China - The Adventure Taxi

Throwing down the last of our seemingly useless guide books after a heated debate as to how to begin the next stage of our trip, The Boy frowned as I trotted out one of my standard lines "Lets just leave it for now, the answer will come to us". I know, not exactly the moving words of wisdom one might expect from a wise old Spoon, but believe it or not I have faith in these situations. So there we were staring at the overwhelming heap of maps and books, deep within the all consuming cloud of post cycle blues when three weary travellers plonked themselves heavily onto the adjacent seats and began discussing their drive from the Mongolian border. Bored of our own travels, and eager to hear of others adventures The Boy wasted no time in jumping into the seat next to them, introducing himself and cracking open a beer.

Thus began our travels on The Adventure Taxi, a converted six seater bus preloved by day tripping pensioners, now revamped, spray painted and being driven all the way from London to Bangkok by Aussie friends Tash and Jules and an array of travellers at different stages throughout the journey, currently all American Aaron fresh out of college and their genuinely miniscule Chinese guide Louis.

We joined the merry band in Xi'an filling every available space in the bus with bikes and bags and were kindly whizzed to Guilin in time to renew our Visas in just three days, stopping only to see the monumentally unspectacular Three Gorges Dam which deserves not a single word more, and of course to sleep! Our days were filled with beautiful scenery, dodgy service station cafes, endless monopoly games (of which I'd like to think I was the reigning champion, though others may disagree) and snoozing on the hand crafted bunk beds.

With our visas safely at the Embassy in Guilin we left the bus in favour of our bikes and cycled the picturesque 70kms to Yangshuo past fields of purple, gold and green with the spectacular karst mountains jutting into the skyline. Okay so Yangshuo itself was everything they promised – tourist central, China's answer to Ibiza without the sun, sea and sand, but none the less after our months in the wilderness, we loved it. Surrounded by fantastic scenery we spent the time making the most of the western comforts, friendly hostels and multitude of activities on offer, the favourite being an incredible day paddling down the tranquil, undisturbed Li river surrounded by towering cliffs, water buffalo, and fishermen gliding silently past on their traditional bamboo rafts.

With the days full of cycling, canoeing, and cooking we met a host of other travellers from all walks of life, which of course meant the evenings were full of socialising. I say socialising, I mean re-living our sixteen year old days of random booze fuelled nights, always planning on one quick drink and wandering home in the early hours!

One evening after yet another failed attempt at Beer Pong we found ourselves playing the drinking game "I Have Never" (you know the one where you state something you've never done, and everyone who has done it drinks) with a group of 20 or more fellow hostellers, when one guy announced "I have never turned 21". Horrified, I took a deep slug of my beer whilst scanning the circle of players to see only three other glasses out of the entire table raise. In that moment we realised we were probably ten years too late for this party, and the open road was once again calling.

Without a second thought we were back on the bikes retracing our steps to Guilin to collect our passports, and returning a very tiring 140kms later the following morning to jump back on The Adventure Taxi, which after the boys recruitment drive the previous night was full to the brim with the grand total to nine sweaty travellers all making our way to the sunshine in Laos!