Tonight we are at dahzai on the Dragons Back rice terraces and the views are fabulous even in the mist that has rolled in.
we left Yangshuo at 10 this morning and it took 4.5 hours of rally driving to get here. Then a 50 minute walk up a very steep hill with our backpack. One of the local ladies (4foot nothing) took pity on me (for a fee) and carried the backpack up here for me. My excuse is that I am coming down with something again!
anyway the views already are worth the trip and tomorrow is promising to be even better.
the houses here are made with timber which has a cedar like aroma. They use no nails in the construction. After we arrived in this idyllic spot sue went for a walk and I rested to the dreamy tones of buzz saws and power drills. All gone quiet now though.
even this remote place has phone and Internet connection.
the drive up here was a bit like a ride at the ekka, though once he got onto the mountain roads he drove much more to my liking. Prior to that though it really was crazy and I had to close my eyes. We passed other vehicles at every opportunity and even when any sane person would have said there was no opportunity. I think we spent one third of the time on the wrong side of the road! We squeezed through spaces between cars when I would have said there were no spaces but our driver proved me wrong. Sue, despite her dislike of flying, was starting to think that planes are not too bad after all. There was some rain today which made it even worse and we saw a number of -albeit small- accidents. At one point the ambulance and police bike were coming towards us through the traffic jam on our side of the road. The driver gave them some space. The problem is that so many vehicles want to drive at different speeds walking cycling scooters motorbike trucks , buses, trucks and our driver with desired speeds between 20 and 90km per hour on a two lane roaD with potholes.
anyway we are here safe and sound and loving it. Dinner just arrived so I had better go before sue eats it all.
