Yangshuo

Yangshuo was supposed to be my R&R before heading on to Hong Kong - my break from my break, if you will -  but it turned out rather differently. The town was set in stunning scenery and I met some lively folk, and before I knew it my time was done and I had had far less sleep than planned.

Oh, if you're nervous of stomach, please avoid the last picture.

View from the roof of 11 Hostel, Yangshuo

One of the things I did was take a cooking class. This was the result of 12-odd people each cooking the same three dishes- Kung Pao Chicken, Sauteed Aubergines, Vegetable dumplings (not pictured).

We went to a traditional market on the last day. I bought 500g of Sichuan pepper, which turned out to be more than expected.

Minnie Mao's. Get it? get it? 

View of the river running by the town.

I took a nice long hike downriver one day.

Yangshuo

Taken from a ferry crossing the river during my hike.

Thousands of these faux-bamboo rafts plied the river with their tourist cargo.

Water buffalo, smarter than me to have escaped the heat.

And in such a place!

Why yes, you can jump off this. Why do you ask?

Tourist central...

Apologies for my flabby thinness.

Cooking class

Silly girls, your gas isn't even turned on!

My dumplings, pre-steaming

Yangshuo waterfront. A good place for a swim in the evening.

Banana and Oreo milkshake. 8/10.

Further along on my hike.

Another river crossing.

An impromtu lunch with local brew. It turned out to be a bad idea to drink a 500ml beer halfway through a hike on a scaldingly hot day. Satisfying though.

The end point...

This image here: this is on the back of the Chinese 20 Yuan note.

I also went bicycling through the region. This guy had a much better idea.

Isn't it amazing how absolute flatness gives way so suddenly to sheer cliff-faces?

It was pretty easy to climb, but those rocks were sharp.

A local produce market, first fair warning.

They sold just about everything fresh you can think of. Stop looking at pictures soon.

I like the colour.

I think they're tiny plums. And seriously, the next picture is the potentially disturbing one. 

Yeah, this actually wasn't so bad. I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of the live dogs still in cages, or of the cats. I'm normally pretty immune to this kind of thing, and the hanging dog really didn't affect me too much. It was the noises and the crying of the live ones that got to me. I warned you.