See What Tim Is Doing: The beginning of the end

The thought of spending 24 hours on a train to get from Chengdu to Guilin just didn’t tickle my fancy, so I treated myself and decided to fly, which in the end didn’t work out too much more expensive then the marathon train trip.

So from rainy Chengdu, which was a welcome break from the 30+ weather I had all trip, I was back to 36+ weather in Guilin. It was hot, humid and hard work. My hostel was not far from the bus station where the airport shuttle stopped, but navigating the streets with 30kgs of bags in weather pushing 37 was not appealing, so I grabbed a cab and took the easy option.

The rest of the afternoon, like most of my first days was spent exploring on foot and getting to know the town and just checking out some sights that were around, including several lakes and of course, the Li River.

That night I decided to venture to the night markets (have seen my fair share of markets this trip) and this didn’t exactly go to plan. I pointed to my desired destination and the taxi driver spoke to me, of course in Chinese, and the conversation was going nowhere, and eventually we were on our way. Soon after, we arrived at the hotel that was near the markets, I paid, left the cab and soon realised that there must have been more then one Austrian Hotel. So, I was lost and equipped only with an extremely basic map, which soon proved useless. I wandered the area for over an hour and a half, thinking I was making ground and knew where I was, only to have my hopes shattered when I realised, I still had no idea where I was. Sweaty and frustrated, I finally hailed a motorbike cab and pointed to somewhere else near the markets, and we were off, zipping in and out of traffic, hopefully to the correct destination this time.

Second time around, success. I was where I wanted to be finally! So I strolled through the markets, looking at what good and bad things were on offer. Brought a piece of watermelon the size of my head for about 25p and met some locals who were really nice, spoke good English and invited me to sit at their table outside and have a beer with them as they had just finished their meal. Now I have heard horror stories about people being asked for a drink or tea etc and getting locked in a room and forced to pay hundreds of pounds to get out, but I thought I was safe here, as if they dropped a bill on me, I could just run as I was outside. In the end, no bill, no problems. They were just a nice bunch of people who just wanted some foreign company.

Day two, I decided to be brave a get a bike and ride the city. Now if you have ever been to China, if not, then pictures thousands of Chinese drivers on the road, no real road rules and no patience, and times it by three and you might be close to the chaos of their roads. Although it looks like hell, it actually wasn’t too bad, I just followed the read of other Chinese people and in the end, I figured out how it all works and I had a great time!

First stop was the Seven Stars Park, which is just a smaller sized park containing lakes, bridges, temples and also a cave full of stalactites and stalagmites illuminated by fluorescent lights. I strolled around the park, sweating like mad as the weather again, in it’s high 30’s, took photos of some wild monkeys until one charged me just as I was about to take a photo and I visited the cave that contained the stalactite and stalagmite lightshow. The cave was pretty cool, but the pictures on the brochure I think may have been from the Reed Flute Cave, which was my next stop on my bike riding adventure.

Back on the road again and time for quick lunch pit stop. Tried to find a dumpling restaurant that had been raved about my lonely planet and also a few travellers I met in the hostel, but couldn’t. Instead I ended up choosing a restaurant with chickens, ducks and geese hanging from hooks in the window. Was it a good move? Oh yeah. For the equivalent of £1.15, I received a plate loaded with rice, tofu, goose, chicken, soup, some weird salad, chilli cabbage salad and of course some tea. The cheapest meal I have had so far (besides some 10p street meat kebabs).

Reed Flutes Cave was my intending destination, instead I ended up riding non-stop for nearly three hours around in a big circle trying to find the cave, and of course, I never found it. I gave up and decided to just ride around the city, explore some more parks and the river side, and then head back to the hostel in time for the all you can eat BBQ. So the night was filled with meeting new people (again more Dutch! They are everywhere in China), playing a new card game ‘Phase 10” with some Spanish and of course some Dutch, drinking a few beers and just having a nice low key but fun night.

I decided to head to Yangshou, and instead of getting there by the conventional method of a bus, I opted for a trip on a three-hour bamboo raft trip down the Li River, which is said to have some of the most amazing scenery in China. And they didn’t lie. Huge peaks coming out of nowhere, mountains covered in greenery, buffalo swimming at the waters edge and score of bamboo rafts floating down the Li River, it was picturesque. Like The Great Wall, it was a bit hazy which was a real shame as if it was a clear day, the pictures would be absolutely mind blowing. So I am hoping for a nice clear morning one of the days I am here so I can go for a nice early morning ride and get some quality snaps. I have a feeling Yangshou is going to be a great finish to the China leg of my trip.