I've fallen in a rice paddy

We deliberated over whether to take the boat down the river to Yangshuo or catch the bus and eventually the massive difference in the price won out and we caught the bus. We arrived in Yangshuo and were 'picked up' at the bus station by a tout with some rather nice pictures! We ended up with a great room at a bargain price, not only a bedroom but a bathroom, large foyer area and even a balcony - check us out!

Yangshuo is even more stunning than Guilin as the peaks are that much more densely packed around the town. We dropped off our bags and went to explore the town which is relatively small. We always expect places to be smaller than they are but on this occasion we were pleasantly surprised by the small town feel of Yangshuo. Having stopped off at the river to view the scenery we went back to make the most of our balcony to relax with a couple of cold beers.

Yangshuo is well known for the live entertainment in it's bars so we went out in the evening for a walk down West Street (probably called this as it's where you find all the other Westerners) but although there was music playing the bars were surprisingly quiet and the beers expensive so we decided to leave this for another night.

We wanted to head out of town to get some fresh air and get up close and personal with the local landscape so we hired some bikes for the day, this time we got mountain bikes with brakes that worked and gears no less! A short ride later and we were out amongst the hills riding smoothly along tarmac roads with breathtaking surrounds. This was not to be the case for much longer! Turning off the main road to follow the route along the river the view got even better and the 'roads' got a lot worse! Dirt track roads, turned to dirt paths which got narrower, and narrower ... and bumpier and bumpier until we took a wrong turn and we were cycling amongst the rice paddies with the waterlogged fields either side of us and only 30cm of track in between. It was at this point that we had the 'Rice Paddy Incident!'

Deciding that we were possibly heading in the wrong direction and with the very real prospect of the path getting narrower still, we decided to turn around and head back. Mark, confidently saying 'well we rode down it so i'm sure we can ride back' ... Chrissie was less sure, and rightly so as shortly after this her front tyre hit a rut and she slipped sideways planting her right foot firmly into the sodden rice paddy below! Thankfully she has a good sense of humour which gave Mark carte blanche to fall about laughing.

Gathering ourselves together and washing the worst of the mud off, which was particulary stubborn, we continued pedalling past huge dragonflies, children on their way back from school and some of the best views of the trip so far. Eventually, after a couple more u-turns we ended up at Dragon Bridge, our destination for lunch. A well deserved picnic later we decided to brave the other bank for the return trip to Yangshuo. In retrospect this was not one of our finest decisions. With a very basic map and no signs on the route we were once again lost amongst the paddies - this time there was no other option but to get off our bikes and push. With the hot sun on our backs and little sign of an actual path for about half an hour we were happy to eventually find the path once again (after getting some pointed directions from bemused local farming ladies).

We arrived back in Yangshuo absolutely shattered and aching (we don't know how you do it Cath and Pete) but having had an amazing day and one of our highlights of the trip so far.

There are lots of different things to do in Yangshuo one of which is the Longjin River Driftage. It sounds like a nice relaxing experience sitting on a boat and driftng downstream - it isn't, but it's much better! The bus to the site for this activity was a white knuckle ride in itself. On arrvial, you are bussed even further upstream to get kitted out in lifevest, helmet and knee and elbow pads. This had us thinking that it was going to be a little more extreme than we had foreseen. Excellent!

The next hour was spent crammed into a tiny rubber dinghy being thrown down the river on white water trying our damndest to stay in! Please forgive us for not having much photographic evidence of this experience, we were holding on too tight and the camera is not waterproof. We had a fantastic time, laughed the enitre way down (even though this gave us several mouthfuls of water) and were completely drenched by the time we reached the bottom.

After a welcome shower back in Yangshuo we went to explore the town a little more, checking out the local farmer's market. This is something we had been told to go and see and it was an eye-opener into local Chinese life. Dog lovers may want to skip to the next day now ... Alongside an array of vegetables and fruit there were cages of live chickens, ducks, rabbits and yes, dogs ready to be bought for someones dinner table. It was fairly quiet when we were there however we suspect that most of the custom is done in the morning.

After this we stopped off at the souvenir market and watched people at the river fishing for their tea, finishing the day with noodles from the night market.

It was raining so we started the day with a lazy morning which we enjoyed very much. After lunch on the balcony we got on the smallest and most overcrowded 'bus' yet toward the Water Cave. This was to be the start of another Chinese magical mystery tour where we were not sure where we were going or what we were letting ourselves in for - something we are now much more comfortable with.

Boarding another bus that we were hoping wouldn't fall apart, we sped off through narrow and very bumpy roads on a minibus x-country rally. We were unaware that this thrill was included in the price but we just held on for dear life and tried to anticipate when the next big bump would hit in order to soften the leap out of our seats.

With a quiet sigh of relief we arrived at the entrance to the cave where we met our guide, were given our helmets and boarded a small flat boat destined for the cave's entrance. We had to practically lie in the boat to squeeze under the first low roof where it opened out into a larger cave and where we were deposited (with guide). We then had a tour of the cave which was about 4km long stopping at particular sites and formations until we reached the main event and the reason we had decided to come to this cave ... a mud bath. We didn't hesitate to strip down to our swimmers and carefully made our way down the slippery bank into the mud - with around 30 Chinese onlookers most of which couldn't pass up the chance to get a snap of the two crazy English tourists covered in mud! It was great fun and not only was it a mud bath, but it had a mud slide which, I'm sure this won't suprise you, we tried out on a number of occasions. Having wallowed to our heart's content, we were able to shower, get dressed and continue on the rest of the tour of the caves.

Back to Yangshuo we went for dinner at the restaurant where you pay 50p each and choose from a selection of meats and veg to go into a stirfry which is then served on top of a big bowl of rice.