Guilin Royal Garden Hotel (T)

... cri. Ils ont une petit corde autour du cou qui laisse passer les petits poissons mais pas les gros. Alors les pecheurs les recuperent.

J'ai l'impression qu'on comprends mieux mon accent chinois ici!

Aujourd'hui, nous sommes partis en minibus avec 5 autres personnes vers le village de Longsheng a 2 heures d'ici. A mi-chemin, nous avons fait un arret pipi et j'ai du faire mes besoins a la vue de toutes! C'etait un trou en tuiles ...

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Anthony started the day with some liver cleansing tea





We said goodbye to our host, Wei wei





And joined the rush on board the sleeper train from Guilin to Kunming





We settled back for the 18 hour journey

... them, which was pretty funny. I find it kind of snobbish that I haven't met one European that has actually attempted or seemed interested in learning Chinese. It's rude I feel to go to another country and not really try. After we ate, we went to the Blue Tents market, which is out every weekend in the central square and streets. We walked through and found some really amazing olfan again, this time I got some. It is soo good. How do I describe it,.. it's like this clear goo ...

... was bad, so I really had no idea what to expect. A few days before, I tried running and still felt some pain in the ankle I rolled playing basketball a month prior, so I dropped the hurdles since I've never run them before and wasn't even sure which foot I would jump off of. The "opening ceremony" as you can see from the pictures, was also a huge event. Classes were cancelled on Thursday and Friday just for the track meet, and everyone walked ...

A nice day in Guilin. An early arrival after a fitful sleep did not bode well, but after checking into Flowers YH, some spicy breakfast noodles and a nap, we're ready to see some sights. First off is a walk up the main drag (notable incident of a guy trying to sell Scott an electric razor), to a palace complex containing Solitary peak (Guilin is set within granite karst peaks and from Solitary you get a good view of it all, it being on it's ...

... to Damian again 4-5, despite being 4-1 up. Loser. We got to the station and finally met Alex Guan, who had organised the tour for us. Then he, Damian, and Antonio (Alex and Antonio own the Longto Travel company) escorted us to the train. Alex gave us a small gift of an ink stamp each with our names in english and chinese on them, and a pad of ink. We said our goodbyes, and began the 18 hour train journey to Kunming. Its surprising how quickly they pass by, and the beds ae pretty comfy!

... for me to walk around in. There are only about 650,000 people here, and there are rules about how tall buildings can get. Unfortunately, though, the city is expanding rapidly and they are leveling mountains to make more space. They are also moving trees from alongside the streets because they are planing on adding lanes. I'm glad I got to visit now, because I have a feeling that in a few years there will be a much different feel to the area.

It's April 24th here. I'm sitting at the computer whilst th others are still upstairs (in bed?). It's a bit chilly. Who would have thought it after the plus 35 or so we had last week. No problem though as it should get up to about 22 today (same as Ottawa I understand). After a restful (Kim says boring) 4 hour boat ride down the Li River we arrived at Langshuo right in the middle of the funny mountains. That's what I call them. Straight up for 300 ...

... sat down. No-one at the table actually knew what we had ordered. Was it soup? Was it stir-fry? How many dishes did we order? Would it taste OK? Surprisingly, the food wasn't to bad. Walking along the street, we are often 'picked up' by friendly Chinese people. You just don't know if you can trust them. Walking to the caves, the two women kept indicating that we follow them. We weren't sure that we were in the right place but they insisted that we follow. They would talk to us ...