We left Hong Kong and got the tube to Shenzhen which is the border crossing into China – the tube was easy we got through immigration but trying to buy a train ticket was a nightmare – noone speaks any English – it turned out to be a mammoth 3 hour task, in the end the trains were full so it was a sleeper bus we got eventually. The realisation of the language barrier had hit !!

So we managed to get on our sleeper bus, initially heading for Guilin but we met a girl on the bus who said Yangshuo is much nicer so we told the driver we wanted to get off the bus a stop early – they didn't speak any English so after about half an hour and me and Marc both having to try and talk to some girl on the phone we were now getting off the bus at Yangshuo at 5am – needless to say we didn’t really sleep – our beds were a tad short and we didn’t know if they would let us know whent to get off . It turned out at every stop the lights went on and lots of shouting of the destination went on many times through the night– sleeping was not on the cards!!

We get off the bus dazed and confused at 5am – lucky for us a chinese girl on the bus spoke english and she was staying at a hostel here too so she helped us find one– the scenery was utterly amazing these huge mountains surrounded the place totally weird shapes – she took us to this local place for breakfast – beef noodles for 30p and they were MEGGA tasty – we then got a hostel room and slept.

The hostel we are staying in is party central its full of travellers, the rooftop bar daily consists of people getting reeking playing beer pong, dice games basically any game that involves shots and lots of alcohol. Its nice to be around lots of other travellers we have met more here alone on day one that we did in the whole of India.

There is loads to do around here we have been tubing, which involved buying huge rubber rings and flowing down the river, we went on a bamboo boat trip through the mountains the scenery was amazing the place we went is the picture on the 20Y note.

It’s a total tourist destination for both travellers and chinese – the bars in the street are filled with karaoke (they love it here) and super loud happy hardcore chinese style. There are loads of stalls selling everything, well everything that is but shorts that fit me !! I have lost a stone and need new shorts but this is the land of tiny people and not one shop has any that will fit me – not amused.

Aside from that its beers and lazy times here - too easy to stay with so many people to make friends with combined with cheap beer and party games - Marc got REEKING last night playing games - well good night had by all!!

PRICES

Room at Monkey Janes with 2 beds – 60Y  £5.78 for room per night
Bowl of noodles from local food place – 3.5Y 30p
2 large bottles of beer from hoste – 15Y, £1.44
1 beer from noodle shop 4Y, 39p
Litre bottle of water 5Y, 48p
Western restaurant -proper beef burger and chips – 40Y, £3.84
Bus from Shenzhen – Yangshou (10 hours)– 250Y each £24