Guilin

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It was an overnight train to Guilin in the Guangxi Province. We were in the hard (lower) class sleeping car and it put any class of any Indian train to shame. Soft thick comforters with clean white duvets on them. Very cosy. Compare that to the superstarched wool blankets that India provided and this was a whole new ballgame.

On arrival, we met Richard (a fellow traveller from Canada) when we arrived and proceeded to the hotel. It was old and grimy but some nice amenities were included such as toothbrush, soap, shampoo and slippers; this is what we get excited about these days. Throughout China and Taiwan, these freebies are basic. The slippers are new to us but the basic culture is that you use your shoes to walk outside and your slippers to walk inside; people will never (as far as we can tell) walk barefoot (even with their socks) outside or inside.

Anyway, it was cool and rainy in Guilin but we proceed to visit this famous mountain (I cannot remember the name but for the sake of putting a journal out, I'll assume nobody reading really cares) which is a short walk in-town. During this time, we learned that the people in Guilin were very (read: overly) friendly and these locals sought foreigners (English speaking) to practice their skills, we think. It was comforting that we could talk to people but we quickly found that there were certain men who were tourist stalkers (this was confirmed by other travellers and on our return to Guilin one week later). Once you talk to them, they will follow you for the whole day. They mean well, but after an hour or so, we wanted some alone time. We faked a trip into a hotel and slid out after a few minutes.

Later that night before dinner, another man (potential stalker) started talking to us (it was Richard, Jill and I at this point). Luckily, Jill did not do the "pretend you can't speak English routine". We chatted with him and he showed us to a great night - a dinner at a great authentic dumpling/noodle shop. Followed by some tea at the local teamaster (on the house). And finished off by a one hour foot massage and a parlor that he recommended. Great ending to our Chinese day.

Due to the inclimate weather, we decided to leave the next morning in seach of better weather. So we (Richard included) opted for the Chinese boat tour down the Li River to Yangshuo the next morning. Unfortunately it was raining, again, and the scenery was not as nice as we would have hoped for but we did enjoy alot of entertainment courtesy of the Chinese tourists on the boat. Just to clarify, the Chinese tour (as opposed to the Foreigner tour) meant that the guide was Chinese and did not speak English. So we had no idea what she was saying for the 4 hours. We did manage to get some intrepreted (through others) and the gist of it was: That mountain is camel mountain (b/c it had two humps) or that mountain is cigarette mountain (b/c it it looked like a cigarette). This happened over the course of 4 hours. Best part about it is that everytime she got on the mic, there was exodus of Chinese rushing to the roof of the boat to take pictures.

Next entry to Yangsho where we arrived.

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Photos

Dumpling Dinner
With our host Robert who is heading to NYU in 2007 to teach Chinese.

That is the Tea Master
On the left

Hazy Scenery
In clear skies, it is probably amazing. But we can't say for sure.

Comments

[miles]

hazy scenery
glad to know it is not just taiwan that gets fogged and smogged. i finally got my lazy ass to check out your blog... and i hope to be catching up with you guys in laos (potentially) in the not so distant future. all the best --m