Mmmmm, dumplings
Trip Start
Jul 06, 2010
1
50
54
Trip End
Jun 28, 2011
Where I stayed
What I did
Wandered around and ate lots of food
Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang, China
Friday, May 13, 2011
While in Bangkok we met up with Garry's work friends Richard and Mia and spent a few days showing them the sights and pigging out on Thai food. We were happy to be eating Thai food again after 2 months of Filipino staples.
After stocking up on provisions in Bangkok we headed to the airport and flew to China. We aren't going to lie, China is not an easy place to travel. Our Mandarin is terrible (although our phrase book is proving valuable) and few people speak English here. Although, all in all we are managing surprisingly well. We were able to make it to our hotel from the airport. We picked up a Chinese SIM card for our cell phone and found a dumpling restaurant all in one day! We even made a call to our bank in Canada to give them shit for suspending our ATM card AGAIN. Good thing we have a Plan B or else we would have been stranded in China with no money.
Our first stop in China was Guilin. It's a pretty little town of about 750,000 people. The city is set along the Li River and there are beautifully manicured gardens and parks that line the river and several pretty lakes. It's a surprisingly quiet city. Almost every motorbike on the road is electric. The silence of the high volume traffic is surreal. We took a boat tour around the lakes one day which was a good way to see all the gardens and pedestrian bridges. We also wandered the lakes at night when all the bridges are lit up, making the place look magical.
The food, by the way, is amazing! The first thing we did on arrival at our guest house was to get someone to write the Chinese word for "dumplings" on a card, which has proved a handy tool in the quest for dumplings. We still need a card for "beer" and we'll do just fine.
When we can tear ourselves away from the dumpling restaurant we wander the streets eating at various restaurants that have yummy looking food pictures. Everything we've tried has been amazing and CHEAP! We ate steamed pork buns one day for breakfast and each bun only cost $0.15. A whole roast duck is only $4. We can't eat $2 worth of dumplings between us...it's just too many. We are constantly full and walking around with our top pant buttons undone.
On our second night here a parade fired up outside our guesthouse with bands, dragons, fireworks, the whole bit. When we asked about it we were told that in China they are always having parades. Really? Yup - apparently this parade was because the market had moved from a couple streets over and tonight was the grand opening at the new location. Who knew such an event was parade worthy? We need more parades in Canada.
We also noticed that most of the diaper aged children around here wear crotchless pants instead of diapers. When they have to go, they just squat and go wherever they are. It makes sense though, as we figure the alternative would be using about 1 billion diapers per day - we'd hate to see that landfill.
Our friend Tanya arrives tomorrow and she is taking us to her home town Liuzhou for a few days. Maybe she can write us a "beer" card.
By the way - gmail is not accessible here in China because they don't get along with a certain search engine company that rhymes with "doogle". Wish we had known this before coming here - but hey, we are learning. So we've changed the contact email on this blog to a hotmail account.
Comments
Would you get me a pair of those crotchless diapers for adults?
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm dumplings
been following your blog great job
Jim and I say "eat the street food!" and beer is pronounced "beh-jow" in cantonese and "pee-jiu" in mandarin ;)
Gmail is available in China. I use it every day.