Guilin/Hong Kong/Bangkok (Day 15 - 24)

---

Day 15

We arrived in Guilin at around 5.30pm so the journey only took us 24.5 hours in the end!! The train was older than the previous one we'd been on and there was no air conditioning and although it was fairly cool with a small fan and all the windows open, every time the train stopped (which was throughout the journey) it was absolutely sweltering!! Despite the long journey, the scenery was lovely and we managed to get our first glimpse of blue sky in China!!!!

We got to our hostel which was only about a ten minute walk away where we were very pleased to find a nice room although we had booked a twin room for around 120 RMB but when we got there they said they only had the best room available which cost 220!! After a much needed shower we decided to have dinner in a restaurant almost next to the hostel - a bit of a struggle as the menu was not in English and Brett had forgotten the phrase book although we managed to find a couple of dishes which were nice. We had a walk around in the evening and then had an early night.

Day 16

We only had the day in Guilin as our train for Guangzhou left that evening so we decided to have a look at some of the sights close by. We got a taxi to the Solitary Beauty Peak and then walked along the river to Elephant Trunk Hill. They were both really nice and the scenery was lovely - it's a shame we didn't have more time here as there are some lovely things to see and do. After an early and spicy dinner (which wasn't Mandy's cup of tea) we got yet another train to Guangzhou - this time only a 12 hour journey.

Day 17

We arrived in Guangzhou just after 6am and despite expecting it to be difficult to get our train to Hong Kong it was really easy. We arrived in Hong Kong around lunchtime and our hostel was just outside a metro station in the city centre. The hostel wasn't quite like the others we had stayed in - it was a box room with the shower above the toilet, no common room and miserable staff. Despite being the most expensive hostel we had stayed in, it was apparently cheap for Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is alot more westernised than China and we could immediately tell that it would be much easier to get around, etc - especially given that all of the roads have English names like Nathan Road. We spent the day exploring and went to the well known, Temple Street which is full of market stalls.

---