Longji Rice Fields Oct 29 - 31

Getting to the rice fields was more than just a little difficult. We had to take multiple buses and nobody was being very clear about anything. The locals on all the buses were very nice and tried to help us as best they could. I sat next to one guy who owned a hotel in Ping'an, the biggest of the towns in the rice fields. He was very nice and his English was not bad so he helped us know when to get off and wait for the next bus. Finally we made it to Dazhai. Ruth and Pete's hotel was located here so we said good night to them before hiking another 40 minutes with our big bags through the rice fields to the small town where our hotel was located - Tíantouzhai. After checking in we decided to find a place for dinner in town which became almost completely dead at night. We found a small restaurant/hotel combo that has other customers and decided to stop there. We enjoyed local specialities like bamboo rice (rice and bits of veggies and bacon cooked in a piece of bamboo over a fire) and beer duck which was duck with a nice beer gravy and potatoes.

On the 30th we hiked through the rice fields for 4 hours to Ping'an in the South. It was interesting to hike through the fields as much of the rice had already been cut and was laying out to dry. We out to Ping'an and met up with Ruth and Pete on the trail as they had taken a bus to Ping'an with the intention to walk back to Dazhai. We then headed into the village while they started the hike back. We didn't want to stay a long time in Ping'an but we still made a quick stop to see the friendly local that I met on the bus the day before at his hotel/restaurant. We had a drink with him and chatted about life in the rice field villages.

We had planned to take the bus back to Dazhai but it wasn't going to leave for 30 minutes so instead we decided to try hitchhiking. The first car heading down the mountain stopped for us for a small fee which we offered to pay before they even asked (as long as it was cheaper than the bus). We got out at a fork in the road where we needed to head north and the car was continuing south. Many cars passed us before one decided to stop for us. It was a car with 3 Chinese girls heading up to Dazhai for just a night. They refused any payment for the ride and gave us water too. We communicated with Google translate and in the end they offered to drive us to Nanning (where they were from) the next day when they left. We gladly accepted as we hadn't planned how we would get there yet. We couldn't believe our luck! We ate dinner with Ruth and Pete at their hotel in Dazhai that night as it was the last time we would see them. They were heading towards Hong Kong and we were headed South to Vietnam. We truly enjoyed traveling China with them!