We were picked up at 8am by the taxi to take us to the tour bus in the centre of Guilin where we were met by a coach and several other tourists waiting for a little adventure. Our tour guide was a lovely camp chap who was very sweet indeed often repeating the delights of Yangshou “the most beautiful town in the province and the one of the most beautiful towns in all of China!”. We were promptly told that we would be in his team and our instruction was to follow the panda flag. So far we’ve managed to escape the tour groups led by flags so this was our first encounter of this, and we wondered whether we had chosen to do the right thing at 380 RMB each this better be good!!

We met a Dutch couple on holiday in China and exchanged travel tales as the boat set off. We shared the slow boat with a few other tour groups and every so often we would get called up onto the top deck for the best views in all of China. Unfortunately the weather didn’t really help in assisting it’s beauty but on a misty day it was still very beautiful indeed. The light was pretty flat for the most part but we hope the photos give you an idea of what we encountered. We were able to take our bags on board so we could carry on from Yangshou at the other end rather than making it a return journey to Guilin. The boat journey was around 4 hours and we had 4 main sights, although there are sights all the way and either on a bamboo raft or the slow boat you’ll get some amazing views on a clear day. There are various peaks names along the way such as Half-moon peak and 11 horse cliff, but the most memorable and probably famous is the one of that is pictured on a 20 Yuan note. The picture is a sketched out version of the Li River with several karst peaks jutting out of the landscape and a lonely man on a bamboo raft. Many moons ago this image would have been a reality but now there are so many tour boats and bamboo rafts on the river it’s pretty hard to enjoy the original views. Still it’s worth seeing and we were laughing at the count down to the view…5 more seconds and you will see the image on the 20 yuan note, 3 more seconds, 2 more seconds, 1 more second and so it went on. We saw the view, no bamboo raft but it was fun all the same.

We were provided with a buffet style lunch which was very fortunately served up just as we were exploring the downstairs part of the boat, this mean’t we were at the front of the queue and the food was hot. It wasn’t a bad lunch actually, you can pay more for the local dishes but there isn’t any point if you plan to go to Yangshou as you can eat there very cheaply. There were a few amusing tourists on board that captured our eye for a while until the boat got in to Yangshou at around 1pm.

We promptly said our goodbye’s and left the tour group to find our hotel/Inn; The Bamboo Inn. When we arrived they said we could move to their quieter hotel, The Bamboo Hotel down from the street if we wanted to go and have a look, we asked the see the room with balcony but there was a big gap in the door and as it was pretty chilly so we went to see the other hotel to compare. We were a little miffed about this as you have to wonder why are they taking us to their sister hotel and not showing us other rooms at the one we CHOSE to book? The room at the other hotel was fine and a little more modern but it’s still an odd one why they do this! The price was still the same though at 80yuan per night and we had only planned to stay 2 nights in the town itself before moving to a recommended hostel 15 minutes walk away in a quieter village out of town.

We walked around Yangshou’s busy streets that afternoon and bumped into Will again from TUL (The Unemployed Life) he was rounding up people for the Monkey Jane’s NYE party along with a few others. We had already heard about the infamous Monkey Jane’s hostel from other travelers along the way and knew this was where the party would be if any were going on in town for New Years. We dropped by to pick up our tickets and free t-shirt after meandering the streets of Yangshou it was pretty busy, we’d been told on our tour that Yangshou attracts around 15 million Chinese visitors each year…we were just glad we weren’t visiting during peak season as it was busy enough for us.

We enjoyed a quiet night and opted to do a bike ride the following day.

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

We used Cloudland once more as a base for our luggage and set off to get a bus to Dali. The west bus station is easy to get to from town and we got there by 1pm just in time to get the next bus for Dali. This left at just after 1pm and took around 4-5 hours to get to Xiaguan which is the new town of Dali, from here we paid around 2yuan each to take a local bus to Dali old town. It takes around 30 minutes to make the journey and we had some guidance at the other end from a school girl willing to point us in the right direction.

We booked 3 nights at The Dali Hump which we soon realised was a good move. It’s a good place to meet other travelers and most people tend to stay a lot longer than planned. We arranged a few things for the next day and went out to get some food. Cafe Du Jack is another Lonely Planet recommendation and served a lovely tofu claypot dish with a nice spice to accompany it, Dave enjoyed some Singapore style rice with egg and then we followed this up with a calzone-style looking apple pie, it did the trick.

