Chao Long to the Moon

Although we spent two nights here we only really had one complete day. It was a lovely place though, just 15mins down the road from Yangshou we were at a homestay style hostel, The Outside Inn, run dy a really nice Dutch family. It was like a series of farm houses and it was nice to just have a place where we all spend some time together without having to be a bar or someones room. It's still really hot here so it also felt really good to be able to sit outside for dinner again and although I think I wore a jumper I probably could have coped without. My room here was cool too. It had double wooden doors that padlock together from the outside, and they wedge locked from the inside by big wooden plank. I'm easily pleased. I did have a giant hairy caterpiller in my room when I arrived but he moved out during the night.

Given the short amount time we had, all I managed to do was cycle to Moon Hill in the morning (it took quite a while as friendly locals would helpfully point us in the right direction when we got lost...a lot. The right direction however, being not where we wanted to go but to their bamboo raft or restaurant instaed. We did eventually get there and the climb up was actually really tough. It felt harder than the great wall, I think because it was constantly steep and the weather was a lot hotter. We also had to contend with ladies following us up constantly offering us the chance to purchase water, and then staying with us at the top and offering it to us a lot more. They'd then suggest they're too old to carry the heavy bottles down and perhaps we should just buy them all to help out.

I took the opportunity to cycle into Yangshou on my way back and suddenly understood why the roads are so crazy out here. There are bikes of all shapes and sizes all over the place and many of the riders consistantly seem to misjudge what may be a safe load. Four of us quickly realised all you could do is go where you want to go and expect everyone to avoid you. There's no other way. Rules don't cater for half goings on in the road and it's best just to keep your eyes peeled and be ready to dodge!