We had a wonderful time in Yangshuo and it was great to relax and recharge (almost too good – we didn’t want to leave). The travel today (5 hrs of busses) was easy as we are on well known tourist routes so were instantly ushered to the correct busses. We got a bus to Guilin and then waited a couple hours for another bus to Ping’an and the ‘Dragons Backbone Rice Terraces’. Both busses were good but V had to delve into her stash of motion sickness pills for the first time. Guilin was boring and we just ended up killing time on the streets. The bus ride out to Ping’an was full of western tourists but again way too many Dutch people, KLM must have a special to China at the moment, and at least 80% female (we have noticed this trend all over China) – don’t know where all the boys are but they are missing out 😉

As we started climbing in altitude the rain clouds rolled in. The roads up to Ping’an are a work of art and wind their way up kilometers of vertical cliffs. It was something to see and obviously dangerous as ‘even’ the driver was taking extra care. As we neared the top of the climb I made the mistake of looking down as we passed a number of washed out gullies below the road – you have to wonder how long before that road slides the 900m to the valley floor ?!

We had to walk the last 20mins up to the village and in the rain it was very dramatic. The village is too cool. Nested in, and hugging the valleys it has contoured paths linked by endless stairs all surrounded by the immaculate rice terraces. Plenty of buildings have real character (ie: possible risk of collapse). We dumped our gear at the hotel (what a view we have from out room!) and headed out immedately to catch the views just as the rain was stopping. We took a leisurely hike around the rice paddies and the two well known viewpoints up on the hills around the village in search of good photo ops. Stunning, and even better it was empty !

On our way back to the hostel/hotel we got competely lost in the charming maze of stairs and alleys but did stumble upon an excellent dinner. Good thing we took our headlamps with us, otherwise the last section home would have been a interesting with a whole beer in each of us 🙂

Tomorrow we plan to hike 15km or so to the next village (Dazhai).

[Pictures: 1) The terraces]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi