I am gonna die right?

We decided to rent scooters in yangshuo. With our new friends Nate, Alex and faith,
And the cheapest price was through Alex and faiths guesthouse,for some electric ones.
We were brought down an alley to see our steeds and show our commanding skills to show our vast experience to the renter lady.
Alex went 1st and wobbled his way round in a circle, I zipped around in complete professionalism beeping my horn,
And Nate well... Darted straight for the side of a house, turned on his feet and came back to a stop,
Impressed with our skills the lady let us go driving on the mental roads of china.

We went in search of a decent swimmable river and also a bit of exploring,
Although soon enough we discovered our map was outrageously not to scale, and a mere imaginative doodle
Of what yangshuo would be like if all the sights and landmasses people and shops all huddled together in harmonious proximity.

Faith, our Chinese speaking girl asked a random. Yangshuoian person of the whereabouts of a river, and off we went.
Zipping down country lanes, across busy intersections, Sinead on the back holding on for dear life.
Soon the roads an paths disappeared and we found ourselves negotiating the ridges between paddy fields. Unfathomable water to the left, muddy wattery paddy field to the right,
On a ridge, of loose rock and dirt 6inches wide beneath,. We made fierce progress into the unknown ducking and diving swerving and reversing, flooring it and lifting it. up and over rocks, down and around twists and bends,

Eventually this hardcore off road paddy adventure took its toll on Doris, nates bike.
She was pronounced dead on the scene. She was completely out of battery and had to me coaxed by hand.
We eventually came to a path, an to charge nates bike we must find a shop of any description and plug it in for a few yuans.
Soon we seen a shop, however it lay directly across a large river and with no bridges around we where f*cked.
Until a couple of locals floated along on their bamboo rafts.
They usherd us to roll the bike down the embankment and onto their raft, sail it across the river and plug it in across the way.
We expressed our concerns about rolling someone else's bike down a hill onto a boat made of sticks, traversing the river, and getting it up the other side, but they were all for it. Even fetching a second bamboo raft to put on the 1st , after some time hesitating, mulling over the pros and cons of this voyage we decided to decline their offer and we carried on soon finding a little tea shop ahead.

We decided to plug all of our chariots in in fear of more Doris's happening.
The charge would take about 2hours, so we walked the river to have a look and see if it's clean enough to swim.

There was a few locals swimming the far side, the water was moving quick enough, we deemed it grand and took a run and jump through the 37degree air into the cool river making sure to clench all orifices mouth nose and whatever else to prevent unauthorised water/ inhabitant entry.

The bikes got a 2hr charge and we set of back to town..about 500m Down the road Doris died again, she did not charge.. And neither did ours,

We rang the lady we rented them off, she said she will come and collect the bike,
What she ment was, she was coming out to tow our bike with her bike with a piece of rope. The canadian afraid of certain death declined on taking part. I mean it is hard enough driving a bike on Chinese roads, nevermind driving a bike that is tied to a Chinese person weaving around the traffic
Alex the English guy took Betty and got towed (and survived)
It was now beginning to get dark,
We had to follow the lady to find our way back to town, and the closer we got we lost her in the 100s of other bikes,
But it wasn't far
Now night, Giant bugs were slapping into my face and eyes as we drove.
With each acceleration the light in front would go out
Any hill brought our bike to a crawl, she was dying too..We just made it back before she died

An awesome day was had by all!
Lessons learned here
get a petrol bike:D

Hmm I think it's this way...

Amazing scenery waiting to be found in Yangshuo!