'Tour de Rice Fields'

Dear Diary,Today we have our bags packed once more and we are due to fly North to Chengdu at midnight. We covered the final spots we'd missed in Guilin over the last few days so here's a quick run down.We took a tour North to the rice feilds and river of Longshen, our tour included an actual Chinese tour guide (thats right - with microphone and yellow flag) who told us about the local villages the long haired women who have hair "up to 2.1 metres in length" and that the men are not allowed out of the house unless the women says - naturally tris was nervous. We visited there river houses and watched a show along with about 20 other bus loads which was set along side the river and was very cool (funnily enough the show was narated by our little tour guide friend!!). We were then taken to the rice feilds where we ate the local food which is cooked in bamboo, and climbed a few billion stairs to the lookout. Now we cannot confirm if the rice plants grew long or short grain, but suspect good old Sunbeam has something to do with it. The view really was incredible!!We also spent a day in a local park with a huge limestone cave - Where we particularly enjoyed the swarms of bats, but very cool to see! After returning to our hostel we celebrated our efforts (along with Anzac day and walking a good 10kms!!) with a beer, some girl guide biscuts we have been saving - and a game if monopoly.Today we mangaged to walk past the wholesale "shops" selling anything from Toilets - birdbaths and proudly post our first package home, should be there in two months!!!So nearing two weeks down - and plenty of smiles.Love McDuffTristan & Michele