the hour and a half trip.

Leaving Luke behind for health and safety reasons, I also went caving in Moon Water Cave near Yangshou, which was fantastic. Following a mad and bumpy bus journey, you take a small rickety boat into the caves. Despite having to bend double in the boat to get into the caves, inside they are enormous and fascinating. As well as the excitement of the stalagmites and stalactites, there is a mud pool which you can swim in. The mud is good for your skin and when you lie down you float! I then swam in a cold water pool.

For our last two days in Yangshou we cycled (see the theme developing here?) to a guesthouse called Outside Inn, in the country which was fantastic and did wonderful Chinese food.

And so on our final day we had our day of bike riding. Having cycled out of the "village" on the previous day, the days cycling in the country was very enjoyable. We cycled over and along rocky roads and rivers, to Moon Hill, a hill with a hole in it the shape of the moon, which we climbed, to a local school, and to a farmhouse for lunch.

I managed to only fall off the bike properly once, and that wasn't under a bus, so I think I survived surprisingly well. And apparently the old saying is true - you never forget how to ride a bike.

Luke and Louise

xxx

(Posted by Louise)