It was a big, big driving day when we left LiJiang. Leaving at 8am and heading to Dali 3 hours away to change to a bus bound for Kunming once again. We arrived at about 6pm, but the day was not entirely wasted on travelling, it was still raining so chances are I would have sat drinking coffee somewhere watching the rain fall and fall and fall anyway.

The roads are incredibly windy, so even though these towns are not that far apart it does take hours to get anywhere. Particularly when you pass trucks that are still teetering on top of nice black sedans, having clearly just ran over the bonnet. It looked pretty nasty, but also appeared that no-one was seriously injured. In Tiger Leaping Gorge itself, out guide had pointed out a truck that was resting at the bottom of a 100m drop. Unforetunately both driver and passanger had been killed in that incident. Yes the passing at any available time 'rule' still seems to apply. I don't know that I'll ever fully understand.

Yesterday afternoon was hot and sticky - so it seemed like an ideal time to slave over a hot wok. I took part in a Chinese cooking class with several others from the tour, which was great as our Vietnamese cooking opportunity fell by the wayside when we were in Hoi An. It started with a quick wander through the local markets. All the fruit and vegies are so fresh and they look fantastic, even if i don't know what they are. The meat section is always a surprise. Theres a heart wrenching live section full of pidgeons, chickens, hares, rabits, ducks, geese, turtles and so on. Pigs legs are really common, as are chickens feet, but it was the first time I had seen a full dogs body hanging, skun and ready for sale. It was odd, I had my camera out and was about to walk over for a closer look (still deciding whether I could stomach taking a picture of a dead dog) when I was told 'no photos'. I asked why, whether it really was legal to eat dogs, and it is, but I get the impression its one of those grey areas, like discussing the pro's and con's or communism with a local.

Interestingly I was at a tibetan restaurant on our last night in LiJian, and I ordered curried fried noodles with beef (and it was delicious, by the way). When it arrived the waitress said "Noodle with yak?". Silence.
"Noodle with yak beef?" to which I piped up "Beef?"
"Yes, yak beef." Interesting. I would not have picked it knowing it was yak, but it was very tasty and tender. But I definitely stop short of the rancid yak butter tea, however. Oh, and rancid is not being used as an adjective here, but more like a noun...

So here I am in Yang Shuo. Its a small town of about 30,000 people, and many, many tourists. Its a really beautiful spot, with the gorgeous Li River running through town, surrounded by huge limestone peaks sticking out of the ground in a similar way to those at Halong Bay. Its so pretty here that they have in fact put a local lanscape image of the river and hills on their 20yuan note. Cormorant fishing is still a common practice here, which is quite interesting.

I have picked up a copy of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung here also, which should be an interesting read on one of our long bus rides inevitably still coming. I'll try to note down some gems of wisdom to share with you next time.