Another day another overnight train, this time from Guangzhou to Guilin on Saturday night. I was pretty tired when it finally came to getting on the train I was quite relieved to find that it wasn’t too busy. Even better was the fact that the people in my sleeper compartment had no desire to communicate in either English or Chinese which meant I could relax with my book. The train left around dinner time and as I left Guangzhou I felt a bit of regret that I hadn’t taken the opportunity to sample any of it’s famous cuisine. Instead I was [View Full Entry]

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Sunday 2nd March So we arrived in Guilin delighted to have the air hostess inform us that it is 17deg C! warmth at last!! And it was! so we got ourselves out of the airport where there was only one option to get into town, an airport bus which was 20Y (2euro)...pretty expensive in china terms! So we got on a crappy minibus and sat there for about 20mins waiting to go until they moved us to a bigger coach where we sat for another 30 or 40mins at which stage we were at boiling point!! Finally we moved and [View Full Entry]

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Guilin's Elephant Trunk Hill Park This weekend, the weather was so nice, that my wife and I went to Guilin's Elephant Hill Park for a stroll. This park is not only the symbol of the city, but also a really beautiful place to get a way for a bit. Elephant Trunk Hill Park is located on the Li River. The entrance to the park is very beautiful, it features many small bamboo groves, and traditional buildings. There is a little stream there that can be crossed by a traditional Chinese bridge. The entire park is elephant themed. The little paths that [View Full Entry]

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Just the bare minimum of explaination for this entry: The cities of Guilin and Yangshuo were definitely the highlight of the trip in terms of scenery and cultural spots, but unfortunately it was also the worst weather of the voyage. For Chinese standards Guilin is a very small city, but nonetheless very famous for its interesting topography and parks. Located in the northeast corner of Guangxi Province, this part of China is speckled with incredibly beautiful sedimentary spires almost everywhere you look. Even smaller than Guilin, the city of Yangshuo lies an hour and a half south and bo [View Full Entry]

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Our next stop was back into normal China again. We reentred China via Hong Kong and Shenzhen , where there were possibly the busiest customs we've ever seen. Once through the checkpoint we visited the public toilets, and by golly knew we were back in China now. Our next destination was Guilin, quite a way across the country, and we'd decided to make the journey by sleeper train. We booked cushy soft seats, which got us bunks with tassles on and our own kettle to use. We travelled through the night and got off the train just after dawn. We definately [View Full Entry]

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We left Xi'an and headed to Shanghai to ring in the new year. Shanghai is, no doubt, the lively, interesting, dynamic town it's cracked up to be, but Chris and I kind of missed it all. Shanghai is so dynamic that in order to find the hot spots, you have to check the local English language magazines which can only be found at hot spots. So we hit the waterfront instead to await a fireworks show that never happened. We were told that because of the terrible snow storms that crippled the country, official fireworks shows were canceled. Even the skyline [View Full Entry]

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We're safe, despite the crippling snow-sleet-storm that is blanketing the rest of China. After our arrival in Guilin, we stayed at a hotel that provided a barely working absurdly located heater. We then moved the next day to a fairly nice hotel with another abysmal in-room heater. Then, the power was cut off! SO we thought we could tough it out, but after it got dark, we were freezing! I was under 2 comforters, in all my clothes, with a huge coat on and still cold! We moved hotels yet again and that's just when Alex's head cold started kicking in. [View Full Entry]

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So, I can finally cross something off my "100 things to do before I die" list. That would be good old # 17, "Watch Sunrise over Angkor Wat". We hired a guide that came highly recommended , and I think it was worth every cent. Or thousands of cents. ( Brief note: imagine my surprise when the ATM in Phnom Penh spit out American dollars. I'm also glad I realized this before withdrawing an ungodly amount of money, thinking it was measured in Cambodian Riel! 4000 Riel= 1$) Our guide turned out to be a guy around our age named Kongkea. [View Full Entry]

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We arrived here from Yangshuo and it really was a lovely city in China. It is really green and doesn't feel as polluted as the rest of China's cities. There are lots of lakes, peaks, walks and parks. We spent the first night at the theatre watching a production with amazing acrobatics, dancing, ballet, gymnastics and changing faces. The next night Chris felt sick so went home early, I followed soon after eating dinner and went to sleep thinking I had got away with whatever Chris had... but woke up to be voiolently sick.... so we were both stranded in our [View Full Entry]

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As we approached Guilin rock formations mushroomed out of the land. We saw an even stranger sight, Chinese cyclists wearing helmets! Two days later, riding next to the famous Li jiang river, we met an American and a Chinese English teacher, also riding bicycles. They were a little concerned that we were taking the back road to Xingping, as we had not had lunch. Apparently there was nowhere on route to get food. So Bob (the English teacher) approached a shop owner at the small village just before the turn off and asked him if we could cook at his place! [View Full Entry]

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