Over the moon in Yangshuo ...

After a madcap 8-day dash through China we arrived in Yangshuo, Guangxi Province where we planned to stay put for a few days and relax a little ...

The view (right) from the top of Moon Hill will do more to describe the amazing scenery of this region than I could ever hope to put into words. The huge limestone karsts jutting out from the otherwise flat landscape cover hundreds of square kilometers ... simply otherworldly. You can check out all the photos here.

As beautiful as the surrounding landscape is, Yangshuo itself came as something of an initial dissapointment. Somehow what was once a sleepy backpacker hangout has become the Benidorm of SW China - complete with the Chinese version of Europop booming out from every bar along the main street to lure in the growing numbers of domestic tourists.

Thankfully though it's still very much Chinese and over the course of a few days its charms grew on us - full of quirky and entertaining locals, plus traditional massages that would teach Robert Mugabe's hit squad a thing or two about torture techniques.

We spent the week here mountain biking, trekking, bamboo rafting and taking boat trips up and down the river. But thanks to the 37 degree heat every day, we mostly spent our time evenings enjoying ice-cold Tsing Tao beer in Lulu's airconditioned bar.

I have only one piece of advice if you ever come here. Never, ever play the drinking dice game with Lulu ...

If enough people are interested I'll post the rules (or what I could recall the following morning) here for you - just add a comment to let me know.