Guilin to Yangshuo can only really be done properly by going on the boat, although the price has almost trebled in the last five years. The scenery is spectacular and it’s so good to finally leave the city for a while and get back to nature.

We got up really early but as it turned out there was no need because the bus arrived nearly an hour after we were told it would.

The bus ride was painful once again for the ears. The tour guide kept on taking from the point where we were picked up until the last passenger boarded.

For forty minutes we were a captive audience with no where to go. After all the up selling spiel we then had to listen to the souvenir spiel, although she didn’t mention too much in English about that…….. but man did she drone on and on and on. I was really tired and just wanted to shove a sweaty sock into her mouth to shut her up, or better still throw her off the bus.

The bus was going so slow so that she could get through her routine before we arrived at the jetty. Thankfully the tour guide on the boat showed a bit more decorum and spoke quietly in a normal voice and only every so often to highlight some of the sites along the way.

The scenery speaks for itself and so I’m not going to begin to try and do it justice because I’m not sure I can.

The sun was out and the sky was blue and it was in such contrast to my last trip five years ago when it rained and I froze my arse off and so for me it was like seeing it for the first time in all its glory.

After we arrived we had one of the best coffees of the journey

Today we went to see the Reed Flute Cave which was just a short bus trip from our hotel. It’s a limestone cave which has been illuminated by many coloured lights throughout to highlight the many wonderful formations.

No discount here unless you are Chinese, which I think we sound adopt in our own countries…….give the locals a cheaper price than the tourist……… and you know this is a common practice throughout South East Asia, it’s just that if Western countries were to do this then we would be seen as racist.

It’s a short walk to the cave entrance and we had to wait for the next tour to start which of course is given by a young robotic looking female. The script is in Chinese so for us it’s useless. Even before we entered the cave system she hadn’t taken a breath during her monotone commentary and of course this continued as we moved through the cave. The Chinese love a good commentary broadcast through one of these personal PA systems that all guides here use, like most foreigners I’ve spoken to they also hate this because it’s so fucking loud. The Chinese seem to love it.

We dropped back from the main group so that we could get more time to appreciate the cave and also to stop our ears from bleeding. I enjoyed walking through the cave and when we reached one of the largest chambers we actually split from our Chinese party and tagged onto the back of a German group.

If you come to Guilin I would recommend to you that you should visit the caves and explore the rest of the park area although we headed back after a short walk up to a small pavilion. Tomorrow we are heading to Yangshuo and I’m really looking forward to the river cruise down the Li River.

Today is the big train journey which will take us half across the country to a very different landscape. Guilin is a very pretty place and the landscape is quite unique although if you have ever been to Halong Bay in Vietnam you will see a similarity.

The journey takes just over eight hours and is way better than flying because there is no real check in process. You just arrive 30 minutes before departure and find the gate to the platform. Our hotel is about a ten minute walk and we deliberately picked this area so that we could have an easy start to the day.

We got many supplies for the trip which consists of fruit, dumplings and crisp and even chocolate. We bought new flasks and so we can even have tea if we want. All in all it’s as good as it gets in peasant class, I guess the only real problem is the many Chinese that we are sitting that have no consideration for their fellow passengers. There are many announcements when we leave a station which no one seems to pay attention to, which is much the same as when we are waiting to fly. Things like be careful when you recline your seat, don’t talk too loud, keep your children under control, don’t play loud music but as I say many choose to ignore.

The train is sitting just over 300 kph and is very smooth and you would be hard pushed to find fault apart from of course having noisy passengers around us.

The sun was shining when we left Hangzhou but the rain soon set in as we began to travel west but I think that tomorrow should be fine and the rain will have hopefully moved on. I went to Guilin many years ago and it was also a bit damp and I remember that the pavements were really slippy when wet so we will all have to be very careful.

So for the moment we’re sitting here watching a misty landscape whiz by punctuated with cities farms and hills.

I had heard that Hangzhou had a fake Eiffel Tower and I have always been a little bit curious about it and so today my curiosity was sated.

Even although I knew I was going to see this French town it still comes as a bit of a surprise and very odd but also fascinating.

There is also a French themed park which has a Chateau, a church and many French style buildings, but the park was empty apart from many young couples having their wedding snaps taken which I guess is cheaper to come here than go to see the real thing.

There is even a beach where you can lie on a deck chair and just watch the world go by.

Walking down through Hangzhou today I came across this picture, not what I expected…..

When she snuffed it Scotland partied like it was 1999………..

Got here yesterday afternoon and it was foggy and warmer. Got a taxi from the bus station to the hotel which turns out to be an apartment block that has been turned into serviced apartments. It’s OK but we are very close to the high speed train station which is one of the reasons for this location. The unfortunate thing is that we are on a busy intersection and so the traffic is noisy and the horns are a fucking nuisance.

We headed to West Lake one of the main attractions here and went for a stroll around there for a bit until we felt weary and then returned to the room for a quiet night. Today we will explore more.

Who says that China does not have freedom of speech, not sure if you could get away with this sign in the west in the entrance of the the hotel………

Today was very different from the other day, it was wet and misty and the mountain had disappeared and so when we got onto the cable car we had no idea where we were going.

Before that Catherine and I walked to the bus station to get the bus to the foot of the mountain. We met this wee Chinese guy called Simon that we had spoken to the other day and he had told us to go to the west of the mountain rather than the east as we had first planned and we took his advice and in hindsight maybe we shouldn’t have. This morning he was trying to convince us to not go up the mountain but to go with him to a small village because for one reason it would be cheaper than going up the mountain and secondly, we would not see anything up the mountain and thirdly he was Christian. And so shortly afterwards the wee turd sent this message.

I will send Simon a more detailed message after we have checked out. Anyway it’s always good to get feedback.

We got to the cable car and were watching the porters carrying many things up the stairs and they were really struggling and the bamboo looked like it would break at any moment. Some of these guys had huge calf muscles that looked like they could crack walnuts with a single look.

This is the only way to get supplies and luggage up to the mountain hotels.

One good thing today was that it was quieter although there were still many people and many tour groups. I think the views from this side of the mountain would have also been spectacular but I will have to return one day and hopefully the sun will be shining.

But after returning to the hotel my body feels like it has seen enough of stairs and will be very happy when we arrive at our next destination tomorrow which is Hangzhou, the bad news is that we need to be up bright and early to catch the 7 am bus.

Woke up this morning feeling a little bit weary but not too bad considering, but I was starving. Catherine and I went for breakfast at 8am and Stuart stayed in bed because something he ate last night did not agree with him.

Toast and banana for breakfast which is is a good start to the day. Catherine and I headed off for a wander back up towards the mountain to see if we could get close to the waterfall that we could see on the map but unfortunately the map is not to scale and so we didn’t quite reach it, however we did find a path the followed and crossed the road that leads to the cable car we used yesterday.

After a few short climbs the legs began to protest a little and it was quite clear that we would not be doing to much hill climbing today. We came across a sign saying “Hot Springs” and so we followed this moss covered, lichen covered stone trail which followed the course of the river through tall trees peppered with bamboo. It was really good to walk along here just the two of us chatting and listening to the birds and the occasional bus fleeing up the road above.

There were many small birds but so difficult to follow as the nervously flitted from branch to branch or from tree to tree. If we had more time I’m sure we could have followed this path for many hours but our bodies were not up for the challenge. On the way back to town we went back and had some lunch and bought supplies for tomorrow and then it was back to the hotel for coffee and chocolate.