GUILIN

We arrived safely the airport facilities were good and the plane was only delayed 15 minutes - so all in all a pretty uneventful flight.

We got to the hotel about 3 in the morning so the fact that we had reserved the room was perfect - the room itself was not --- possibly the worst for the whole trip --- so far, but we decided to stay for 5 nights as there was much to do.

Guilan is in fact the tourist spot that most travellers head for.

On the first day we went to the famous reed Flute Cave - it was very impressive, on the second day we saw some of the beautiful parks and canals and the 2 Pagodas - the Sun and the Moon - the sun is made of copper - so was pretty shiny.

During our stay at Guilan it was the Chinese Mid Autumn Holiday - where Moon Cakes are given out - the hotel gave us one too - they are ok - but a bit over rated and a bit pricey for what they are.

On the next day we went on our first organised tour - starting at 8am we were picked up by a coach then via other hotels we headed to the start of the boat trip on the river LI, we chose the Chinese tour and eventually found the boat we were on - probably the last people on.

Then we listened to the tour operator for about 15 minutes before we were allowed out on deck.

The scenery was absolutely fantastic - just as seen in the books and mags - the Karst scenery was wonderful - the mountains were all around us with sheer drops and just everywhere - its sort of difficult to explain - I will post pics later.

After 4 hours on the boat and a rather average sort of meal - though eating the live prawns was something else..... we arrived at Yangshou, where there was a bit of a scramble to find our coach, fortunately Suri had befriended a 2 women who were on the same coach and same boat - so they helped us find the coach - after a frantic attempt to get on our electric buggy into the town from where the boat had docked.

We thought that was it - but no - on the way back to the hotel we visited a temple, a garden, a ornament shop and went through some more caves - this time on a boat - inside the cave.

By 7pm we got back to the hotel - absolutely knackered....

Other things we did was to have a foot massage each - Suri really did love this - 1 hour for 60 Yuan - amazing.

Time to log off as we have checked out of the hotel and in an hour we set off for Hong Kong - on an overnight bus - we thought we were booking up the train - but it turned out to be the bus - so this might be a very long night.

We are both well and enjoying ourselves - into our final week now....

Bye 4 now...