After our stressful journey to Shenzhen it took me almost the whole of our first day in Yangshuo to relax.  But, if you want to relax in China, Yangshuo is probably the best place to do it.

We were picked up after dark from Guilin airport, after an hour’s drive to the hotel we were exhausted and were so grateful to know that they’d kept the kitchen open for us.  We ordered the local specialty beer fish (which was enormous) with a huge sigh of relief.   

What I couldn’t wait for was to see exactly where we were in the morning.  I was so excited I could hardly sleep... and when I woke up and poked my nose though the curtains I couldn’t believe my eyes.  I walked out onto our balcony and my jaw dropped, we were right between half a dozen or so of the karst mountains, they literally tower over the hotel.  The guy next door was taking pictures already and he told me they’d heard us come in and couldn’t wait to see our reactions.  He took this photo of me - it looks like I’m grumpy - I was just stunned.

Then he told me, some of the best advice, “just stay here, in the hotel - don’t bother going anywhere else”.  Although I would have been sad to have missed out on many of the exciting things in Yangshuo, I did find myself thinking often “I wish I was back in the hotel”; so I could be lying by the river, or eating a great lunch, or even just so I could be enjoying a hot shower, or some fresh baked cookies.  

Anyway, after a great healthy and hearty breakfast at YSMR we rented a couple of mountain bikes and headed off to the Dragonback Bridge.  Our morning trip was, I later read properly in the hotel information, meant to be a day long trip with lots of breaks, drinks and snacks but we were just so excited to get going that we didn’t check it properly.

After tasting the food at the hotel we didn’t want to eat anywhere else, so we raced back for a huge lunch, a massage under the banana tree and a dip in the river.

That night we headed out to see Impressions, which, along with the bamboo raft ride, is my absolute must-see sight of Yangshuo.

The next day we decided to split up, so I headed off, on foot this time, with a wonderfully local guide map to find Moon Hill, by way of the Banyan Tree - which is a big Buddhist tourist spot.  Of course I got lost even though there was nothing but fields and tiny villages along the way, but this area is really quite a nice place to get lost.  Most people will generally know whereabouts you are headed (the nearest tourist spot), so you may get a half hearted point in the right direction, or even someone offering you a lift on the back of their motorbike.  I actually stopped one lady and pointed to my map and she just shook her head (“blooming tourists” I think she was thinking). 

But I was so glad to have come this way to the Banyan Tree, because I found this wonderful bazaar on the opposite side of the river to the big, busy shops, parts of which were actually inside the karst mountain - just incredible.  With a notebook and a pen I managed to barter for some shirts and children’s clothes (but please be careful about sizing - everyone here is so much smaller than English people, that it’s easy to buy a Large when you should be buying an XXL shirt!)

The Banyan Tree was laughably touristy, you can even pay to ride on a white horse around the tree (this is based on the Journey To The West legend - or as my family knows it “Monkey” - the surreal 70s show which was shot in China, but which had Japanese actors, confusing many children growing up at this time... anyway). 

I rushed past the Banyan Tree - you find the hassling gets more energetic as the day goes on, and the stall holders were starting to wake up!  It’s not far from there to Moon Hill, but it did start to get busy and I was soon being followed by a lady on a bike who told me that she would be following me up the hill to sell me a drink.  Okay.  I stopped off for a pot of tea and to use the loos at the Moon Hill Cafe which is right before the entrance to the hill itself (you do have to pay to go up) - which is nice enough - and has a fantastic view, but then the waitress tried to sell me some postcards and it was time to move on.

Sure enough my lady on a bike was waiting at the bottom of the hill to follow me up and sell me a drink.  As I started up the hill she was following me step for step chatting away, so I turned round and made her a deal - I’d buy a can of Fanta if she’d leave me alone.  10 yuan for a can is probably a lot, but it was worth it to go up the hill in silence.

Moon Hill is actually quite a tough climb, but it’s lovely and shady and it was still only about 10am so it wasn’t too bad.  I passed a couple of people coming down “keep going” they said “it’s not far now.”  I was so lucky because when I reached the top it was completely empty.  You walk through the hole of the hill to a viewing platform, and the view is incredible, but I can’t believe that some people climb up another tiny, illegal path to stand on the top of the hill (this safer view and climb were fine by me!)

I was actually really glad I’d bought the Fanta when I got to the top - until I realised it was a little bit rusty and had passed its sell by date!  (It was only later that I found out that in China they print the production date, rather than the sell by date on food and drink.)

As I started to walk down, all the tour parties were coming up the hill, suddenly it was noisy and busy and I was so glad I’d come early!  Also at this point I was really getting hungry - but I’d already mapped out my lunch plans.  Yangshuo Mountain Retreat has a sister hotel and restaurant in Moon Hill Village - the hotel is the Yangshuo Village Inn and the restaurant in the hotel is called Luna - Chinese Italian fusion - I was getting very excited about the dumplings.

The view from the guest house is hard to beat, and the rooms were also gorgeous, although I still prefer YSMR, and to be honest I was ready to go back and chill out at the hotel, but... I’d already bought an entrance ticket to The Real Water Cave (I was thinking of going to the Buddha Cave but it was closed at the time.)  Although there were some great things about the cave, particularly swimming in the natural cold spring water pool, and one of the guides singing for us, his voice reverberating around the caves as his lantern swung along, it was a long tour, and at times a little bit scary.  Especially when the tour guide blithely said “yes go on ahead”, which I did, until I realised I had no idea where ahead was.  I was so glad to finally come back out into daylight.  Another bumpy bus ride, a quick stop for tea at the Yangshuo Village Inn while I waited for a taxi and then I was blissfully back at the hotel, where I laid out in the sun, enjoying the feel of being by the river and relaxing in Yangshuo.

Having soaked up every last ray of the sun I was quite happy to pop into Yangshuo Town that night and check out the infamous West Street (although I did take the precaution of having an early dinner at the hotel before we headed out).  West Street is about as far away from the peace and quiet of our hotel as you could get.  It’s McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, music blaring from every shop, strip clubs, in short everything you go on holiday to get away from (not that there are that many strip clubs in my day to day life!)  The shopping is good, but I could hardly think with all the noise.  Mandy needed to eat and we couldn’t find any of the restaurants recommended by the hotel so we just plumped for the first we saw with tourists inside.  We took one step inside and I remembered the cardinal rule - go where the locals go.  Despite only eating a tiny bit of one dumpling and drinking some rose tea it wasn’t a huge surprise when I woke up in the middle of the night and was violently ill. 

And so it continued... The next day we were supposed to be being picked up at 8am for a day trip to the Longshen rice terraces before heading to the airport for our late night flight to Shanghai.  It involved 3 hours in a taxi to Longshen and pretty much the same back to Guilin airport.  This aside, it also involved a meal with a local family - there was no way I could go.

When Mandy woke up I told her I was bailing out of the trip but would meet her at the airport - I was just going to spend the day lying around and sleeping.  Then Mandy got a text from home - there was a family emergency.  Suddenly the biggest problem was organising Mandy’s flight back to the UK.  The two of us were a mess and thank goodness for YSMR, between giving me Traditional Chinese Medicine for my stomach and helping Mandy to get on a flight back to Hong Kong they were absolute superstars.

Sadly our time in Yangshuo ended with me saying goodbye to Mandy at Guilin Airport, and for me, a very, very long wait.  The upside was that it gave me time to go online and change my hotel as I was now arriving in Shanghai at 2am by myself, and I really wasn’t convinced when I talked to the hotel that there would be anyone there.  So... I went online at Splendia and booked Les Suites Orient, and even called them to check the reservation had gone through (and put their number on speed dial so they could talk to the cab driver when I got in.)

All that was left for me to do was review the menu at the Irish Pub (!) in Guilin Airport which actually had nothing I could have stomached on a good day... visit the gift shops... check in... get through security... have my chop done by a lovely man... wonder at the long queue of people having their photo taken in front of a photo of an aeroplane (!)... wonder at the fact that no one seems to care about the no smoking signs in the airport and reconsider the wisdom of booking a late domestic flight in China, after another delay, which meant I was so tired I couldn’t sit down for fear of falling asleep, I finally boarded the plane and fell asleep immediately.