For the first night there were only 3 of us booked into the 8 bed dorm and it filled up as the nights went on. The rooms are really spacious but at this time of year the cold nights settle in and the thin curtains do nothing to contain heat. We did pay a little extra to go in the dorm room with en-suite and electric blankets which was a nice bonus.

On our first day in Dali we hiked up one of the Cangshan Mountain routes, walking up through the top end of the village and out into farmland. There is a 30 yuan p/p entrance fee for the mountain area but there weren’t many walkers on the mountain so we had the paths to ourselves. We passed by many gravestones and tombs located around the hillside and there was a strong light coming through the tree tops. We wanted to get around to the Zhonge Temple which is located on the mountain side and is where the cable cars go to, from here there is a steep path down to the bottom where you just stay under or around the cable cars and you’ll reach the bottom okay. Along the way we had landscape views of Dali city, Erhai Hu (lake) and farmland, it was a good 4 hour hike from start to finish but we were keen to get back to The Hump so we could join a group for a market tour to buy food for that night’s meal.

We just about got back in time at 1.30pm and the others had waited for us, we all went to the local market with Chung Lee who was our cheeky cheerful hostel guide. She certainly added personality to the outing. We took in the market, put 30 yuan into the pot each and chose fresh vegetables and even picked out our own chicken from a cage. Dave witnessed the 10 minute aftermath of the chicken being killed, de-plucked and ready to go in the back of the basket. In it went with the fresh aubergine and herbs bought earlier on. It’s a pretty crazy environment compared to British markets, traditions here are very different and it’s quite normal for people to pick out chickens, fish and even dogs to be killed for their evening meal.

We arranged to meet everyone back in the kitchen at 4pm to start the preparation for the evening meal. So we joined a few others in search of a talked about Tibetan bread on the street, we’ve eaten something similar in Beijing, it’s a large flat bread with herbs and spice on top, often there is minced pork added onto it, but this one seemed to be meat free? Before going back to the hostel we went to another talked about favourite in the area The 88 German Bakery (a somewhat controversial name by all accounts according to some German backpackers at the hostel) but don’t let this put you off. The deli style cafe is very welcoming, and we tasted a fantastic chai and granola biscuit enough to warrant another visit a few days later.

So after being spoiled at The German Bakery we found the others in the kitchen and began to cook. It was a little messy and perhaps disorganised but Chung lee loved toggle us all a role and asked us to cook some dishes we want to. She was pretty fussy though and preferred to be the one dishing out the instructions, at times it was a little ‘too many cooks…’ but it was all fun and we managed to cook up quite a feast including eggplant and peppers, spicy fish, mushroom soup, vegetable stir fry, chicken and beef dishes. Aside from the slaughtering of the chicken and then watching Chung Lee massacre it in the kitchen it was a pleasant experience! We all ate together in the bar upstairs and enjoyed cheap beer too. We followed this with a few drinks in town at a crazy little place ran by a frenchman called Mushroom…go there and you will not be disappointed.

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

WHOA BESTIVAL….(bestival) I got ma Beb-ey!

Well not exactly what Paulo Nutini was chanting in his song, however it worked for us all year round since our last Bestival jaunt in 2009! Dave’s been singing it on average weekly since we came back after that one!! So of course we were mega excited about going to this wonderful gem of a festival on the Isle of Wight. Last year was going to be tough to beat…the weather was amazing all weekend, the line up was very strong, & it was our first festival together!

This year the journey down & back seemed really smooth, we were set up & ready to head to the Thursday night shindigs by 8pm! The ferry journey from Portsmouth is always fun, I feel a little bit geeky saying that, but it’s just like going on holiday, it’s only a short journey but you start getting a really nice feel for the festival atmosphere. Rammed full of people all with the same agenda & a nice buzz of excitement is in the air.

So Thursday saw us find a camping spot, which took ages as they were filling the campsites to their maximum & not letting people into the smaller sites further afield. This was probably one of the negatives from the weekend, I don’t think it got people off to a good start. Some campers had already set up their tents & were being told to take them back down again & move back to the other sites which were full to the rim!! We eventually found a spot on the edge of the black campsite, set up quite quickly & headed off to get a feel for the new layout of the festival site. A new field was added this year called ‘The Wishing Tree Field’ & Tomorrow’s world had a new venue ‘The Rock n Roll’ tent. Funnily enough the wishing tree field had a massive sculpted tree, somewhere you could go, make a wish & dance! There were also new additions such as ‘The Cabaret tent’ & many small venues. We did read that this year was about the small venue, so it was good to see little places packed with people dancing.

