Guilin, Not My Favorite, But Not It's Fault

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  Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang, China
Saturday, December 19, 2009

We are on our way home and I am finally starting to write about our travels. Traveling can be exciting, boring, tiring, awesome and interesting.  I think we have felt all of those things as we have endevoured to see part of China this Christmas.  We began our adventure Dec. 19th from the little part of China that we feel quite comfortable in, Suzhou and ventured into the world of the unknown; unknown language, country, and culture.

Suzhou does not have an airport so anytime that you are traveling by air you have to go to either Shanghai or Hangzhou.  There are drivers that sit at our complex, when it is pouring rain we get one of them to drive us to school.  Both of the drivers that we have used are really nice, one of them seems to think that he can communicate with us, we smile and nod but most the of the time we have absolutely no idea what he is saying.  After many translated notes with help of the teacher assistants at the school we believed that he understood that we wanted him to drive us to the Shanghai airport.  He was there all asmiles at the appointed time, good sign number one, we started off in what I thought was the wrong direction but soon we got on a highway with signs that said Shanghai, good sign number two, but when we didn't take the highway that had the airplane picture on it I was starting to get worried.  But amidst tons of traffic and my first sighting of a Rolls Royce driving by, we eventually got to the airport safe and sound.  Whew!

We were off to Guilin. We arrived late into Guilin so we didn’t get to see the beautiful karst mountains on the descent into our destination.  A long taxi ride into the city took us by a part of town that looked like a bomb had hit it, the buildings were half ripped up, half built, dirty and run down.  It didn’t look like we were entering a city of one million people. Safely we arrived at our hostel that was under construction and the heater in our room was loud, not just a little loud, but there is no way you could sleep through it loud. So we warmed up the room and turned off the heater for the night.  Yikes! It was like we were camping, I hid my head under the covers for most of the night.

 Freezing cold we awoke the next morning to explore a little, we had pancakes at Macdonald’s across the street and happened along a beautiful park.  It is amazing that many of the plants and trees are still green at this time of the year.  Guilin is in the southern part of China, but still chilly.  We wandered through the park taking in the culture of China.  There were ladies dancing, people playing instruments, others in a quiet spot singing, old people doing their morning exercises marching and hitting themselves to get the blood moving in the morning.  It was a great experience.  A little kid with big glasses desperately wanted to say hello to the beautiful tall blond Bethany. A teenager was talking with an old grandmother; it looked as if they were chatting about her artwork.  The streets of Guilin were packed with people, cars, bikes, busses, dirt, street vendors, all coming and going in a different direction but the park was the contrast of this mayhem. It was a place of peace and community, smiles and happiness.  That is the reason that I am enjoying China.    

Soon after we gathered our things and boarded a bus to take us to Yangshuo. 

Al's Washroom Story - Don't read on if you have a weak stomach!!!!

(Al's Interjection - When we got to the Guiling bus station we managed to buy some bus tickets despite our language issues. The next challenge was finding the correct bus as there were about 20 busses lined up. Fortunately one of the ticket collectors spoke a little english and helped us get on the proper bus. After we sat down I realized I had drank way to much orange juice for breakfast and I better use the washroom because I'm in China on a bus with no washroom, heading to a town that I'm told is about a 60 minute bus ride away, but not really trusting anything I hear or read, and on top of all that not wanting to have to stop a bus load of Chinese people half way to Yangshuo while I relieve myself on the side of the road (actually a very very very common thing in China, but that's another story. So I hop off the bus and head to the public washroom. As I approached the washroom I could tell I was getting closer from the stench in the air. Before I even entered I knew I would have to hold my breath as the stench was overpowering. As I turned the corner into the washroom the smell was overwhelming. The floors were covered in a combination of water and urine from the overflowing urine trough (no urinals here. The walls had probably never been cleaned ever and were covered with dirt and I don't even want to guess what else. The worst part though was that none of the stalls had doors, but were wide open. Squatting in three of the stalls were Chinese men doing there business right there in the open for the whole world to see. By this time I was reeling from the smell and sights of this unbelievably filthy washroom. My first thought was that it's going to take a long time for my brain to erase the image of these guys squatting in the washroom. NOT GOOD. The one funny part was that one of the guys was talking on his cell phone. This also is very common in China. Guys seem to like to hang out in the washroom stalls and do their business while they are talking on their cell phones. VERY WEIRD. Oh, I turned out of there as fast as I could and held on for the bus ride to Yangshuo)

