Guilin

The train journey from Hangzhou to Guilin was actually pretty bearable, within my section there was a student who spoke okay english and we spoke for sometime. She was having to learn a whole book of English words even one that, as far as i know, isn't a word? Eatable? Anyway, i could see why some Chinese prenounce some words abit funny because this book often gave an "i" sound when there should have been an 'ee' sound. For instance, Bitch instead of Beach. The worst thing about the trip was, you guessed it, the toilets. The first half of the trip was fine but once it past the ten hour mark they were almost unbearable. The lack of 'western toilet' does not bother me really but they just became to disgusting. I guess this is the same for most train toilets all over the world. So overall the train journy was fine, although instead of doing another 20 hour trip from Guilin to Kunming i've opted to fly. Flying costs 3 times more but takes less than a tength of the time. I've decided against extending my visa in China and even though i feel i've hardly seen that much in my time here, it is a huge country with so much to see. If could reasonably take a life time to see it all. This means Kunming will be my last stop before heading into Laos a full 20 days early than expected.

I've tended to stay in the cities or major tourist areas but China is hard. It is hard to find out how to get to where you want to go but even harder to put it into practice, so, although i've not been overly adventerous on this trip, it is my first so why make things too difficult to enjoy? In the future, when i come back to China i'll definately be more adventurous, perhaps heading through the centre of China and the most northern provinces near Inner Mongolia.

Yesterday in Guilin i met some very nice French-Canadians (one of which enjoyed 'hot beer'??) so i ended up heading out into Guilin with them for the day and evening. I appreciated their company and the fact they had to forfit the use of their mother tongue to accomodate me. We ended up going up Fubo Shan which is less impressive than it sounds and heading to some cave park, although we didnt pay for the caves - just the park. We actually ended up eating in the same restaurant, a china, in two different locations. It seems this restaurant specialises in serving 'meat' that is actually just bones/skin so you think you're getting a good portion of chicken/duck when you're not. Oh well, i guess thats why a meal costs 60 pence.

Guilin is pretty dull, many Chinese people rave about it but so far it seems like any other city only with the added bonus of fairly bad double pricing [local/tourist] and people on coaches screaming "Yangshuo?!" at you as you walk around. Infact, one place we attempted to go to cost Y70 for foreigners and was FREE for locals. At least, it appeared this way as everyone entering was allowed in free apart from us?! thats it for now, i should hopefully be going to see some rice terraces tomorrow then onto Yangshuo...

The second day in Guilin was slightly more interesting, i met a German/Spanish woman who was very nice. I cant remember all that we did but ended up in a park/lake which was quite nice as there wern't many people around. Otherwise it was just a general walk around Guilin. It was quite nice to share a bus ride to Yangshuo, however, as it is an hour and a half. The scenery on the way was probably the best i've seen in China, although, this was not as impressive as the area around Yangshuo itself. The staff at the hostel, the Guilin Wada hostel, were amazing. They are a new hostel and really make an effort to help out guests. I actually got lost trying to find the hostel so they sent a member of staff out to find me and bring me to the hostel, additionally, when we left Guilin they went with us to the bus stop to find the right bus (and right price).

Overall, Guilin is okay but only as a one night stop-over to or from Yangshuo. I guess there may be some interesting things i didn't visit but the city itself is the most touristy i've been too and has the most extreme double pricing on my trip. For instance, entrance into a park for us was 70 Yuan but locals were strolling in with no charge. Someone said they were students but there were many older people also entering for free.

It's funny, i actually find my ability to write and speak english becoming worse or at least less like i'm actually English. Often, the people i meet and speak to do not speak English as a first language and, because of this, i have to dumb it down to make it easier on them. Shorter sentances, spoken abit slower and with less use of words like "you're" or "they're" etc Hopefully i'll slip back into normal rythyms once i get back to England

Next stop: Yangshuo by bus, Y15, 1 hour 15 minutes

Sep 16, 2009

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