Blogs from Guilin, Guangxi, China, Asia - page 36

Plane journey to Guilin was just as bad as the one to Shanghai - turbulence all the way so I hated it! Apparently they fly lower on these internal flights so you're more likely to get really bad turnulence but that doesn't make me feel any better to be fair. Landed down OK and found Flowers YH piece of piss so it's all good. Finally got my arse in gear to get a YH discount card and that pretty much paid for itself after only 2 or so nights. I've realised by now that I'm coming down with a cold so need to lay of the cigs for a bit so I don't screw my chest too much (fat chance when I'm on the pop every night!). Next morning me and Ian went on a wander ... read more

Here's how we celebrated our Thanksgiving weekend. We left Saturday morning to go to PingAn, a 600 year old Zhuang minority village about 2 hrs north west of Guilin. It's known for its terraced rice fields and for the women who have the longest hair. They wrap it around their head, but when unwrapped it falls literally to the ground. It is pretty amazing. The village is built on the hillsides where foundations are constructed of 'dry' (no mortar) stacked slate rock. The buildings are all wood construction, a contast to the usual concrete block construction seen everywhere else. Most of the terraced rice fields had all been harvested and were awaiting planting in the spring. A few of the lower fields did have water in them. Irrigation is by an extensive system of bamboo pipes ... read more

Check it out - we borrowed a gadget and now you can see some of what we've been up to for the last 10 weeks. ... read more

I parted ways with the crazy German guy I was with and finally found Gerry. These past few days we have been taking it easy...walking from restaurant to restaurant...sleeping in, talking to other travelers over copious amounts of coffee and Liquan. After a nice walk around the surrounding streets yesterday I talked Gerry into ditching his idea about renting the stupid looking electric scooters that seem rather popular with the Chinese tourists in town and grabbing 2 cheap mountain bikes. "Just for a short spin around town." UmmmHmmm...No map and 3 hours later we found ourselves biking further and further outside of Yangshuo. Encouraged by the Chinese tourists we kept passing on tandem bicycles and the like we kept on. Through a long polluted tunnel, through lush green lush fields, over seemingly hundreds of hills and ... read more

This is just a little post letting you all know I made it here safe and sound yesterday afternoon. I took the overnight train through "friendship pass" from Hanoi to Guilin. Everthing went smoothly at customs and I made some nice friends on the train. (Boy, the Chinese certainly know how to travel by rail...like a hotel on wheels!) Unfortunately, however - I arrived on the first day of China's biggest national holiday. Aaack! Chinese tourists are out swarming all over the sights here and hotel/guest house prices are through the roof! Guilin and the surrounding area is fantasticly beautiful, though. I have plans to meet Gerry today. I am excited about finally having a travel buddy again. More to come... ... read more