Jing Guan Ming Lou Holiday Hotel Guilin

... all the others. Not always possible but fruitful when it is!

Guilin is named after the Osmanthus trees which are blooming now. They are evergreen and we have similar shrubs int he UK, but these have yellow flowers. The scent is quite heady in the evening. Walking round the lake to take photos we stop for an ice cream and a watermelon juice, the ice cream is a sort of purple colour and Mimi tells them I want everything with it, which turns out to ...

... hear what the instrument sounds like. I played chopsticks on it. A little silly, for such an amazing instrument, but that is the extent of my musical ability. I did buy a cd of the bells in the museum bookstore. They sound really cool. After we left the museum, we went out to lunch at a local restaurant before I was driven to the airport for my flight back to Guilin.

... men in their mid-40's who snored. The memory is itch inducing but luckily this was very far removed. And the hostels have private en-suite double rooms! I think at 30, the time has passed for dorms..

We spent our first night wandering around the town and taking in the lake and pagoda views. We ate at a local restaurant - picking out a popular looking one and ordering what seemed to be the seasonal ...

... told that they open at 10 and have to go home to sleep. It was after 9pm and she was trying to tell us that we had to leave the restaurant by 10pm. By the second time she reminded us to leave before 10, I was ready to pay up and leave, but we stayed and had our meal without duck or meat pies. We had an appetizer size prawn and scallop dish, we never received the sesame balls... It was 31 yuan for our "snack" and we left by 10pm as promised. Everyone at the ...

... on a hill to exit the park, and the driver decided that he wanted to try another way. He started rolling back, amid honking, and ran right into a small tour van that had come up behind us. We were delayed almost an hour while both sides argued it out, and finally another bus came to pick us up. There wasn't much damage for the hassle it cost, and it was clearly our drivers fault-but who knows what the final outcome was. -Ashley

... being carried up by two little old ladies. I know its how they make money, but id rather buy something from them. They are fantastic at embroidery and make some pretty things that are so cheap that even I would not try an knock them down! its a pity that we are limited on what we can buy ie I have to carry it , as I have seen some lovely things....hey ho, retail therapy another day. Mable

... for some breakfast in the hostel lobby. We ordered a banana milkshake (8 RMB) and two coffees (5 RMB/each) but unfortunately they were out of bananas. We asked them to substitute a different fruit and ended up with an apple shake. I don't want to use the word milk because I don't think there was any milk in it. It was more like a non-sweetened oil product with a hint of apple in it. We inquired about the four hour ...

... and were supposed to watch a calligraphy class. Well at this point we are so sick of being told what to do and when to do it that we decided to find a map and navigate our way back into town (even though our tour guide said it would be a 30-45 min walk) we decided that it would be an adventure (don't worry mom....it is very safe here). Well it was a 7 min walk...I think our guide was mad that we did not want to shop and buy things here since he gets a cut of whatever we buy ...

Nous sommes alles a Guilin en voiture , la personne qui conduisait , conduisait bien (c est dangeureux de monter dans une voiture en chine car ils conduisent comme dans les films de poursuites). congwen - cela se pononce zvongwenn- nous a emmene dans un supermarche pour nous proposer d acheter des specialite de la region et puis dehors il pleuvait beaucoup et nous devions nous abriter, puis nous sommes alles voir la colline de l elephant(en forme d elephant ...

Apr. 21st Writing from Yangshuo We finally made it. After getting up at 5:00 am for an 11:00 one hour flight we arrived almost 12 hours later at our hotel in Guilin. The flught once it finally took off was uneventful and we hitched a ride on a very crowded shuttle bus at the Osmanthus Hotel. Osmanthus is a very small very fragrant flower and is the symbol of Guilin. After a less than impressive hotel meal we did set out ...