I woke late on 11th July, as a result of chatting until 1 am the previous evening. I packed, said farewell to Lynn who’d also just woken up, and wandered off towards the city centre. On the way I passed a meat market that was notable for the fact that some of the “meat” was still walking around, and apparently wouldn’t be butchered until it was requested by a customer who wanted his meat nice and fresh!

I then got a bus to the Dashatou passenger terminal on the bank of the Pearl River, to get the boat to Wuzhou. I’d been advised to get some food for the trip, so I bought a few things that I could actually identify from a nearby shop. Then I boarded the river boat.

It was an overnight boat trip, and my ticket told me which bunk I had been assigned. Despite the fact that only half the trip would be at night, the only space on the boat to which I had any rights, was the bunk itself. And the bunk wasn’t a bed as such, it was just a big shelf running down the length of the boat, with lots of mattresses side by side, with little wooden dividers about 20 cm high between them. No privacy for anyone.

There being nowhere else to really sit, everyone lay on their mattresses as the boat set off. Next to me, by good fortune, was a British backpacker called Sasha Bowman, who was also heading for the Guilin area. There were portholes to look out of at the head of each bed, so Sasha and I could watch our progress up river, as we lay there chatting and snoozing. Some food was served later on a lower deck.

It fortunately got cool later (there was no air-conditioning on the boat) and I had a reasonably good night’s sleep. At 10:30 am on 12th July, we moored in the city of Wuzhou, and Sasha and I just managed to get seats at the back of the next bus to Yangshuo. This village is the recommended alternative to Guilin itself, being quieter with fewer visitors, but with the same amazing karst landscape.

The bus bounced and rattled along the rough roads for hours and hours, through increasingly “spikey” scenery. At 7pm we finally rolled into Yangshuo, and headed wearily to the recommended Xi Lang Hotel, where we shared a simple and clean twin room for $3. For $1.50 each, it was the best accommodation bargain I’ve found all trip! Low cost food was available down the road at “Lisa’s Cafe” which had that rare and coveted item in China: a menu in English!

We were up at 8, and headed to the “Hard Seat Cafe“, which had a hand-drawn “Hard Rock Café” logo suitably adapted. I noticed someone wearing a Saigon T shirt the same as the one I bought there. The wearer was British, and he and his girlfriend told me they were in Saigon only a week before me. I decided to rent a bike – I was able to get a new-looking Flying Pigeon (the standard Chinese bike) for $0.30 for the day. I cycled for a little under an hour until I reached a bridge on the way to my destination, “Moon Hill”. The karst scenery was like nothing I’d ever seen before…

Despite the exceptionally weird landscape, rural life carried on as it no doubt has for generations all over China.

Moon Hill is a hill with a half-moon-shaped hole in it. Since it was a hill I of course had to climb to the top…

At the top I met the “Saigon” couple, and also some Canadians who were also on bikes. Amazingly there was a visitors book for Moon Hill, which I duly signed on the way down. The Canadians came down at the same time and said they were going to follow a circular route back to Yangshuo. I decided to tag along with them, and we slowly pedaled through the peaceful flat farmland amongst the limestone towers.

The people looked at us curiously, but they were, at least, somewhat accustomed to tourists, and I could take photos with arousing to much attention.

I got a bit carried away with the photography, and the Canadians were usually up front patiently waiting for me…

Eventually we got back to Yangshuo, and stopped for refreshment at the Paris Café. There was a rather large and loud Texan who was full of himself and couldn’t stop talking about his Outward Bound school back in Texas. Nobody seemed particularly interested in it!

It then started raining so I returned my Flying Pigeon bike, and headed for the hotel to see if Sasha was back. She was, and we soon headed to the Paris Café once more for some food and beer with the British couple from breakfast. None of us had any shortage of tales to swap, and it was well after midnight when we finally dispersed.