China Day Seven

After yet another bad night's sleep - the last good sleep I had was on the plane from Heathrow - I was up and out of the Sheraton by 8.30am. No bad thing and looking forward to a calmer day today with the cruise down the River Li from Guilin to Yangshuo.

Beautiful scenery, trying really hard not to take a picture everytime we went round a bend as it will no doubt all look the same when I'm looking at them at home on the laptop! Kate and Rob (both geologists by background) would have been in their element so I even tried to take one or two 'interesting' shots in case they can help me identify what rock formations I spent 4 hours sailing through! I think it was limestone however it will take an expert to confirm it.

My guide has accompanied me on this 2 day trip to Yangshuo which is great as it meant he was pointing out all the main peaks to me so I could at least pretend that I recognised them from the map - I have to be honest I recognised 2 clearly in 4 hours worth of sailing! There's one 100ft cliff face with markings like horses and the Prime Minister of China saw nine (hence the name, you've guessed it, 'The Peak of Nine Horses Frolicking') whilst his 2-in-C saw seven; I managed 5 and that was with as much poetic licence as I thought I could get away with!! Don't think I even made the Chinese Cabinet!

The water is very clear and quite fast moving really. Lots of water buffalo in the river and cormorants too - amazing to see them in their natural habitat. Lots of boats making their way down river, some cruisers and other traditional boats made from bamboo with/without the lawnmower engine on the back.

Arriving in Yangshuo reminds me of all the worst Greek holiday resorts, bar after bar, club and souvenir shop after shop; admittedly when I was 23/24 that was the holiday that Susie and I had for quite a few years - does this mean I'm getting old?? ;-)

Made it to my hotel about 2pm and turned down the option of further excursions - humidity is worse today than yesterday although the temperature has dropped to 32c. Made it to the hotel pool for a couple of hours and after SPF25 and a few Kylie and Take That tracks, the world was put to rights again... I think the fact this is my fourth hotel in 7 nights has caught up with me a little today.

Out tonight at 6pm to have dinner to watch the cormorant fishing after dinner with my guide Sunny. Lovely chap, great english and knew the right place to go for dinner - 2 of us ate/drank for 60 Yuan - about 4GBP (can't find the pound sign on this keyboard!). Had the local speciality of beer fish but after last night's revelations my only other stipulation was that I didn't want to eat any pets - luckily beef and chicken appeared and very tasty too.

Cormorant fishing - fantastic! Fisherman had 11 birds, all of whom once they catch a fish, are scooped out of the water, forced to give him the fish and unceremoniously thrown back into the water! Sounds pretty harsh but they clearly are pretty happy, they all jump onto his bamboo raft for a rest every now and again. It's quite funny seeing them eat the tiny fish and swallowing them before the fisherman sees them gobbling them up. He's trundling along on his bamboo raft with 2 gas lamps to light his way in the pitch dark - very atmospheric. You're torn between wanting to take pictures and be bitten alive by mosquitos etc!

Back through Kos (sorry Yangshuo) town to the hotel - fingers crossed for a good night's sleep before exploring more of the countryside tomorrow and experiencing an 'extravanganza' tomorrow night which lights up all the peaks in the surrounding area. It has rave reviews and from what we could see on the horizon tonight, it looks fabulous.