8th June - Tongan to Yangshuo

Up at 8ish but then did not leave the hotel until gone 12. I had a leisurely breakfast and sent a few emails but then took several hours taking my gears to pieces trying to find the mysterious noise.

At one point everything had been in pieces and then put back together and I could not get the chain to move on to either the upper or lower chain ring on the front chain set. It would only run on the middle ring. I hate that sinking feeling when you think: "Oh no what have I got myself into here.... Will I actually be able to get it working again at all on my own..... Why did I not just leave it alone.... It was better before I tried to "fix" it and then I was not covered in dirt and oil either!"


Eventually, I managed to get it working OK and I know what needs doing to fix the noise but I do not have the right tool and so I will have to wait to get to a big city.


I headed off but stopped after only 10km as I was really hungry. I had a small breakfast of oats at 8 and so I was really hungry by 1ish. I stopped off at a lovely little place and had prawns and rice and veg. They charged me a fortune for it though in comparison to other places. Very tasty though.

The scenery was lovely but it was very close this afternoon and very hot. A serious thunderstorm was coming and I got absolutely soaked!


The rain was so heavy that I could not see the road and had to stop and shelter in the nearest town for about 30 mins. It was great though as after the storm there was a beautiful blue sky. It has been over cast for the last few days and it meant that for the first time today I saw the mountains in all of their sunny glory :-)

As I was cycling along I passed a couple of Chinese cyclists that looked slightly out of place in such a rural area as they had really nice bikes. A few minutes later I stopped to take a photo and they came over to me to chat. It turned out that Zoe is an English teacher at a middle school and she was cycling with her friend, Shi Ying Jie, to Yongshou for a few days holiday. Cool, Chinese cycle tourists that speak English (well Zoe anyway).


I decided to bike with them. They went rather slower than I normally do but I was very impressed that they biked 130km today. It is not usual for Chinese people to travel such long distances by bike and 130km in a day when you are not used to it is a long way for beginners. Zoe had just wanted to see if she could do it and did not want to try on her own and so invited Shi Ying Jie along as well.

It was so lovely to talk to someone after 5 days of not speaking to anyone that speaks English. We nattered away for ages. I stopped off to take loads of photos of the amazing countryside and then raced to catch them up each time.





We arrived in Yangshou around 6. The last 20km of road into the town was not great as there was loads of traffic but the scenery was great. The town itself is lovely. We had to cross a bridge to get to town. The views of the town and the river where lovely at dusk.



Zoe suggested that I share her room and that we all go out for a meal of western food tonight. Awesome! Zoe is fantastic at bargaining and managed to get 2 huge rooms for 50CNY per room. The first place with a Western toilet since I left HK.

I showered and got tarted up for going out in a nice town and then had a bit of a wonder round town while the others got ready. We then walked into town. Zoe has a really bad sense of direction and to start with we went in the opposite direction for about 15mins before she realised (she has lived here in the past). We were all so hungry when we realised that we had to turn round and walk back plus an additional 20mins that we stopped for a starter of water melon and ate a huge one between the 3 of us :-)


The town itself is set in very beautiful countryside with a very new modern center. The main street is pedestrianised and is absolutely heaving with people. There are rows and rows of modern restaurants and shops selling gifts. There are even proper coffee shops. It was not what I was expecting at all. It is such a tourist place where you can get anything. There are loads of high end hotels too and very well dressed Chinese people. The section of the town along the river is lit up and pretty. The unusual thing about the town though is that they also light up the surrounding hills at night! It means that the huge tree covered limestone protrusions can be seen from most places in town even in the middle of the night. It is very impressive. Must cost a fortune in electricity though.

There are 6 million visitors per year of which 5 million are Chinese. It was really good to see a tourist spot with so many natives from the country rather than just a concentration of white skin. Chinese people where all very much enjoying buying tatty gifts and doing tourist stuff!



It was really lovely to be with Chinese people that speak good English as Zoe kept on trying to show me special Chinese things. I would not have noticed this tofu fried with chilli on the side of the road and tried it if I was not with them :-)


We shared a selection of different foods that neither of my new friends had tried before. We got pizza, lasagna and burritos and also shared a small bottle of wine. Unfortunately, it really was not the best meal ever and I was embarrassed that they did not get to try really good western food. It was very plain and not particularly tasty. Oh well. We still had a very lovely evening. Zoe is not used to drinking alcohol and was tipsy after half a glass. Bless.

By the end of the evening I had decided to stay another day in this town and explore some more. I will go to the light show tomorrow evening and the mud baths and caves tomorrow daytime rather than biking to Guilin as originally planned.