I could have risen early to be taken to a farm for a down to earth, 5 course cooking class but it was raining and i was feeling lazy- i may regret it later - oh well. Instead, we found Mimosa Cafe and headed upstairs to a quaint, heated room to lounge about while waiting for breakfast. The decor was tibetan with jewellery for sale and so I found 3 pairs of ear-rings that I HAD to have! Tibetan silver- not sure how well it lasts but they were only a few dollars each. Spent the majority of the day wandering the streets and doing a bit more shopping as I think it will be the best shopping on this trip. Went back to the "Inn" to order some lunch and ended up playing guitar with the young guy who works on reception - for more than 14 hours a day. He wanted me to teach him some guitar picking patterns to use when playing his hymns so we played Lutheran hymns together! He was a quick learner but I also played him "Tremble" , "Thank You" and "Ride On" with Mum singing harmonies. After getting off the computer, we trudged up to the local bus station to get the "Éxpress" bus back to Guilin bus depot. It was a 1 1/2 hr trip with interesting scenery on the way and we are both amazed at how there is no road rage here with the things that go on compared to our country where people get cranky over the smallest of things ie cars parked in the middle of the road waiting to turn and holding up everyone but even better, 2 lane roads turning into 4 or more lanes while pushing rickshaws and other 2 wheelers with families aboard over to the dirt. Of course there was constant thrills with many near head on collisions. We did meet a lovely young 23 year old in Yangshuo selling embroidered decorations who had a disbaility from being hit by a car 5 years ago while riding her bike but you dont see much of this around and you certainly don't see beggars or poor people much around here either- I think the area has been cleaned up for tourists!
Luckily, at drop off, we met a well spoken Chinese man getting the same train as us and so we were able to follow him in the dark to the train station. Despite having been told directions at the Inn, we would have got lost - as our Lutheran friend didn't know right from left. However, our chinese friend also got lost and we saw an interesting backstreet with "Beauty parlours" (for those of you who dont know what these are a front for- the girls in stilletos out the front may be a helpful hint). There was also a few odd bods arguing, drugged up bods, homeless bods etc.
We had a 2 hour wait for our train- boring. Once on board and directed to our soft sleeper - see photos when they're up as it wasn''t The Ghan- we tensely waited to see if we had to share our 4 berth room with strangers. The train began to move and we had it all to ourself. At 1:30 in the morning and again a few hours later, we had guests appear- 2 young Chinese men in with us. Oh well - still got an OK sleep and we did have it to ourselves while we were awake.
