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Published: April 16th 2008
Guilin is a small city of about 670,000 people and pretty much seems to be shrouded in a constant gray fog/cloud which makes it very humid. Walking around, everything is wet, even when it hasn't been raining, and I don't just mean outside. As we were looking at hotels to find a place to stay, we slipped and slid around the lobbies and hallways. We found a place to stay that was reasonable, despite the persistent dampness of everything. We planned to stay here a couple nights and use it as a staging ground for visting the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces which are about an hour and a half away.
Our first day here we scoped out the towns shopping and eating options, and ended up finding a cheaper, nicer place to stay for our second night which was closer to the action.
On the 7th we took a bus to Longsheng which ended up taking a bit longer than we had expected, but it was a really pretty drive. When we arrived at the bus station in Longsheng, we luckily were greeted by a driver of a shuttle to the rice terraces and for about $1 were able
to hop a ride there after getting a quick bite of lunch from a food stall. We had limited time at the terraces becuase we didn't realize it was another hour to Ping An, the village where they dropped us off to explore the terraces.
It was absolutely beautiful and stunning scenery and we wished we had planned on staying the night. The village is on a very steep hillside covered in rice terraces. We walked many of the pathways throughout the town and terraces where we were solicited by the locals for everything under the sun, merchandise and photos. It made us wonder who was tending the fields? One of the tribes in this area are known for the "Long Hair Women" who have really really long hair twisted up on their heads like turbans...there's even a "long hair demonstration" that you can pay to see which I think involves watching them take their hair down and wash it and put it back up. This didn't really sound that appealing so we skipped that but on our way up through the village, one of these long hair ladies asked if we were going to the viewpoint and we
said we were; she said she was heading that way and would walk with us. Before we knew it we had 5 ladies leading us up the pathway. We were a little suspicious but so far they hadn't asked for money so it seemed okay just to be walking with them. Then about halfway up at a scenic spot they stopped and kept suggesting we take a picture of them with their long hair. Knowing this would probably involve paying them, we tried to politely turn them down but they persisted. They were blocking our path, so we had no choice but to shoot them. So we shot some pictures of them as they let their hair down and put it back up. We tried to play dumb but it didn't work, their hands were out and they were asking for money very quickly. So we forked over the dough, and of course it was divisible by 5, but they wanted more and refused initially to take what we were offering. So we kept going and they tried to act like they were our tour guides. Through some tricky maneuvering which our long western legs allowed, we finally were able
to get past them (after paying them of course) and continue on our own. I think they would have chased us down again us if they hadn't found another large group to swindle. This seems to be lucrative business, I was thinking about growing my hair out and hanging out at flat top to make some extra dough until i get a job!
Anyway after we lost the hairy ladies the rest of the walk was great and at the next viewpoint we were sitting enjoying the view (and eating our daily ice cream) when a group of loud chinese tourists very excitedly sat down around us and proceeded to take pictures of us with them, something that is starting to become a common occurance here! I asked for money but no body responded, I think because my chinese is terrible. I'm pretty sure they would have given me a lot of money if I spoke a little better chinese. So after walking all the trails we had just enough time to head down to the village and back to the last shuttle back to Longsheng. Once there, we literally got the last two seats on the bus leaving
for Guilin in 2 minutes, so timing worked out just right.
Back in Guilin, we walked around and checked out the night market and had some dinner. While Guilin is not a very attractive city, it does have a really nice park that is all lit up with colored lights along the river at night. We also listened to a very talented one man acoustic guitar show on the street corner that drew a crowd of 50 or more people, by far the best and most profitable street gig we have seen yet. We were ready to buy a CD but he didn't have any, but i'm sure this guy will rise to the top.
Today we got up late and hit the golden arches for brunch, then did a little shopping before packing up and catching a bus to Yangshuo.
"Naughty Baby" (A funny shopping story): Cara's sister is expecting a baby any day now and so she has been scoping out some baby gifts. She stopped at one place to admire a cute little onesy with little animals all over it. However, she realized upon closer inspection that printed on this cute baby outfit were
the words (under each little pair of animals in small print) "the baby is very naughty" and "Want to f@#ck"!!! No, I'm not kidding, so if you buy baby clothes made in China, be sure they aren't the naughty kind!
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