tattoos and limestone karsts

im afraid that my Mount Kailash blog will have to come in a couple of weeks, because as usual i forgot to sort it out before i left, and i left my notebook with it in on BiRT!
Lhasa was a lovely city, very relaxed and nicely touristy. more to come in the other blog.
i got a tattoo while i was in Lhasa. some of the other guys wanted to get one, and having wanted one for a long time, i thought i would go with them to get ideas, but not to get one! the tattoo artist didnt seem amazing so i left it and went off shopping to the barhkor. at 7 in the evening, i bumped into Hannah's mum who told me she had found a really nice tattoo parlor where Danny was getting a tattoo done at that minute. so i went along to talk to the girl for ideas of a design, and she was an amazing artist who ended up spending over 2 hours designing me a tattoo based on chinese art that all related to nature, and she altered it so it had mountains in. i was very fussy but she was also a perfectionist! i was so pleased with it that i had to get it done! its on my leg, just above my ankle. ill put up a photo of it soon. what a great souvineer from T!bet!
I am now in Yangshuo after buying a flight from Lhasa, first to chonqing (not sure if spelling is right), then another flight to Guillin, then a bus to the centre of the town and a further bus to Yangshuo! the trip went quite smoothly- we almost missed our second flight becasue the first was delayed and we had to recheck our luggage in. we just managed to in time, then the second flight was a bit delayed! i have gone ahead of the truck and will join them later, either in Chengdu, or just wait until they reach Yangshuo in just over 2 weeks time. Veronica, Jill, Sebastian and Gareth came with me.
we got a shock when we arrived in Yangshuo- expecting a nice relaxed touristy town, we found a big busy city full of Chinese tourists and crowds. but we searched out the couple of climbing centres that exist right in the middle of the caos! 'Ch!naclimb' is a centre that organises sessions for groups all over Ch!na, and there is a restaurant that is climber freindly called 'Karst Cafe' and also a really small climbing shop called 'Spiderman Climbing'. we found the guys at Ch!naclimb could give us some advice on places to climb and how to get to the crags. we are staying in a youth hostel which is actually pretty nice, even though its on a street with lots of shops full of girls- a bit bizarre!
the limestone karsts are amazing. its about a 15 min taxi ride to the crags, where you are surrounded by karsts as far as you can see, (which isnt really that far becasue of the humid haze!). most are covered with trees and greenery, but some have huge rock faces exposed. this means all the climbing is overhanging becasue it is the areas that cant grow trees that are exposed! so far i have found the climbing hard- i am really out of shape, physically and mentally, and it doesnt help that thuggy overhanging climbing is not really my style! im ashamed to say i have been getting pumped on 5's and failing on 6b's. im hoping my strength and confidence will make a fast reappearance as it is very frustrating at the moment. as i potentially have 5 weeks here, im sure its just a matter of time! the rock is generally very sharp and mottled, some areas have tufas (i tried my first tufa climb today- very strange! and this huge tufa sounded hollow inside!), and some areas are getting polished, especially footholds. but the routes so far have been really nice, with good variety. we have already checked out 5 crags, as it works well to go to one which is in the shade in the morning, then as the sun comes round, move to a different one in the shade in the afternoon. its imposible to climb in the sun as it is so hot and SO humid, that drinking enough water in the shade is almost impossible!
a couple of days ago, it was Sebe's birthday so we went out for a western meal at Karst cafe and had awesome pizza and lasagne. we are now back to cheap chinese noodles and rice and veg, which we have found extra cheap at a restaurant nearby.
Zamora, Shaggy and Ed got the train to Yangshuo which took about 3 days, so they should be arriving tonight.

tattoos and limestone karsts

Yangshuo, China