is that a bird, a plane? no its BiRT in Yangshuo!!

yes, thats what i thought when we were sitting in the bus after a good day climbing and 2 climbers get on at the next stop. The guy, called Eban, asks us if we are from Hot Rock, and we reply that yes we are. Oh i met the Hot Rockers when they were here last year, he says, and i saw your truck go past earlier heading to the same bush camp. We looked at him questioningly, becasue no, Hot Rock couldnt possibly be here- they are miles away in Siguniang Shan climbing big walls for 8 days. But Eban is sure he saw BiRT, big red truck with a bouldering wall on the back. well you cant argue with that! so then we started to think, well they had 6 days driving to the climbing then about 3 to Chengdu, so if they missed the climbing and drove straight here, then it has been 10 days since we left them, perhaps it is possible....
when we got back we met Shaggy and Ed who had a rest day and they confirmed our suspicions. they had seen some other Hot Rockers in town. The reason was that Siguniang Shan required a permit that had to be paid 2 months in advance, and in typical Hot Rock style, this had been overlooked, so the consensus on the truck was to just drive strasight to Yangshuo. i didnt envy their 10 days straight of driving, but perhaps i wouldnt have spent the extra money on a flight here just to arrive 10 days early. there were a lot of people not happy with Hot Rock yet again. there are too many unhappy customers at the moment and quite a lot of moaning about Hot Rock amoungst us. im hoping that this half of the trip, as it has all been done before, will be better organised and leave all of us still on the truck pleased with the outcome of the trip.
the one story the guys on the truck did have from their drive was going to watch a sky burial. i think it is such a unique, once-in-a-lifetime thing to see that im quite gelous i missed it, but having said that, im not sure i could have watched! so a sky burial is the most popular burial in Tibet, where a body is brought to a holy area and a skilled man makes cuts in the body. the vultures then fly in and eat the body, leaving sinue and bones. the man then grinds the bone with sugar and something else so they are more appitising and the birds come back to eat this. nothing then remains. it sounds quite grusome, but apparently the family of the old woman whose burial it was, were very relaxed, chatting and smoking, rather than the grief you would expect. earleir, they had had 300 monks chant prayers for the old woman and that is when her soul left her body, so they then looked at her body as just esentially meat- it was no longer her. apparently, the quicker the body is eaten by the vultures, the better life the woman had had on earth. the guys saw everything, from the woman being caried from the car boot naked and rapped in plastic, to being cut up, and the vultures.
the other hot rockers camped for the first couple of nights- when it was raining- we didnt envy them! but when a couple of them thought it was worth paying extra to stay in our hostel, everyone moved here. so we are together as a group again, but still climbing as the 2 groups we became. its a slightly strange feeling of us and them, but as the newbies arrive in 5 days, and a coulpe of people leave, im sure everything will change and we will become a group again.
Jill left yesterday to Chengdu, then home, so we went and had a nice meal of burgers and chips in one of the western restaurants- it was really good, and banana cake with chocolate syrup and ice cream for desert. i thought i was spending way too much compared to normal, then thought about the fact i had had a 2 course meal and drink for 4 pound 50! im going to have such a shock with English prices when i go home!
the weather has cooled a little, with rain over the last few days and finally the fog/mist/smog (dont really know what it is) has cleared and you can see beyond the first couple of karsts. the landscape looks much more beautiful now, with the lush green vibrant against the blue sky. i hope it continues like this. i may bike upto Moon Hill, which is a karst that has a perfect hole forming an arch. its a tourist attraction but there is also hard climbing on it, and you can walk easily to the top, getting a great view of the area.
Maria has joined our group climbing recently, and she is an Argentinan who is staying in Yangshuo for a coulpe of months, and has got a job at an English school for 2 hours a day, which gives her free accomodation and food.
rest day today, as i did 2 routes yesterday and was exhausted! even climbing 2 days on, one day off seems to be too much at the moment!

is that a bird, a plane? no its BiRT in Yangshuo!!

Yangshuo, China