Nǐ hǎo China! Guilin - ,
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So we left the comfort of Vietnam, the English speaking people, fellow tourists and helpful hotel managers for a country with a reputation of bad attitudes towards tourists... China! Luckily our first hotel 60 degrees in Guilin were as helpful as could be and with great English! We took a very luxury minibus from Hanoi to the border which took about 4 hours. Here we hopped on a buggy and went through Vietnamese and China customs. It was super easy and relatively quick and we boarded another buggy (like an oversize golf cart) to our onward bus to Nanning. So far I had found everyone helpful and realised that the way Chinese talk to each other always sounds angry and aggressive which may be why they have the reputation. We quickly learnt the importance of miming and my Chinese language app had already come in handy! China was already beautiful and lush green. Mountains pretending from the ground and lakes and bridges galore. We arrived in Nanning much earlier than expected and this busy, polluted, smelly city that I had imagined was far from the truth. All motorbikes are electric, there were hardly any beeps from cars and I had never been in such a quiet city. Picking up our train tickets was easy and we luckily got dropped a block away from the station. We sat outside and people watched we took it in turns to suss out the local shops. Mel was feeling much better luckily and was back to her chirpy self. We obviously booked the last train of the night in case we had encountered any problems and after watching First Dates NZ and eating porridge and noodles we boarded our train some 5 hours after we got there. Everything in China is super efficient and on time. We got on our carriage and were blown away by how impressive our sleeper room was! I took the bottom bunk and Mel the top and we had duvets, pillows, lights a nice toilet and a wake up service... 5 hours later we arrived at 4.30am. Much earlier than expected. We got off the train and that's when the cold hit me. 4 degrees. I really wasn't expecting it and my body went into shock. I hadn't been this cold since New Zealand and it was colder than Bognor Regis! We then got a bit lost in the dark trying to find our hotel. Initially a 5 minute walk turned into nearly an hour with us witnessing all the steam buns being made early in the morning and the road cleaners sweeping. Luckily I remembered I had written directions from the hotel a bit too late admittedly but we managed to back track and find it. The hotel lady was luckily woken up by our door presence and I had never been so happy to see a bed with a thick duvet. Our room was lovely and who knew air con can also be a heater?! It was nearly 6am at this point but we went straight to sleep! I awoke about 11am and made a tea; yes we had a kettle!! We had a chilled few hours and ended up venturing to Walmart for most of the day. We were zombies! We found a market where we got fruits and they love picknmix style shopping here for snacks. I was in my element getting all the little bits of foods i've been wanting to try. I even got beetroot crisps and marshmallows! I've quickly realised that they sell everything in China and ridiculously cheap! I brought myself a lovely warm knitted bobble hat for a mere £3 and a pair of gloves and new phone lead! So very needed right now! We caught a bus to a Walmart which was in a shopping centre selling all the amazing cheap puffa coats (yes I will be getting one soon!) In Walmart we obviously had tonnes of fun buying the reduced fruit and vegetables, bbq sauce, steamed buns and vegetable (+pork... shh!) dumplings for dinner. The amount of steamed buns they had was incredible and we picked up some giant wholemeal, herby and chocolate ones. Oh and some reduced mini ones too! I'm going to have a bun everyday! So we were in Guilin. Our first stop of the area. For those of you who are not familiar with the area – Guilin is the famous outpost to the karst landscape of southern China and is almost a must to at least visit Guilin briefly to change transportation to get to where the action is. We had a few days planned here to tick off a few tourist attractions further afield. Our next stop, Yangshou is a village outside of Guilin which most of the tourists use as a hub to discover the limestone cliffs and the rivers. Xing Ping is a small village outside of Yangshou where you get a more genuine feel of the farming culture of a small village and you also get closer to Li river and some of the sights. We have planned a day trip here to climb a mountain of course!! In Guilin we felt jet lagged and didn't get to bed till past 11pm which was silly considering we were getting picked up at 7am for a day trip to the Longji Rice Terraces or known as the Dragons Backbone Terraces. We got picked up in a small minivan with two Chinese tourists and took the two hour drive to the terraces. We stopped off for a wee stop which was bizarre as the 