AnShun October 2014 (moved from old blog)

 Caves in AnShun Day 2

After getting back to AnShun town and having a speedy shower we went to investigate the food market street we had been told about. It was about half a mile of market stalls selling some of the best food i have had in Southern China. Everything was really cheap so we just bought loads of stuff to try and if it as no good we went and got something else. We found a place that sold ribs and they were amazing. So good in fact that we went back the next day and got some more.

We had an early night and a chilled Tuesday morning before heading out to the Dragon Pool Caves. We used public buses so it took hours but was amazingly cheap. Somehow I ended sitting in the front seat of the mini bus so I had an unobstructed view of the terrifying road with drop we were hurtling down. If we ignore the break neck speed we were travelling at, it was actually beautiful and impressive scenery. 

The Cave itself is in a smaller scenic area with a waterfall and another trail to follow. There were no signs in English or Chinese so we got lost constantly and found no-one but grumpy and unhelpful staff. The trail to the cave took about an hour on which there were several other little scenic attractions as they were called. One area was called "fun with stones" which was most certainly a lie. there were stones but there was nothing fun at all about them. 

We jumped into a little boat to go into the cave and were sped into the middle and back out again all in about 5 minutes. The cave was fairly impressive but not as good as the Internet or the tourist board had made us believe. We headed back to AnShun feeling a little cheated and deflated. 

 Karen had heard of a temple in town that she wanted to see and as we had plenty of time to kill we went in search of it. Many misdirections and wrong buses later we found it and discovered that it was at the end of the food market we had dinner at the previous night. On the bright side that was dinner for the Tuesday sorted. The temple was small and deserted so we sat and watched the sun set and then went and gorged on ribs for the second night running. Our train was supposed to leave at about half nine but was delayed a few hours. By the time it turned up we were both freezing and shattered and very eager to get to bed. Unfortunately the train had started in Shanghai 30 hours previously so it was in a disgusting state. No bathrooms were working, there was rubbish and half eaten food everywhere not to mention smoking people in the beds. Thankfully we were only on the train for 8 hours so it could have been a lot worse. 
It was a speedy trip but definitely worth seeing.