Yello from Yangshuo

This is not quite where I planned to be at this point (or ever for that matter), but the weather in Yunnan province was horrible. I arrived in Dali after a 20 hour train ride, and then 5 hours in a bus to find it pouring with rain, and the forecast was another week of the same. Whilst Western Yunnan is supposed to be very beautiful the clouds meant I couldn't see any of it.

A random pic from Dali, but you get the idea...

I met a great New Zealander in my hostel there and he suggested joining him in fleeing to Yangshuo in Guanxi province. That involved another 5 hours in a bus back to Kunming, then a 14 hour train ride to Nanning, near the Vietnam border, and 6 more hours to Yangshuo via Guilin. I figured "what the hell" and here I am. Its been raining here too, but at least its warm. Yangshuo is a very backpacker orientated town and that makes it a lot of fun, that and the incredible limestone karst scenery.

A view of the area around Yangshuo. I'll get some better shots soon as the weather looks to be clearing.

We met some more people from around the world last night and had a great party in town. Today we shrugged off our hangovers and went to explore the Water Caves nearby. The highlight there was the awesome mud pools inside the cave. I wasn't able to get any photos, as I was covered head-to-toe in mud, but I'll post some of the other guys' soon. Tomorrow we're going on a trip to see some locals doing cormorant fishing. I've always wanted to see that.

I'm currently trying to follow the Sharks-Bulls game online as there are no international TV channels here. The Sharks are up at half-time!