Advertisement
Published: August 6th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Rule #1: Failure, Sort Of
My travel needs a direction, a goal, or a theme. Drifting around the world might be perfect for some people but I can't do that; I need to have something driving me along. This time around the concept was to travel from Bangkok to London without flying and I've been succeeding in that aim despite my circuitous path. But then something got in the way. . .
China is currently in the middle of it's biggest travel season, students are travelling to and from their homes, jobs and schools, plus many more are on holiday. This has made it awfully difficult to organise train tickets, which is always difficult thanks to the rules in China (you can only book ticket from the city you are leaving so I can't book ahead unless I'm already in town). So when I went to book a train ticket from Shanghai to Guilin I was not surprised to find out that they were already sold out, even the standing tickets were sold out. I was stuck then, how could I get to Guilin to meet my family?
The great staff from the hotel helped out by contacting
their other hotel in Tunxi, some four hours south of Shanghai and they found out that I could get to Guilin from there if I wanted to. I would have to leave Shanghai a day before my parents and I wouldn't get to Guilin until a day after them because they were going to fly. This of course was no good as they only had three more days in the country. I considered doing a bus marathon which would have required at least four buses and 48 hours if all the departures coincided with the arrivals, this clearly would not have worked. I was in a real state by this point, if I was travelling without a time limit as I usually do it would not have been an issue, I would just wing it, but with Mum and Dad there - two people that I was now trying to keep on as short a leash as possible so as to avoid any further train station disasters - I was left with no choice, I had to fly.
So I took a holiday from my travels. Right now my travelling body, the one which is stuck with the rule,
is frozen in the lobby of the hotel in Shanghai (I have a photo to prove it) where I will stay until I return in a couple of weeks. For now I am on a short holiday to the south of China which means I can run wild without any worries of consequences (I am currently pretending to be a professional photographer thanks to Felix's suggestion).
Cruising Down the River With Half of China
In truth I wasn't too worried about the flight, I would have given up a whole lot more to spend time with my Dad. We were having a really good time and I think I may actually have pulled off the translator role (Christine was actually really good at understanding Chinese despite never actually studying it). Our last stop together was the Guilin region in Guangxi province. This was my third visit to the area and I am still well and truly in love with the landscape here. The most popular thing for tourists to do in Guilin is to cruise down the Li River which passes through some of the most "otherworldly" karst scenery in the world.
There are three ways
in which you can cruise down the river. The first is to rent a private motorboat which speeds you and your friends down the river to the town of Yangshuo. The second is the Chinese cruise where you have a Chinese speaking guide, free lunch, and a slow four hour cruise to Yangshuo. The third option gives you an English guide but costs almost twice as much as the Chinese tour. When shopping around for the tours the sales people talked up the English cruise, saying that it was better because you didn't have to wait around on the pier for an hour while they picked up the other tourists and because you had an English speaking guide, so we ended up on the expensive tour.
What you actually get when you jump on the boat is somewhat of a different story. For starters, we ended up waiting around while they collected all of the tourists anyway, and then we found that both tours went on the same boat. The only advantage of the English tour was that you got an overly happy tour guide from CITS who tried to talk you into all sorts of other tours or
hotels. Our guide went so far as to tell my parents a sob story about how the government makes life very difficult for tour guides as they only work on commission - trying to talk them into a separate tour which he was running that afternoon. Lesson learned: take the Chinese tour.
Despite all of that, the cruise was brilliant. The scenery around Yangshuo is beyond belief: mountains appear out of the ground with impractical sheerness to make a labyrinth of limestone peaks. The shallow and clear river runs through the karst playground, casually ignorant of its surroundings and our boat slowly floated along allowing us to lazily enjoy our surroundings. Behind us sailed a dozen other tour boats, a procession of Chinese tourists all seeking their classical Guilin experience (mandatory photo: the location used for the back of the 20 yuan note). Sights such as the "Nine Horses Painted Mountain" drifted by accompanied by droll observations and nonsensical descriptions from our tour guide. The three of us were enjoying the relaxing and serene part of our trip, I was heading back to one of my favourite places.
Yangshuo With My Parents, What Do We Do?
I arrived in Yangshuo without plans. I was looking forward to a week of relaxing and catching up on things (Ie. writing four journal entries, sorry to inundate you all) so I hadn't figured out any sights or activities. When I actually got here and realised that I had to continue thinking of things for the three of us to do I was caught off guard. Here we were in a beautiful part of the world but none of us felt like doing anything.
For starters it was far too hot (cooler than Shanghai though, it was 43 degrees while we were there) to explore the countryside during the day so we didn't do that. But this is Yangshuo, the attraction here is the countryside, what else is there to do?
I somehow managed to find a few things to do, mostly relaxing things like drinking coffee or shopping on West Street. One day was set aside for an hour long massage from my favourite Chinese doctor: Dr Lily Li. Another afternoon was taken up by a cooking course where we all cooked our own dinner (mine with extra chilli) in a small farmhouse out in the country
(see how I was combing attractions together there like a proper tour guide?) Other than that we did precious little in Yangshuo, I think that perhaps we were all exhausted from running around China for two weeks.
Final Thoughts, Would I Do it Again?
So it all came to an end and my Dad and Christine flew to Hong Kong and back to Australia. I'm still here, back where I was before, doing what I've been doing for almost seven months. The goodbye wasn't teary, although at some points during the trip we very nearly were. It was the most amazing two weeks of travel: exhilarating, exciting, thrilling, busy and above all relieving.
I missed my Dad but then I got to see him and it was exactly what I needed. I think I spent more time with my Dad on this little trip than I have in the previous couple of years combined, it was some good bonding time. Plus I got to spend a lot of time with Christine and I finally recognised where her place in our family is. I can't wait to travel with my Mum and Dad again.
I'm not
looking forward to doing all the organisation again though, that's far too much work.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.081s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 10; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0317s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Christine and Dad
non-member comment
Thanks to a great tour guide.
We were so grateful for your departure from your travel rules, your sacrifice for our benefit made our travel so much easier and enjoyable. Sorry our rushed itinerary caused you this problem. We now know why you like Yangshuo so much. Settled in such picturesque surroundings it is both lively and relaxing at the same time. Yes leaving was an emotional time for all of us. This was a wonderful bonding experience for all three of us. We really missed you in Hong Kong. West street shopping markets were the best. I had so much fun and they say I drive a hard bargain! It's not that we just missed your company in Honkers. We missed your charm, wit ,trivial comments abut the sights, Your sense of finding the most delicious cuisine to appreciate, your cute smile, patient mandarin language tutor, and the overall "good boy" who took care of his "Buba" and "Mamma" and showed them the best time ever in a country that "Mamma" was a little apprehensive about to say the least!!!!