Lois writes:
We would be back in Guilin 3 nights later for a night before we flew to Xi’an. The bus returned from Yangshuo was not an express so after the long bus ride we were late again into Guilin.  Not wanting to freeze or lose sleep again we found a different place to stay.  It was located closer to downtown, we enjoyed walking around the city seeing a new part of Guilin, one that looked a little more modern and vibrant but as it was late again we only saw the city at night.  The next morning we were looking forward to flying to Xi’an where we were to stay in a beautiful modern place, the Shangri-La. We were ready for central heating, hot water and a very clean environment, a little taste of the west.  We boarded a taxi to take us to the airport; we always leave very early just in case there are any problems along the way, our flight left at 9am so we were at the airport at 7:30. We arrived to the quiet cold airport ready to get out of town only to hear that our plane would be delayed due to airplane maintenance. 

Well, we waited and waited. We learned to understand the announcement of further delay in Chinese. They served us lunch and we waited, they bussed everyone to a hotel for a rest but we chose to wait at the airport, they brought everyone back from the resting hotel and we waited, they served us dinner and we waited, we boarded the plane and we waited, they told us to get off the plane and we would have to stay over night.  We waited.  At 10pm we decided to find our own accommodations, typically Chinese hotels are, to say the least, smoke filled dives. We were really looking forward to the Shangri-La and were not prepared to stay in a dive.  In order to get our luggage we had to wait for another 45 minutes and we were off into Guilin again in the dark. Did I mention that there was not any heat at the airport, there wasn’t much in the way of food either?  We were hungry, tired, cold and cranky. 

Back into a taxi, we decided to play it safe and stay at the Sheraton for the night.  We thought we deserved it but will the taxi know where the Sheraton is?  The lady taxi driver nodded and agreed that she knew where she was going.  The slow drive back into town had us stop at the toll road in which the sweet lady turned into a yelling nightmare.  We had taken two taxis this way already and both times the driver had paid the toll, this time she wanted us to pay.  We refused, argued and let the frustration of the day cloud our judgment.  We were arguing over $1.80.  "Just pay it!" I said as she was starting to back up. From that point on the ride was a little tense.  We did arrive at the hotel, where the yelling started again, we asked the hotel porter to explain why this time we were paying the toll. Al, I think was at the end of his rope, he was arguing with the taxi driver still.  Can you believe it??? Al was yelling.  Yes, Al was yelling.  I think he was really tired.

*****Al’s Interjection***

“I was yelling on the principle of the toll.  There are 1.299 billion Chinese that are honest kind people, unfortunately, there are 100 million that will try to rip you off to try to get ahead.  After a while you get tired of it.:

We laugh and shake our heads about it now.

The Sheraton was wonderful to us; we had a midnight snack and a warm clean place to rest our weary bodies.  The next morning, getting used to the drive to the airport we trusted the taxi driver to get us there, we didn’t care what it cost, just get us there. We bargained for a price, not using the mete,r that we knew was a little more than the standard fare but we just wanted to get there.  Well, he did get us there but I thought I was going to puke along the way.  This cute little Asian taxi driver was trying to save himself the 20 Yuan, $1.80 toll.  He didn’t take the toll highway but instead took a back narrow country road. We didn’t know this, and we didn’t have any idea where he was going.  We tried asking sweetly where the heck we were going, he smiled and mimicked a place taking off. Yes, we nodded, that is what we wanted.  The isolated back road continued and we tried asking him sternly where he was going, he smiled and did his plane charades again. This is about the time that I wanted to puke, being stressed from the day before, the cold, the late nights, and the desire to be at the Shangri-La wound my stomach into knots.  Finally, we made a turn and we could see the airport terminal, oh my goodness. Get me out of this taxi, get me on the plane and please take off safely.  Which we did.

Guilin is not one of my favorite places in China, but the reasons have little to do with Guilin.

This was just our first stop along our holiday.  I promise, the emails will get more interesting and fun to read.  We had a great time.  The next email will tell you all about one of my favorite spots, Yangshuo.

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