Seeing Shapes

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I went to Guilin from YangShuo on Monday, planning to take an 18-hr Tuesday night sleeper to Kunming, from where I would take a 4 hr bus to Dali in the Yunnan Province.

Soon after arriving in Guilin, I regretted my plan to spend almost 2 whole days there. I kept busy the first day, meeting a Chinese girl in my hostel who wanted to see Elephant Trunk Hill with me. After that, we walked through Seven Stars Park to see the crazily-lit caves. It's like a huge spectacle, and not actual nature (though it's fun... almost like seeing shadow puppets and guessing what they represent!).

Tuesday was just bad weather, so I indulged in two ice cream cones from KFC and wandered about town, only to find that the only food they have is Guilin MiFen. Every corner. And not just the corners... almost every third shop. The noodles may be famous, but a little variety wouldn't hurt anyone!

Disaster struck when I got in a cab to the train station - it started pouring, and my 10 minute ride turned into 40 minutes... I arrived at the train station at 4:50pm and sprinted to my 4:53pm train... which closed its doors and started moving right as I reached the platform. I was so angry! There's only one train a day to Kunming, so I grabbed my bags and booked a plane flight for that night. No way I was staying in Guilin any longer than I had to!

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Photos

Elephant Trunk Hill
It really doesn't look that much like an elephant.

Bamboo Raft
I took a bamboo raft like this to see various rock formations with very specific names given to abstract shapes...

The Tiger
It only looks vaguely like a tiger because they added an eye. This is why this cave is so silly. It's not about the natural formations and how they occurred, but rather about what shapes they have created. Insert garish backlighting, and you have the Chinese caving experience in a nutshell!

Group of People
Look at the black in this image. Looks like people silhouetted. The tour group actually gasped when the lights were turned on! Hehe.

The Great Wall
Amazing that cave formations can make anything that looks like this one!

Two Pandas
I saw two live pandas (very close up!) but was forbidden from taking pictures. So, I had to capture YangYang and YueYue in this way.

The Chinese Webcafe Experience
They can PACK people in. And every one of them is playing Warcraft.

Comments

[Your brother! The younger one.]

Well, you told me to comment!
These are some fantastic pictures! You made good choices on what to post. And really now, why are you going to KFC? You should get local green tea icecream stuff instead. Yup.