Under the coconut tree

On our recent trip to China, we were heavily contemplating between a trip to Guilin or to a nearby town, Yangshuo. After much reading & research over the internet, we decided to opt for the later. It's apparently a smaller town, less hectic and touristy. I definitely needed that after living smacked in the hustling and bustling of HK for so many months.

We stayed in this quaint little hotel, Yangshuo Riverside Retreat. It was a cosy and comfortable place with clean and spacious room. The staff was very friendly and speaks really good English. Oh...the restaurant serves pretty good food too. We had some local rice noodles, banana fritters (and among others) which was just excellent!

Do bear in mind though, the hotel is relatively far from the town centre. It was either a cab each time you head out or the ferry which was about 15-20 minutes away. That said, the walk to the ferry was very pleasant - you walk through vegetable patches and fruit trees with limestone hills as the backdrop. Nice!KL and I always enjoyed heading out to the local market. This time though, I gave it a miss while KL ventured in. Having heard that dog meat was widely sold - I just lost interest totally and was contented waiting at the entrance.

Dog meat anyone?
All the vegetables sold here were humongous. It was 2-3 times bigger than what we were used to in UK or Malaysia.

We rented bicycles to head out to Lima, a nearby picturesque village. Honestly, I wouldn't reccommend it for the faint hearted. It was pretty scary with the many cars, motorcycles on the narrow roads (lots of contruction when we were there) and highly polluted streets. I sighed with relief when we got to the village in one piece. Thankfully, the scenery made up for the stress involved in getting there. =)
Sugar cane plantations in abundance.The following day we took a river cruise up the Li River from Xingping.
On of the stopovers, where snacks were sold and rides-on-a-cow was readily available for a fee.
The night markets in Yangshuo.