Up for a bike ride at 8am. Am assured that it is flat and easy going and all on bitumen. Bike has gears and good breaks but the seat looks a bit uncomfortable. The bike ride starts well but soon the heat and humidity gets to me and I am sweating +++. We have regular stops for photos which provides some relief. We have a local guide called Chelle who leads us through paddy fields. We stopped at an old town from the Ming dynasty that was cool and damp and still had people living in it though the roofs were a bit scarce. I found it hard work and then Andrew said 'you have a flat tyre'!!!! No wonder I am sweating so much. Changed bikes. The views were spectacular and I loved looking at the hills, just so unusual. I think it was probably 30-32 degrees and about 80% humidity and no breeze. We had lunch at Moon Hill. Has a dodgy cheese and tomato sandwich which had bread like toast. Then another 8km back to the hostel. All up we did at least 30km. Have a major sore bottom and glad to get off the bike. Decided that I would get the hostel laundry slave to do the washing as all my sweaty clothes wont dry in the room and will stink out my backpack.
At night we went and watched cormorant fishing. The boat was an old clunker with no lights of navigation lights but somehow they found an old man on a bamboo raft with his 8 or so birds on board. The birds have string around their throats and catch small pilchards type fish. It would be hard to make a living. We were on the river for about an hour. Afterward had sweet and sour pork at the hostel restaurant and in bed by about 11pm.
