Showing posts with label Yangshou. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yangshou. Show all posts

What a dumpling!

01:45 Unknown
yangshoucookingschool.com was today's adventure.

With rabits, dogs, frogs & a managerie of other live animals you would be forgiven for thinking that we had arrived at the local pet shop but in fact this is the market and it's the first stop to pick up the ingrediants for the days cooking course. Thankfully dog was not on today's menu, in fact it is:

Egg Dumplings
Steamed Chicken with mushrooms
Egg plant (Yangshou style)
Stir fried pork in oyster source
Garlic green vegetables

In a farm house amidst the mountains we got stuck in to the lessons, eating each course alfresco with the other 7 students.
Egg dumplings with pork, mint and chilli filling was a revelation to our taste buds and will deffinately be number 41 on the menu at kathy's cafe on our return.



Later that night a few of our fellow culinary course mates met up at monkey janes for a beer or three and we eventually collapsed into bed at 2.30 am (not all of us together you understand). It was a great way to end our last day and night in china and are leaving with some amazing memories after what now appears to be a too brief visit.
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Addopted

00:08 Unknown
Wow, wow and thrice wow!

Yesterday was great, the map was vaguely useful and we made it back to Yangshou safely after 20 odd miles on the bicyles. So it is with new found confidence we head out to 'Dragon Bridge' which is somewhere up the Yu Long river.
Having given up on the map and just at the point of being hopelessly off course (OK 'lost') cycling through various hamlets we are adopted by a Chinese lady who takes it upon herself to guide us the rest of the way.

Through ever more remote villages and weaving our way through paddy fields I wonder if we are being taken home as a present for grandad! (I'm sure we passed Ray Meers at one point). 90 minutes later we pop out at the 'bridge' where coincidently our new foster parent has a bamboo raft waiting to take us back down river. This is win/win as it was just what we are wanting, so all aboard for a serene ride back. And what a ride, spectacular, beautiful, awe inspiring.
It is just non stop, and thanks to the winding cross country single track to get us here, we are sharing the river with the odd fishermen and our raft poler (there is probably a Chinese word for gondalier- gondarier(?) erm maybe that's a disease!).

Er where was I, oh yes floating down the Yu Long on a bamboo raft amongst amazing Karst mountains. It's only in the last 5 minutes that we come across more tourists all Chinese and all who feel the need to wave, shout 'hello, where you from' and take our photograph.
With a last push over a particularly high weir, we are soaked, photopraphed again and dropped off on the riverbank, bikes an' all to make our way to the hotel.






All in all a pretty amazing day!
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Yangshou, bless you!

10:48 Unknown
At last we hit rural China and it is well and truly on the backpacker route. The countryside is stunning and there are loads of activities to do, so given that we have been upgraded to a beautiful suite (for£28/night) I think we will be staying here a little longer.




In fact we have no choice, as yet we have not figured out how to get out of China!!

I got up early for a spot of dawn photography, it really is not too hard to get some great shots here given the scenery!





And now we have just had a full English and we are off to find bike hire for a day in the saddle.

And finaly, is this the most exotic Macdonalds in the world?


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