let the scenery commence
I have arrived in Guilin, in Guangxi province. I flew here from Guangzhou which was incredibly easy and pretty darned cheap as well. The bus to the airport was easy enough, and the flight was only an hour. The only challenge was the cab driver didn't know the street on which the hotel was supposed to be. I got out to walk around a bit figuring I'd find it, asked a whole bunch more cab drivers and at a few hotels, finally figuring out that despite what I was told, the street did in fact exist as did the youth hostel from where I am currently reporting this news.
The place is pretty great, probably my favorite accomodation so far. There is a large common room, the people working here are young and friendly, and the crowd is very international and also friendly. I met up with Sofia again, the Swedish girl from Guangzhou who also happened to be vegetarian. She and I are going to head to Yangshuo together tomorrow partially by bus and partially by boat on the Li River, which is supposed to be one of the more spectacular places to visit in the area, and in all of China. I'm pretty excited about that. The hostel dorm room here is pretty comfortable and the beds slightly less hard than all of the previous ones. My bed is costing me 40RMB per night and would be 35 if I had a student ID. That's $5USD to stay in a large comfortable bed, albeit in a room with 3-4 other people. The place is very clean and in a nice neighborhood in downtown Guilin. Last night when I arrived, I was a bit hungry so Sofia and I went out to see what could be found in the way of nearby vegetarian cuisine. It was already after 11, and though there was a decent amount of activity, there didn't seem to be a whole lot. There was one small place with some tables outside and a few pictures, and with a little bit of Chinese and some effort, we managed to get two large bowls of fried noodles with vegetables, some spicy tofu and fried broccoli on sticks. We actually watched them making it, so I felt pretty certain that it was all safe, and I asked every few minutes to make sure. Things were certainly going into the same oil as the meat and lying next to it, but the attitude I'm taking here is that beggars can't be choosers. With the Chinese I have at my disposal, I can make sure pretty reasonably that I don't consume meat, but having something near meat or cooked in the same oil or pan is basically impossible unless I want to complete limit myself to raw foods and other things that are just not practical. That meal which left us both full was less than $2USD by the way, even with my Sprite. Kind of amazing. Today we found another place where you can see all the food prepared and ask questions, and we had an enormous feast of maybe 6-8 small plates with various vegetarian goodies including firm tofu and beans, broccoli, mushrooms, and other unidentified vegetarian objects. My listening ability is still limited when the answer is complicated, but I feel pretty confident now about ascertaining in restaurants what things are and whether or not I can eat them.
So anyhow, we went to one park today, Ludi Yuan just outside Guilin. There was a ridiculously large cavern filled with stalactites and other similar formations that was absolutely amazing, or at least would've been if not for the insane herd of tourists taking flash photography, shouting, yelling, and being led through the caves by megaphone-toting tourguides. Also, the caves are lit up by generally unobscured colored lights which occasionally has a nice effect, but more often than not makes the whole thing look fake. The formations were pretty amazing and there was a small underground lake, but even covering your ears couldn't shut out the din and it definitely put a damper on the experience. The saving grace that followed was a hike up the side of one of the giant hills surrounding the area to overlook the entire city and some of its outskirts, and then once we got to the bottom we got offered a ride on one of those tiny boots that is basically 10 bamboo logs tied together with a few stools on it. It was only 10RMB for both of us so we went for it and it was really relaxing and peaceful, much more so than I could've guessed. You are right next to the water, and it comes up between the bamboo planks just enough to look like you are going to get wet but not enough to actually do so, though it certainly would be easy enough to fall in if you weren't careful, the boat is only maybe 3 feet wide or so.
All in all, a nice first day and very relaxing. Downtown Guilin is fairly busy and developed, though there are some quiet spots. This is a heavily touristed area for the scenery, so there are many hotels and other facilities to deal with those crowds, though I think this is technically off-season so it doesn't feel too crowded. Yangshuo should be much smaller and more quaint. Though still a tourist spot, it apparently still retains a small-town feel and the scenery is supposed to be stunning.
The pictures from Guangzhou should be up soon. Hope you're all well.
The place is pretty great, probably my favorite accomodation so far. There is a large common room, the people working here are young and friendly, and the crowd is very international and also friendly. I met up with Sofia again, the Swedish girl from Guangzhou who also happened to be vegetarian. She and I are going to head to Yangshuo together tomorrow partially by bus and partially by boat on the Li River, which is supposed to be one of the more spectacular places to visit in the area, and in all of China. I'm pretty excited about that. The hostel dorm room here is pretty comfortable and the beds slightly less hard than all of the previous ones. My bed is costing me 40RMB per night and would be 35 if I had a student ID. That's $5USD to stay in a large comfortable bed, albeit in a room with 3-4 other people. The place is very clean and in a nice neighborhood in downtown Guilin. Last night when I arrived, I was a bit hungry so Sofia and I went out to see what could be found in the way of nearby vegetarian cuisine. It was already after 11, and though there was a decent amount of activity, there didn't seem to be a whole lot. There was one small place with some tables outside and a few pictures, and with a little bit of Chinese and some effort, we managed to get two large bowls of fried noodles with vegetables, some spicy tofu and fried broccoli on sticks. We actually watched them making it, so I felt pretty certain that it was all safe, and I asked every few minutes to make sure. Things were certainly going into the same oil as the meat and lying next to it, but the attitude I'm taking here is that beggars can't be choosers. With the Chinese I have at my disposal, I can make sure pretty reasonably that I don't consume meat, but having something near meat or cooked in the same oil or pan is basically impossible unless I want to complete limit myself to raw foods and other things that are just not practical. That meal which left us both full was less than $2USD by the way, even with my Sprite. Kind of amazing. Today we found another place where you can see all the food prepared and ask questions, and we had an enormous feast of maybe 6-8 small plates with various vegetarian goodies including firm tofu and beans, broccoli, mushrooms, and other unidentified vegetarian objects. My listening ability is still limited when the answer is complicated, but I feel pretty confident now about ascertaining in restaurants what things are and whether or not I can eat them.
So anyhow, we went to one park today, Ludi Yuan just outside Guilin. There was a ridiculously large cavern filled with stalactites and other similar formations that was absolutely amazing, or at least would've been if not for the insane herd of tourists taking flash photography, shouting, yelling, and being led through the caves by megaphone-toting tourguides. Also, the caves are lit up by generally unobscured colored lights which occasionally has a nice effect, but more often than not makes the whole thing look fake. The formations were pretty amazing and there was a small underground lake, but even covering your ears couldn't shut out the din and it definitely put a damper on the experience. The saving grace that followed was a hike up the side of one of the giant hills surrounding the area to overlook the entire city and some of its outskirts, and then once we got to the bottom we got offered a ride on one of those tiny boots that is basically 10 bamboo logs tied together with a few stools on it. It was only 10RMB for both of us so we went for it and it was really relaxing and peaceful, much more so than I could've guessed. You are right next to the water, and it comes up between the bamboo planks just enough to look like you are going to get wet but not enough to actually do so, though it certainly would be easy enough to fall in if you weren't careful, the boat is only maybe 3 feet wide or so.
All in all, a nice first day and very relaxing. Downtown Guilin is fairly busy and developed, though there are some quiet spots. This is a heavily touristed area for the scenery, so there are many hotels and other facilities to deal with those crowds, though I think this is technically off-season so it doesn't feel too crowded. Yangshuo should be much smaller and more quaint. Though still a tourist spot, it apparently still retains a small-town feel and the scenery is supposed to be stunning.
The pictures from Guangzhou should be up soon. Hope you're all well.
posted by Dan at 4:20 AM
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