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Published: November 29th 2007
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Wendy and dad
She wanted to chat to us cause we spoke english. Since the last entry we have visited two provinces.
After clearing customs and passport control we caught a train from Hong Kong heading toward Guangzhou in the Guandong province. After a 2 hour journey we arrived into Guangzhou, we were met with a very different reception. In Hong Kong we had gotten used to smiling, happy people and we were met with the far end of the scale. After freshening up we went out for a wander and a homeless guy had a monkey on a lead! He came over to us and got the monkey to start flipping over and over. A little disturbing.
The next day we wandered around Guangzhou and it began to grow on us. We visited The Orchid Gardens and had tea served to us on a veranda in the traditional Chinese way. The Orchid Gardens is a little haven away from the buzz of the city.
From Guangzhou we got an overnight train to Guilin in the Guangxi province. The train station was mayhem, no english signs, no one spoke english and mainly poor people take the seats on the train, so there was a mad buzz. We stood for ages looking
around at the screens and timetables (all in Chinese). Even at the train station they were checking some people for Identification and we had to put our bags through an x-ray machine. It was as strict as an airport. It was a far cry from getting the 18.30 to Wexford!
We were eventually directed to a very plush waiting room, with leather arm chairs and free water, away from the riff raff. 😊 A local guy sat right beside us and eventually started up a conversation, he told us about the minority groups in Guangxi. One of which (cant remember name), never marry. The children are raised by their uncles. And the Grandmother is the head of the tribe. He was delighted to be talking english with us, and helped us find the right platform to board our train. Again it was chaos, there were young men carrying their grandmothers and all i remember is Nicholas turning to me in disbelief " that man is carrying his Grandmother!"
The train journey took about 13 hours. The sleepers are in compartments of four bunk beds, closed off from the corridor with a sliding door. There is a dining carriage,
that serve okay food and fold out seats along the corridors.
We met a guy from Hong Kong, who was going to Yuangshuo for a weeks holidays and was eager to give us information on the area. We had a comfortable sleep and were woken by the attendant at about 6 am.
We arrived Guilin about 7 am, and got the first Taxi we saw. The taxi driver started off at 20RMB (2 euro) so we were not going to try haggle for any cheaper! Later we realised the trip was only 70 cent. We had booked two night at the Lijiang Waterfall Hotel. A 5 star hotel that we got online for 50 euro. The hotel was fabulous! We really felt like we were on holidays so we stayed an extra night! At 8.30pm every night from the top of the hotel, the largest artificial waterfall in the Guinness Book of World Records. It was gorgeous to see the water cascading off the roof and splashing the crowd below.
Towards the end of the show this little child started hounding us to buy a rose, he literally was putting the rose into Nick's trouser pocket. He
was hugging his leg. There may have been a few other westerners but it felt like we were the only white people in the crowd of over 100 asian people. At first everybody was just smiling and laughing because there are beggar's and touts everywhere but eventually they realised how uncomfortable it was for us that the child was still clinging onto Nick after 10 minutes. Looking back on it we supposed we should have just given him money, but it was emotionally frustrating and overpowering to be confronted by such poverty. It can be hard sometimes because China can be so diverse in classes.
In Guilin the mountain terrain is very interesting, with it's amazing karst peaks and beautiful scenery. We enjoyed this city because although there ere touts etc, it was a lot friendlier over all than Guangzhou. We found the younger people to be extremely friendly and genuinely interested in talking to us and willing to practice their english. We were stopped on the street to talk, a girl and her father came up to us while we ate and we are in numerous photos with teenagers giving the peace sign! Guilin is such a beautiful
Waterfall Hotel
Largest manmade hotel waterfall. this was down the whole side of the building. right outside our window about 12 stories high. city, you can pass a whole day by just wandering and it is a very safe city.
From Guilin we got a one hour express bus, south to Yangshuo. The first night we stayed in The Regency Holiday Hotel for 27 euro, it was average and before we went to bed we were informed by a fellow traveler that there were cockroaches on the first floor,(us 3rd floor-pesky cockroaches-doh- have pesky wings-dam
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Elaine
non-member comment
Yay for blogs!
i think they dont have wings, but they can walk up walks and stairs and supposedly can jump VERY far giving the impression of flying.. they might have some kind of gliding wing or something.... uck uck uck .. back in thailand now and theres hundreds of them!!! We found it really hard in general in Asia not to give the kids money, but ur not supposed to, as it only encourages their parents to send them out begging rather than educating them, and encourages the kids themselves which could put them in dangerous situations with perverts and the like. So dont feel too guilty, twas a good call. Breaks ur heart tho!!! Enjoyed the first blog, keep em coming! Back in thailand now ourselves, and paul has flu, he's dying up in the room! x Elaine