Guilin, China
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
5
47
Trip End
Apr 30, 2009
Guilin,
Guangxi Zhuang,
China
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Our room at Guilin was acceptable considering the price (90 RMB), but it was not one of the nicer hostels we have been to. There were ants and cockroaches roaming the floor of the lobby, but the 4 of us still enjoyed a few local beers (Guilin Liquan) which was 8 RMB for 600 mls before we went to bed. All of us had the same plan of going to Yangshuo the following morning, and none of us knew yet how we were going to get there (boat vs bus).
The night was rather uneventful except for a large explosion around 1:30, just after we went to bed. Lisa went on to porch to investigate, but nobody seemed to have any idea of what caused this noise. We hope it was firecrackers, but really we have no idea. It sounded quite similar to the propane explosion that rocked Toronto shortly before we began this trip.
We woke up the next morning around 9:30 and headed down 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 river cruise to Yangshuo and found out that we were too late to catch it. After looking at the price (360 RMB/each) it didn't really matter because we knew the buses ran frequently for a small fraction of that cost. We ventured out to the streets to look for a bus and found one within 100 meters of our hostel. The cost was only 15 RMB so we told the driver we would be back (there were many buses there at a similar cost).
On our way back we were approached by an older Chinese woman that had some fruit we had never seen before. She quickly broke one open to let us try one and they turned out to be lychees. I have had lychees before, but have never seen them with their skin on. They seemed rather convenient, portable and edible so we bought 3 RMBs worth (tourist pricing got us six). After this we grabbed our bags, checked out of the hostel and caught the bus to Yangshuo.
The bus driver made the trip about as fast as humanly possible. We crossed by a farmer herding his cows down the highway and also a severe accident involving three large trucks. It was fortunate that the scenery kept us occupied because looking out the front window was rather terrifying. He did the 90 minute drive in about 60 minutes and dropped us off at the Yangshuo bus station.
