Sports Day in Shanghai

Today, William and Oliver participated in their first sports day. In actual fact it turned out to be sports hour!  Parents were invited along to take part.  Sam had the day off work, all geared up to race the other dads until we discoved that it was a non-competative sports day!  Well, unless you had a brother also taking part!

Out on the back field 11 activites had been set up. 

Pupils and their parents completed each activity according to the rules, collected a stamp and moved on.  If you managed to complete all 11 you were allowed to pick your favourite to go back to. 

It was great fun and Oliver and William enjoyed completing activities such as hula hoop, space hoppers, sprints and the obstacle course. 

 

As we travelled around each activity one highlight was collecting the stamps!

The obstacle course proved a favourite and was completed twice.  The second time with another set of identical twins!

Sports day was a huge hit with all four of the Hawkridges but in particular with us as it obviously wore William and Oliver out - they were in bed and fast asleep by 7:10 tonight!

It's a kind of magic...

On Friday morning at breakfast Oliver announced that he wanted to get in the Magic Book for the week.  I explained that if he tried his best he might.  When I picked him and William up from school he came rushing up to tell me he'd got it!  It was my second very emotional moment since they started school!

I told his teacher what he had said at breakfast and she told me that when she said it was time to go to the hall for Magic Book he said 'wouldn't it be funny if it was me and Hunter'.  And it was, Oliver clearly has magical powers!

Oliver got his certificate for 'always being so happy at school' and having a 'lovely smiley face'!

I asked Oliver what he'd like his treat to be and he requested a trip to Costa for a chocolate twist, a child after my own heart!

"You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft" - not in China!

On the final day of our holiday the weather was still a bit overcast but dry enough for us to go bamboo rafting.  A taxi was called to take us to the river despite the fact that it was very walkable.  When our taxi turned up it was one man on a moped!  We began to walk with him alongside until he decided that he would take us in two lots.  Sam and William jumped on and sped off whilst Oliver and I kept walking.  We got to within 200 yards of the river when the 'taxi' reappeared and insisted upon Oliver and jumped on!

It was very busy at the river and old women constantly tried to sell us waterproof ponchoes and plastic water cannons to fire at each other!  We declined both.

Eventually we were off on our rafts.  They were different to the rafts we had in Thailand in that they had seats!  Although within a few minutes we all had numb bottoms as they were not the most comfortable!

We got up a pretty good speed and soon came to the first 'waterfall'! 

William and Oliver enjoyed going down it.  No sooner had we than we pulled over at a raft island where there were computers and laminaters whiring away!  We bought a couple of photos.

We had thought that it would be a peaceful morning on the river but there were alot of rafts and a lot of people squirting their water cannons!  Also our drivers kept trying to stop at one of the floating 'restaurants' so we could have some fish.  However, despite the river traffic it was great fun and the scenery was fantastic.  We will highly recommend this part of China to friends and relatives and plan to return ourselves.

A rainy day

On our fouth day it literally rained all night and for most of the day in to the early afternoon!  We spent the morning at the Giggling Tree playing games and watching a dvd.  As the rain eased we decided to go in to Yangshou town itself to see the famous market and to buy some souvenirs. 

We got dropped at one end of the town and began to walk through to the market.  On the way we saw a delighful hotel which we wished we had picked to stay at!

It took longer than we expected to find the market and we kept wondering if we'd missed it.  As we rounded the corner before it though there was no missing it!

William and Oliver chose themselves a delightful man on a bamboo raft each to take in to school for show and tell.  Sam and I got some chopsticks and I bought a beautiful, locally made scarf.  Sam and I got the chance to try out our Chinese while bargaining - although I nearly opened with an offer of £10 rather than £1!

Four go biking and hiking in Yangshou!

On our third day in Yangshou we decided to hire bikes and head to Moon Hill, an aptly named hill with a crescent moon shaped hole in the top. Oliver and William were keen to climb a mountain to the moon!

Our hostel had a collection of about 50 bikes to choose from, after much deliberation we decided to go for ones with child seats rather than child bikes on the back. Oliver managed to squeeze in to the plastic seat on the back of my bike, William had rather more room in the wicker chair strapped with plastic ties to the back of Sam's!




