We were due for a pick up at 7.30am but it wasn’t until around 8 that the bus turned up, we ended up doing the rounds of the town picking up fellow travellers and en-route passed our place about 3-4 times! Once on our way it was a pleasant journey, we were pretty chuffed as we had the whole of the upper back row sleeper seats to ourselves – that’s 5! It’s a good tip actually when you’re doing the sleeper buses over in Vietnam the upper top or lower back end of the bus means you get a little more room and windows to get rid of the smell (if there is any!). Helen was feeling ill so slept and awoke for a few photos every so often, Dave happily snapped away through the back window and was rewarded for his efforts we think!

We arrived in Mui Ne at around 1.30pm and it was scorching, somewhere around 30 degrees or so. Very nice indeed but we had to look for somewhere to stay so onwards we walked to find accommodation, fortunately we bumped into Justin and Jules and they let us put our bags in their room at Mellow. A nice vibe place that is what its title says; Mellow! Oh and yellow!! We booked to stay there for the following nights as they had availability and found a room at the back of a restaurant a few doors down from Mellow for $15. For the ease and the fact that it was clean we stayed there for the night.

We managed to walk along the beachfront to catch a glimpse of the sunset before meeting up with J&J at The Lam Tong restaurant for dinner that night. Lam Tong is nicknamed ‘Long Time’ for good reason, the service is pretty poor, they don’t always get the right food to the right table and you may have to wait a while to eat. Still it’s cheap and pretty good for what you’re paying, they also do an excellent fruit plate which is tour 5 a day right there. We went along the beach for a few drinks and then went off to our beds!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We had breakfast at the hotel in the form of muesli and fruit before going off on bikes for the day. At Bamboo they have a good choice of mountain and city bikes (we opted for mountain bikes of course) perhaps some of the best bikes we’ve used on our travels so far!

We had a map with some good trails outlined and so off we went in the hopes of finding some less tourist-driven villages. Finding the right path is okay to start with as you head out of Yangshou town via the back roads and then there is a path that cuts under the bridge and from here you get to a gravel road, which is pretty tricky to ride over, although much more manageable if you have a decent mountain bike – you often see people on tandems and city bikes on this kind of terrain!! From here you go towards smaller paths which take you through farmland and villages, you just head north up the Li River towards Moon Hill, its a long journey on bikes and we often found ourselves the only people on the roads and thinking we may be on the wrong path.

After a brief stop for satsumas and snacks we went on our way to Moon Hill. When we arrived there were many tourists who were either enjoying the views, shopping, eating or planning to take a trip up the hill. It was getting close to 4pm by this time and we’d been cycling for the past 4 hours so decided not to climb the hill. But we did stop for some fresh corn and a few photos of the random tourist attractions such as a monkey dressed in an Asian suit posing along side happy holiday makers at what cost we didn’t stop to find out.

It only took about another 45 minutes or so to get back into Yangshou mostly on the high way which was in no way as satisfying as going through all the villages and countryside. When we got back we opted for a spot of Chinese food at another Lonely Planet recommendation Kelly’s. The food was fairly good and we weren’t charged too much for it either. Afterwards we went o Monkey Jane’s for a few drinks just to get familiar with the place before the big bash the following night. They also do really cheap beer!! We met a group of travellers who invited us to play cards with them…8 games of Shithead later and we were ready to call it a night. We had a good link with one of the guys as he’d been traveling with someone we’d met in Dali, I picked up on his Irish accent after Jane had said we may bump into them. Small world this traveling lark!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)