In the morning the group split up to do a few different activities. By split up I mean everyone else went to try Tai Chi while I went to try Kung Fu. I'm pretty sure I made the right choice.
Most of the moves I was familiar with from karate (except for the Dragon stance which no amount of explanation will make less silly) with the major difference being the reasoning behind the moves. In karate they are explained as being how your body works best to generate power while in kung fu it is the same but with a lot of Yin and Yang being mentioned. What it boils down to is that kung fu uses soft and hard movements so you can use it all your life while martial arts like Muay Thai are not of much use to older people as they rely only on the hard moves. It was interesting enough that I may look into it again at some point.
After a hurried return to the hotel and a quick shower we were then off to the rice terraces.
The brief trek up to our guest house for the night was pleasant and ,as it was at the top of one of the hills, the view was excellent. While we waited for dinner we unleashed the glory of balloons upon the unsuspecting children who lived here and watched them mess around with them. The smallest boy was remarkably adept at bursting them with his entire body weight and landing flat on his face to no apparent detriment. We ran out of balloons quickly with him there.
The best meal I've had in ages was the dinner here, although that may have been partly due to the White Russians I taught them to make. They had the components...
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