WARNING: THERE ARE SOME GORY IMAGES COMING UP!

Day 2

Dog meat, cooking and snake blood shots.

Eight of us went on the morning cooking course with “Cloud 9” beginning in the food market to get the ingredients. There were loads of interesting ‘foods’ like frogs, cats and dogs. They even hung the dead animals above the live ones which were about to be slaughtered which was heartbreaking.

On a brighter note… The cooking course was great fun- we learnt three recipes: Pork dumplings, Gong Bao Chicken and Braised Aubergine with garlic and chilli paste. (I’ll put the recipes at the end)

In the afternoon, we went on a bike ride through the most beautiful landscape which I can only compare with the Hallelujah (sky) Mountains in Avatar.

The bike ride took us “bamboo rafting” down the river. I use the term ‘rafting’ loosely here as it was more like a bamboo, Chinese gondola ride down a river with weirs everywhere. Going over these weirs in a rigid bamboo raft was nerve-racking to say the least.

In the evening, we went to the rooftop bar at Monkey Jane’s hostel which was GREAT fun. One of the girls on the trip, Vicky was super competitive so we made a top quality beer pong two-some. We challenged the land lady who, being Chinese, had quite a low alcohol tolerance. We won that game then she challenged us (which means she buys the beer) and we won again. This happened a fair few times-the more drunk we got, the better our aim and the cheaper our night!
 

After many drinks, we noticed this sign:

One of the Swedish guys asked for a ‘snake blood shot’ and we were all gob-smacked when the land-lady brought out a small bag and pulled out a very large snake. She was having a whale of a time showcasing this snake. Then, mid-conversation, she chops the snake’s head off and pours a surprisingly small amount of blood into two vodka shots- yummmm (I took a video, to come later). FYI when you decapitate a snake and take the heart out, it continues to beat for several minutes…

Day 3

Mud caves and Moon Hill

Our day began fairly early (8:30), much to my dismay given the painful hangover, kicking off with a hike up 840 steps to the top of Moon Hill which had more stunning views than the bike ride. However, having forgot the hiking park of the itinerary, I only brought flip flops. Combine the flip flops with wet stone and leaves and you get a full-on comedy sketch banana slip style fall down the
hill- wonderful!
 

Next on the itinerary was the Golden Water Caves which were beautiful. Being a Friday they were rammed full of domestic tourists and we very quickly became the attraction in the caves and they were literally lining up to take photos with us!

The next part of the caves were the mud baths which were GREAT fun. It was fairly cold but once you braved up enough to fully submerge, the water was so full of mud that you floated in the top layer of water- how I imagine the Red Sea to feel.

I’ve booked my first month of travelling with The Dragon Tour co which was around £1300 for 25 days with all accommodation, transport and some ‘activities’. They do shorter trips so would definitely recommend for short holidays to cover as much ground as possible hassle free.

Recipes: