Yangshuo, southern China. Another spectacular day. This beautiful little town is certainly touristy - a bit like Banff, for example, but it is the off-season so there are no crowds and we had all the wonderful views and activities to ourselves. We are nestled in the mountains and staying at the Magnolia Hotel, which is pure luxury after the string of hostels we've had. The rooms are large with high ceilings, there are big white duvets on the beds and the bathrooms have western toilets!

Yesterday we strolled through the shops and the guys played ping pong in the park (a popular activity here). Lisa sat with a local young man and helped him learn English and Gina watched a school class play basketball. For supper, we gave up on Chinese for a bit and had pizza and ice cream. Such are the benefits of visiting a tourist town. 

This morning we awoke to pouring rain - "cats and dogs today" they said at the hotel front desk. Many locals learn their English from movies - we cracked up during our taxi ride yesterday to the Li River ferry; the cab driver carried on an entire conversation in cliches and movie lines.

Anyway, this morning the rain almost put us off our plan to tour the area on bike and bamboo rafts but by 10, the weather let up a bit and the ten of us and our guide hopped on bikes and headed for the hills. She took us through back roads, farm paths and muddy tracks, with many sights along the way, such as a 300-year old house where the 13th generation of the same family still lives. The place looks like it probably did 300 years ago. They still pump water in from the well, grind their own soy beans in the courtyard, cook on the stone slabs and the chickens run around the yard. And we learned about another Chinese tradition: buying your casket well ahead of when you need it. In this house two beautifully carved caskets sat in the front room waiting for their big day. It seems to be a source of pride rather than dread. Anyway, we did see one big There's one big difference though: There's a big TV sitting in the middle of one of the stone rooms. The contrast is incredible. The room has a well in the stone floor where you light a fire to heat yourself, and that's where you sit, beside the open fire in the floor, and watch TV. Wow.

Along the bike tour we met up with a man on a cart bringing straw hats to the market. We bought them all and made his day. 

next stop - bamboo river rafts. With rain coming and going, our raft guys took us down the Li River for over an hour. Len bought a beer from a raft and the Renaults bought photos from another raft that had a complete photo studio set up on it. Another amazing contrast. Paddling along on homemade rafts, passing people cooking on open fires, there's a raft with a Walmart-style photo studio. 

After the river, we rode our bikes (delivered by a cart) to Moon Cafe, where we had AN AWESOME LUNCH!! For the equivalent of $10 each (50 yen) we had a feast laid on outdoor tables with a fire lit right beside us to dry out our wet clothing. We had orange chicken and lemon chicken (very fresh; the chickens ran around beside us as we ate), mango shrimp, mushrooms and vegetables, crispy duck and the best ginger tea ever. Yum yum. 

It took us about an hour to ride back to the hotel, stopping along the way at the market for fresh oranges and the ingredients for ginger tea.

It's now 6 pm and in a few minutes we're going to do a calligraphy class followed by a tai chi class. It doesn't get any better. 

Tomorrow morning, we're leaving this beautiful place and taking a bus to Hanoi. The fun continues. 

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