Friday came along, the weather was okay, no rain so that was a positive! On our agenda were The Wild Beasts, Delphic, Simion Mobile Disco & Hot Chip. The XX were performing & I would have loved to have supported them fresh off their Mercury music prize win, but Dave was more for Simion, & I couldn’t be bothered to fight with the thousands of teens backing up at the Big Top. We did venture to a few other venues in between acts & explored other areas we didn’t really see last year. Hot Chip were most definitely the highlight of the day for us. Zane Lowe warmed up for Dizzie Rascal the headline act, we stayed for a bit & then let all the teeny boppers get on with it!

Saturday every year is THE fancy dress day, with a fancy dress parade & catwalk competition later on. This year the festival was the year of the Fantastical. Generally the whole site is themed around this & people were dressed up from Green Toy Soldiers to Bearded ladies, cup-cakes to fairy tale characters & s&m lovers!I had a bright yellow dress, I was aiming for princess but struggled to find the tall pointy hat I wanted for it! It’s just nice to dress up though.

On the hit list for that day was Giles Peterson’s 1.5 hour dj set in the Bollywood tent, Mumford & Sons, The Flaming lips, Giles Peterson always attracts a good crowd & I love being part of a load of mad fancy dress dance lovers! It’s such a nice vibe & to be partying like that at 5pm in the afternoon is surreal, refreshing & lot’s of fun. We both loved Mumford & Sons, although perhaps I a little more than Dave…he he! And The Flaming Lips blew us away, they really know how to put on an amazing show. Having little knowledge of their music both of us had heard that their live shows are something else, so we knew it was going to be good. But it’s a really magical experience, something that almost feels fantastical. Really good performers for sure! After the wonders of The Flaming Lips, we headed to bed in anticipation of a late night on the last night to see LCD Soundsystem…dreams of ‘Someone Great’ going on in our minds.

Sunday came & the sun came with it! It was a lovely day indeed. After a slow start & another round of welly boot wearing we set out to just soak up what was happening. A spot of The Cuban Brothers kept us smiling & the amazing choice of food kept our energy levels up. Fat Freddy’s Drop put on an refreshing performance, I had seen them a few years ago in Christchurch, New Zealand this time round they were much more giving to the crowd, really having fun with it on stage. Dave didn’t have any knowledge of them & was pleasantly surprised. They are a brilliant set of musicians fusing together reggae with house, brass & soul creating a magical mix of good tunes. The Prodigy were headlining that night, but to be fair I think my Prodigy days are numbered, I did enjoy it but just couldn’t really connect with the music. Straight after they finished their set the fireworks were set off along with the bonfire made from wood to be a fairyland castle, we watched from the distance with our veggie burger & Hot dog.

With 2 hours to go until LCD we journeyed around the site one more time, venturing back to the Wishing Tree Field before a spell at the silent disco. Those things are so much fun, two Dj’s competing against each other everyone listens through headphones choosing which channel we want to tune into. It’s so funny from an outsider’s view looking into a room full of people dancing randomly to different things in silence!!

So with that to get us geared up for LCD & we aimed for the Big Top in anticipation of the New York performers to come on stage. When they did we were not let down by any means. They really were the best performance of Bestival 2010 for us! We are big fans anyway & love their music so we hoped they would be as good as we imagined &they really were. After 3 nights of dancing & trenching up hills in muddy wellies we still had some gas left in the tank for LCD. I think they made our festival! Such an eclectic mix of house music, powerful lyrics, experimental electro & experienced musicians. YES!! If this was their last gig together as LCD we were there & very chuffed to have been so!

So there you have it, a round up of events for Bestival 2010! Rob Da Bank should be proud of what he has built with it, from a small festival of dj’s back in the day to now a mainstream dance festival it’s a real pleasure to have been a part it. Great location, good choice of food, good venues, fab line up’s, comedy, fancy dress, good hygiene…the list goes on. I have a feeling that when we’re back from our travels, it wont be too far down the list of things for us to do!

Here are a few photos from our mini adventure… (Nikon Coolpix, processed in Photoshop)

We are heading to Bestival on the Isle of Wight. Exciting times. We are most definitely taking more stuff with us than we will when we jet off for a year!

Dave needed a shave, sarnies were made for the journey, tent & rucksacks packed. Taxi!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, processed in Lightroom)