A man's best friend, not in China

As a treat, we booked a fancy hotel in Yangshuo with Jo's birthday STA travel voucher, the only problem was we booked it because it was supposed to have a swimming pool but on arriving we were told that they never had one! After Jo's initial disappointment, we realised we should be able to blag another free voucher for being mis-sold the hotel. An extra 2 nights in a decent hotel brought a smile to both of our face so instead of our pool we went for a dip in the local river.

Yangshuo was such a beautiful little town surrounded by karst mountains but a few too many tourists for our liking. This didn't deter us as we hired push bikes on two consectutive days to explore the countryside. Jo was the only person who managed to get her mountain bike that clogged with mud that the back wheel wouldn't go round! After 10 mins of Alex going mad as he fixed the bike whilst getting caked in mud, we succeeded in getting the bike moving much to Jo's amusement.

Following on from the last post, we stumbled on the local farmers market and it wasn't the best place for dog lovers! There were a few stalls with skinned dogs on meat hooks hanging in full view ready to take back for a delicious dinner. The horrible part was you could see the live dogs in cages out the back awaiting the same treatment! It was weird to see but they are animals bred to be eaten just like animals we are used to eating back home.

Next stop was Xingping which was probably what Yangshuo was around 20 years ago, a quaint little village with a lot more traditional chinese architecture and locals just going about their daily lives. The most scenic bike ride ensued through rice fields and fruit plantations along with another swim in the river all to ourselves. Following this was an incredibly tough climb up a very steep mountain, it felt like a walk up a stony path to reach your Kung Fu master!! After we stopped sweating a little, we took in the 360 view which was spectacular. There were even a few photographer's with tripod's that had made the journey just for the photo opportunity.

The next day and an 6.30 start for a boat ride down the Yulong River. Unfortunately we weren't blessed with a beautiful sunrise as it always seems to be too hazy in most of China for nice sunrises and sunsets. Maybe it's the time of year. An hour and half ride up river dropped us of for a 3 hour hike back along the river with a much deserved stopoff to swim.

We couldn't beleive our luck with the view from our next guesthouse in a place called Dahzai which ended up being one of the cheapest. It was set in the Longji Rice Terraces, half an hour walk up a mountain through all the rice terraces. The area is such an incredible feat of farming, built over generations by the locals with a natural irrigation system where the water flows over one terrace, down to the lower terrace and so on. We enjoyed our time their so much we had to add an extra day to the visit. A few days earlier after debating whether we would eat a cat or a dog, Jo remarked she couldn't eat a cat as she loved them so much but I had never seen someone volunteer so quickly when we got offered what we think was a 2 month old kitten that had been cooked up by the family of the guesthouse. We got it's little leg which was rather tasty!!

When we did finally leave, it was a 3 hour mission back to Guilin to get our 19hr train to Chongqing which was a city renowned for hotpots. There always seems to be some incident on the trains and started with us having difficulty finding our beds. This time round with lots of pushing and shoving in the aisles to get through, some Chinese man was trying to push past Alex while he was waiting for people coming the other to get through and make space, this resulted in a palm to the chest and the Chinese man was sent flying backwards. Typically, it turned out to be the man whose hillybilly family we shared a compartment with! They had boxes, buckets and all sorts of shit everywhere before we actually found our beds which left no room for both our bags. Jo's managed to go on an overhead rack but when Alex started trying to re-jig the bags that must have been the hillbillies, it was met by them tapping and shouting at us. About 5 mins followed with no success in getting our bags up so Alex resorted to taking one of their cases off and having a kind of 'push of war' with the mother in the aisle. Alex's bag went up after pointing out they had taken up every inch of space within the carriage, our first encounter with Chinese 'pikeys'. In the midst of all this Jo found something that looked to come off one of their bags which she asked if we should give back but Alex threw it straight out the window which sent Jo into a state of hysterics!!

The latest hostel was very well chosen as we discovered they had a movie system through the TV in the rooms. This was perfect timing as we had been travelling a fair amount with lots of bike rides and walks so a day relaxing and watching films was an exciting change. Chengdu was the next target on the map which was where we had booked a flight to Urumqi as the alternative would have been about 3 days travel across land. It looks like a small distance when planning your route but the size of the country is vast.

Since we didn't find hotpot in Chongqing, we were reccomended a place by one of the staff at the hostel so Jo decided to make it date night and put on a frock and a bit of slap. The hotpot was delicious, you have this massive wok that sits in a hole within your table heated underneath by a gas flame. The wok has two ring compartments, one mild and one spicy that you put your raw ingredients that you chose into either section to cook yourself. Once it was ready, you fished for it with your chopsticks and dipped whatever you found into a sesame oil mix of garlic and herbs before devouring it. Apart from the fact we were sweating a bit from the heat it was giving out and the chillies and spices probably didn't help, it was the nicest meal so far. Most of the staff kept laughing at us because they couldn't communicate from the start what the protocol was so we had to watch other tables to see what you were supposed to be doing!!

Booking a train onwards from Urumqi was proving pretty difficult again as we had been trying to pre-book it for weeks. In the end, a flight to Kashgar worked out only just more expensive and the prospect of an hour and 40 flight was too tempting for the money than 24 hours on a train.

Before we left London, one of Jo's work mates suggested reading a book called Danzinger's Travels - Beyond Forbidden Frontiers by Nick Danzinger. Jo finished the book around the start of our China adventure and I have just read the section about Kashgar in Western China which is where we have just been through. It's interesting to read someone's account of places you have been / are going to so you have comparisons.

Little things we have picked up on, like the chilldren having slits in the back of their trousers as most can't afford nappies so it makes it easier for the parents if they need to go to toilet without pulling their pants down and it encourages them to go on their own. This is something we have noticed all across China. His route took him from London through Europe to South Turkey, through Iran, Afghanistan and then was the first foreigner to cross from Pakistan to Western China since the revolution in 1949. He disguised himself as a muslim to keep under the radar as he was travelling illegally after Iran.

We met a guy from Burnley of all places who was quite an interesting bloke that we had a few beers with (typical northeners) who was now a sushi chef in Melbourne to a Japanese wife who traded gems and were both extremely well travelled. He was in Pakistan 11 years ago and had nothing but good things to say about the country and the people but recommended we buy the local attire of a shalwar chamise to try blend in and also a great way of keeping cool. This was also the the same dress that Danzinger became accustomed to along his travels.

Will update you on Kashgar soon and hopefully we can start updating the blog again in Pakistan more regularly.

Hope everyone is ok.

Love Alex & Jo x