'toilet' had no door and was a massive horizontal gap in the floor with running water at the bottom. With Mel guarding the entrance and me gripping to the wall convinced I was going to fall into the gap of gushing water and wee. Also I'm sure some Chinese women have now seen me having a pee which, after having a few colonoscopies, isn't embarrassing at all. As I guarded Mel a lady gave me her umbrella to help shield her. They all giggled and we responded with 'searsear' meaning thank you which they were impressed with. We then brought the tastiest little satsuma from the side of the road and I got another Jicama vegetable! Yummy yummy in my tummy. We continued our drive past epic valleys and forests. Round winding roads and other tour buses we finally got the terraces about 10.30... 3 hours later! We stopped initially at the park entrance where Mel and I brought a mangosteen and ginger tea which was really nice but even more of a mission to keep it in the cup on the winding roads. We drove amongst the rigid cliffs and got dropped at the bottom of the cable car. One way ticket up for an epic walk down... it was really bloody cold though. We got ushered into a cable car and after an initial freak out by me I just looked at the view and not down... The views were epic! Really incredibly amazing. It was so vast and the neat terraces spread for miles. The cloud didn't ruin the view and luckily it didn't rain at all during our time. When at the top it was bitterly cold and they temptingly sold hot sweet potatoes and sweetcorn at the top. I was too excited for my bun and bbq sauce! We kept moving to stay warm and followed the signs down to the bottom. Amongst the lined terraces we walked on cobbled steps down and down... through villages and past ponies, dogs and chickens. We got to the bottom and our driver let us warm up in a downstairs cafe with a hidden heater under one of the tables..! What a nice guy! We pondered about for an hour as we got back early and then fell asleep on the bus back to Guilin. It was a long day and feeling totally shattered we slept until 9am the following morning... 9am! Our room was super duper cosy and stocking up on tea allowed us to keep warm and toasty. Our lie in was much needed and we decided to head into downtown to do some shopping. We also got a pedicure and I had removed all the layers of varnish i've been reapplying since Indonesia! Plus my missing little toe nail is still very much missing and the ladies looked scared of my black runners toe! All the dead skin was literally hacked off the bottoms and left supple and smooth. Three feel good. We continued our mooch amongst the hundreds of shops selling really cheap everything. We found a cute girly shop selling stationary, shoes, hair bits, beauty things, bags, accessories... and we're there a good hour looking at all the cute cheap things. I brought myself some warm socks and also other ones with carrots, cows and ponies on. I've forgotten my sock situation at home but for 40p you can't go wrong! I also got some nose pore strips and a top. No presents this time. It was unbearably cold still and i managed to find myself a decent puffa coat for £18. It is lovely and warm, black with a sort of lace panel and although it doesn't have a fluffy hood it has buttons so I can attach some when I'm home. It also has a wicked lining and cuffed sleeves. I can stop moaning about the cold now..! We awoke Saturday to lovely sunshine and what a difference it made! We planned to see the Reed Flute Caves today and caught two buses to get there. The number 100 and number 3. It's really fun catching the buses to places, being situated where we are in Guilin (quite far out of the bus city) has allowed us to see the normal everyday lives of people. We haven't been in any tourist spots yet except the caves in which we were the only whities. Lots of Chinese tourists were there and we had to tag along to their group but we ran away... It was beautiful before we had even reached the caves! We got off the bus and headed to the entrance, about a fifteen minute walk amongst landscaped gardens and walkways. Past a stunning little boat lake and sweet potato stalls. Before we'd even made it to the cave Mel and I had purchased a scarf. A big bright warm thing that scream China. They love the colour red here and it must symbolise something with all the red and yellow lanterns. Every other woman also owns a red puffa coat! So the limestone caves are over 180 million years old... and are displayed magically with colourful lights. The cave got its name after the reeds that grows outside which can be made into melodious flutes. It's filled with stalactites and rock formations of all shapes and sizes and I was dead impressed with how beautiful it was. You know me I love rocks and gemstones so I was in my element! After we got some sweet potatoes we ate lunch by the river in the sunshine. It was nice to feel warm again! The sun was shining and hopefully would stay for the rest of our stay!