Easter Sunday. Rain all day, resting all day and an Easter Egg hunt tonight!I Left Hong Kong on a high note after Jess and I eating a brilliant steak on our last night. We headed to Shenzhen on the mainland by ferry the next morning and straight to the airport. Jess was off to Beijing then home and I was off to Guilin to go to Yangshuo. Jess got on her flight about midday and I spent 11 hours in Shenzhen Airport until my flight at 9pm... not a great day, but it was over soon enough. I met a nice girl from Hong Kong called Ronnie who was heading to Yangshuo as well so we headed to a hostel for the night in Guilin then out to Yangshuo on the bus the next day. Ronnie was a lifesaver, having someone who speaks Mandarin as a guide is a godsend... Thank you so much Ronnie!We got to Yangshuo and I checked into the 'Rock & Grill', the centre of the climbing scene in Yangshuo. It is a great little guest house that everyone hangs out in so it is the place to be in town. I met up with all my friends from Tonsai that night and we had some drinks then it was off to bed ready for my first taste of the climbing the next day.After a late breakfast (late starts are the norm here, thank god haha) and much deabting over where to go, we headed out to the amazing Moon Hill. A quick local bus then a 30 minute walk up a long hill of stairs and we were there. What an amazing place!!! A huge limestone arch on top of a hill overlooking the expansive karst area and the villages and fields below. I did a couple of nice routes, a 6b and a 6b+ then tried a great 7a+. The routes here are all really really long, all in the 30m+ category and are generally gently overhanging and technical face climbing. The quality of the routes was great and the grades are a bit stiffer than old Tonsai... it may take a while to get the fitness to climb as hard as I did in Tonsai haha.Everyone was having a rest day the following day so that night was a game of Centurian (100 shots of beer in 100 minutes!) followed by a drunken trip into the night life centre of town, eating pigs penis's on a stick, dancing in a strange local dance club, a 2am trip to McDonald's then a late bedtime.Today was just sleeping and chilling, generally recovering from a big night out so we can hopefully climb tomorrow, but it is raining alot so climbing might be off the cards for tomorrow so it may be drinks with the locals again tonight haha.
The view from my room at the 'Rock & Grill'
Ronnie and I on a bicycle taxi to the 'Rock & Grill'
Ronnie with my first Yangshuo lunch of snails
The arch at Moon Hill
Nic climbing on the arch at Moon Hill
Chinese chess
Early in our game of Centurian
Jon, Mattius, Tomaz and Sacha eating pigs penis's on a stick on our night out in Yangshuo
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