We set off down the dirt track from our guest house and as soon as we hit the tarmac road we realised we had made the right decision over the seats as soon as the first truck loaded with bamboo rafts steamed by blaring it's horn! Luckily a man from our hostel pointed out a quieter route and soon we were cycling on a path through pretty much deserted villages.

We cycled for about 40 minutes before we linked up with the main road again. Here we weaved in and out of other cyclists, pedestrians, coaches and street stalls!

We never would have ridden such bikes, without helmets in such circumstances at home. In fact, we would never have ridden bikes on that road but, strangely, it did feel safe as everyone was doing it!

We eventually reached Moon Hill, locked up our bikes and set off up the 'mountain'. After about 20 minutes we came to a fork in the path and ended up taking a slight detour!

We decided to stop and have our picnic before attempting the summit of what the boys were now calling 'the biggest mountain in the world'.

The climb to the top was a steep 800 steps which were hard going at times. It was worth it for the views and to meet the amazing 70 year old woman who climbs it twice a day with a cool box of cans and bottles.

Other 'sights' were various women who felt that high heeled shoes were suitable attire for climbing a hill ((What would Wainwright think Dad?!).


After looking at the view and having a drink and some snacks we descended. It was almost harder on the legs than the assent. We suggested that William and Oliver might like to ride the bikes home and were told thar they were too tired! No such get out for us!

On the way back we stopped by the river for more snacks and watched several couples having wedding pictures. At first we thought it was for a magazine but after chatting we discovered that 19 couples had married the day before and had been bused in for their wedding photos.

We made it back along the road to our hostel and refreshed with a cold beer, a very satisfactory holiday
habit!

Mud, mud, glorious mud!

Following a hearty Chinese English breakfast (chicken sausages as standard!) we decided to head off to the Buddha Caves with their promise of mud baths, much to William and Oliver's delight.

Our taxi took us to the caves 'office', a shack by the side of a quiet country road, where we purchased our tickets and had to wait for the official caves minibus. Eventually, a ramshackle van with very uncomfortable seats arrived and took us all of 200, very bumpy, yards up a very walkable dirt track!

After lots of faffing while we donned our official cave flip-flops and waited for our tour guide we finally set off. The caves were spectacular and our guide showed us various animal formations and one called mother's love which looked more like the inside of the Daily Sport!

We eventually came to the mud pools. The guide gleefully told us that the 'weather conditions in the mud were absolutely freezing'! He also told us we'd have the 'best fun' if we abided by the rules. Unfortunately, we never found out what they were!

Needless to say we didn't spend long there but quickly moved on to the hot springs.

We also discovered that wherever you are in China, you can always access the Internet!

After dressing we exited and were offered a return trip down the dirt track but decided instead to walk and take in the scenery.

As we approached the 'b road', to meet our taxi, we discovered it had turned in to a four lane motorway. We never thought it possible but our return journey made us long for Shanghai driving! Apparently it is fine to overtake on a blind bend as long as you hoot your horn!!  On returning to the Giggling Tree, we also discovered that the small lane had also got rather busy!

The Giggling Tree

The 1st October was auspicious in China this year for two reasons. Firstly, it marks the start of the celebrations commemorating the founding of the People's Republic of China. Secondly it marked the Hawkridge Family's first foray in to deepest, darkest China.

Our trip began with an early start of 530. We managed to check in fairly quickly despite half the population of Shanghai also being at the airport! We had a leisurely breakfast and wandered to our gate half an hour before our flight was due to leave.

We were greeted by an official in a bit of a panic. It transpired that we'd been put on an earlier flight and were the last to board! To make matters worse we had to squabble over our seats with a family who had already taken what they thought were spare seats.

Because of our earlier flight time there was no one to meet us at Guilian airport and the holiday wasn't feeling such a good idea, especially as we'd all been up since 530! Fortunately our taxi driver appeared in the nick of time. The drive to Yangshou was spectacular and it was lovely to see so much greenery! William and Oliver were pleased to spot lots of water buffalo! Also reassuring to us was the fact that the driving style doesn't change where ever you are!

The Giggling Tree was everything we had hoped.  Our room was lovely and the mozzie nets went down well with two of the Hawkridges!

 We had a fantastic lunch followed by a walk to the river.

We fed the boys and bathed them and put them to bed.  Our room was on the ground floor and opened on to the courtyard which meant we could sit outside and enjoy a cold beer!  A good start to the hols!