After our late night partying the night before I was somewhat weary when Priscilla woke me at 8:30am to go running. I have to say I am impressed with her dedication - I would have happily stayed in bed and that is what Erik and Steph decided to do.
Initially I set the pace on the run but I quickly started to slow as the heat and my hangover started to take their toll. I stopped to point out some interesting roadkill to Priscilla - a flattened snake. I don't think she was too impressed with the snake, and from then on she was running ahead of me. I was ready to call it quits but Priscilla kept running for 25 minutes before we turned around.
After our run we had a late breakfast back at the hotel. Steph was still feeling a bit hungover, so she stayed at the hotel while Erik, Priscilla and I headed off to visit one of the local caves. I think because of all the limestone there are a lot of caves in the area but I am not a geology expert, so that may be completely wrong. The cave was in its natural form, with no touchups done by people...meaning it was dark and muddy looking with no pretty lights shining on it. The ceiling was also very low, so we had to walk in and out of tunnels (if you can call it that). Erik had a hard time since he was so tall. We were literally walking with a 90 degree bend or in a froggie position. Priscilla was glad for the helmets as she banged he head on the roof many times. It was however very neat because we were the only ones in the cave.
The cave we went to was called buddha cave. The reason for the name is that there are a couple of rock formations that look like buddhas in the cave. The chinese seem to have a lot of imagination in naming the various rock forms, sometimes it is difficult to see anything other than a jumble of rocks. In this case however we could see that at least one of the rocks did resemble a buddha. The guide also pointed out a tiny opening in the cave - maybe 12 by 24 inches wide, and about 6 feet deep. We were like ok, cool. Not so impressed. There were also rocks shaped like breasts, the nipple being where the water dripped down. Priscilla was keen to have a photo of me groping one of the breasts.
After my grope we headed further in to the cave and at one point we had squeeze ourselves through a tiny opening. Priscilla went first and warned us it was really narrow. Then she was a bit confused where to go since it looked like an enclosed area. That's when she heard one of the guides tell her "over here." The voice came from a tiny tunnel. She looked confused and asked how is that possible. How? Crawl. Get on all fours and crawl. She did that and eventually a crawl turned into shimmying our way through the hole. The whole time she was screaming, you gotta be kidding me. They weren't. When she got out she realized she just squeezed through the 12 by 24 inches hole. She seemed to think that erik and I might get stuck with our beer bellies, but we managed to squeeze through too, much to her amazement.
Afterwards we headed towards the water cave. We waded through knee deep water for a few minutes until we reached a muddy section with a deeper pool full of mud. Priscilla and I jumped in and had a mud bath. It was a very weird sensation - the mud was very smooth and we lay down in it. It was silky smooth like good chocolate. It was so dense we automatically floated. We were told all this was natural and very good for our skin.
After soaking in the mud for a while it was time to wash off. Fortunately there was another pool nearby full of fresh water rather than mud and we were able to paddle in that until we cleaned off. The mud had got everywhere of course so this was no easy task. Even when we got back to the hotel we had to take long showers to get fully clean.
After a late lunch back at the hotel we headed off once again to meet up with Steph who was out rock climbing again with Jack from China Climb. It took quite some time to track her down and we were all quite hot and sweaty by the time we did find her. The idea of a swim was very appealing so we headed back to the river and jumped in. Jack had brought his few months old german shepard along and he jumped in for a swim too. The setting was very scenic with the karst hills all around - certainly better than your average view from a pool. There was also a little bridge we could jump off in to the water. I jumped first, then Erik and then it was Priscilla's turn. I thought it would be easy for her as she had jumped off a bridge a hundred times higher in zambia when she bungee jumped, but she was a bit nervous because of the water. After a bit of cajoling and reassurances from Erik she jumped in fine as well.
After showering again (we seem to have to do that a lot here with the heat and all the activities) we headed out to dinner. Erik had picked a french place to go to in town that the guidebook said was one of the best places in town. We had french onion soup to start which was ok although a clearer broth than normal. We reckon they did not caramelized the onions prior to making the broth. For our entrees, Erik and Priscilla had filet mignon, Steph had pork milanese and I had lamb chops. It was all very good. Erik and I washed it down with some home made pale ale which won erik's seal of approval although I was less convinced. Erik also treated us with his bonus. Thanks Erik!
Priscilla was suffering a bit from having water in her ears. It was quite painful and she was worried she might have got an ear infection. As a result she and Erik decided to head home after dinner while Steph and I stayed out to meet up with Jack. We bumped in to our Dutch friend from Guilin again and went with him to a rooftop bar called Monkey Jane. The view from the top was pretty impressive even if all we could see in the dark was the outline of the hills. Jack met us there.
At the bar we met an Israeli guy who was keen to play beer pong (or beirut?). He picked me as his partner - I think he must have quickly sized me up as someone with excellent eye-hand coordination and aim! Our opposition were two of the most drunk people in the bar which made the challenge somewhat easier. We ended up winning two games in a row before things started to wind down.
By this stage it was pretty late - Steph called our trusty hotel driver to arrange our ride home but he was already asleep and didn't want to pick us up. He called a few other drivers but it seemed like they were all sleeping too. As we were thinking we would be having to walk all the way home, Jack came along with his bike and offered us a ride. So Steph and I clambered on and off we went. We must have been quite a sight with all three of us on the bike. Somehow Steph managed to take photos without falling off - probably because she was wedged between Jack and I in what Jack called an international sandwich. Fortunately we made it home in one piece and said our farewells to Jack before heading to bed.
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