Hi All,
We had a final breakfast and said our goodbyes to
Hanna and headed off. There was plenty of time as our flight to
Gungzhou was at 410pm and it was only 10am. Things were going well when
we picked up the direct bus to Guilin leaving about 5 min after we
arrived at the bus station. It took just over 1hr and we then needed to
find a bus to the airport and this is where things went a little
astray. Touts really are convincing. We already knew how to get to the
airport but for some reason we didn't ignore his offer to take us to a
new bus to the airport ( turkey flashbacks??). We ended up on a slow
old local bus which didn't look like it was going anywhere near the
airport and I figured we probably would either be dropped off somewhere
near the airport entrance or the bus would terminate and we would have
to catch it back to Guilin and try again. Sure enough the bus dropped
us off in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere, smiled and
pointed. A friendly tuk tuk driver offered to give us a lift for 20
yuan which was excessive and I declined with certainty and unpolitely,
which also showed my mood at that point.There were no English speaks
too be found anywhere so Vanessa made the universal sign for a plane
that a 3 year would make and a couple who also got off the bus made a
reciprocal gesture with their arms raised and pointed us in the same
direction as the bus driver had so we headed along with relative
confidence. I described to Vanessa what I would do to the tout if I
caught up with him. Luckily we got over a crest on the road and could
see the Guilin airport. So it was about a 1.5km walk from the bus
dropping us off to getting to the airport. Vanessa pointed out that the
tout did get us on a bus that got us to the airport (near enough) and
it didn't cost us any more than the expected price. This did not
improve my mood.
We watched a movie then checked in and
waited for our boarding...and waited...and boarding time came and went
and no call or plane. I asked the desk person but she spoke no english
and resorted to showing us a translation sheet which said that the
plane was delayed but couldn't tell me for how long. Hmmm. Then about
10 min later the plane turned up and we boarded about 10 min later.
Odd. It wasn't really a problem for us as we chose a late flight to
Bangkok to provide a lot of time buffering in case of delays.
So
we arrived at Guangzhou with about 4hr to spare. Such is life. Big
airport. We needed to find something to eat for dinner anyway but found
prices high. Even considered a chicken burger at mcdonalds but decided
that there were other options.There were plenty of 2 minutes noodles
for sale but no hot water available. Not much use. Then it dawned on
us that we had water and a mini kettle and all we needed was power. We
looked around and found a powerpoint. Excellent...beef noodles for
dinner for 12 yuan!(2AUD)
Time went pretty quick and we turned
up at check-in a few minutes before opening allowing us to be first at
the counter. Strangely even during the check-in process an asian was
standing right next to me with his passport as if he could check in in
parallel. Odd. I just spread my wings a little more widely. No such
thing as personal space...
We were flying air asia which is very
much like Virgin airlines. No frills. No first class. No food unless
pre purchased prior to the flight. Very basic but the staff were nice.
We were delayed for about 45min waiting for a late connecting flight
before heading off. It wasn't long before I snuck up to the front of
the plane to 3 empty seats and curled up for some sleep so the 3hr
flight was quite quick for me and we arrived at 140am. Another big fat
carbon footprint. Promise to plant a tree when I get back to Australia.
For
the first time in 2 years our bags were first onto the carousel then to
get to our hostel which was located near the airport. We headed over to
the taxi stand and found that it was much more expensive than we
expected so retreated back inside and found information. They told us
that the taxi stand was the best way to get to the hostel so we ended
back out there. I call them smiling gold tooth criminals and in this
case it felt like they were part of the taxi mafia. We asked the price
of a taxi at the front desk controller and she said it would cost about
200 baht (about AUD 8) but when we asked the driver about 5 metres
after driving off he said it would cost 400 baht. We corrected the
error in his ways and told him firmly it was 200 baht and probably
should be less. He should have been using his meter anyway.
We
arrived at the hostel without problem and our room was waiting for us.
It was still quite hot outside even in the early morning. We had booked
an economy room with airconditioning. Interestingly the wall
airconditioning unit had been divided by a room partition so that only
half of it was available to the room. Technically correct in the
description. Cheapskates.
We boiled some water before bed and
then I demonstrated by accident how to shrink a plastic bottle by
pouring boiling hot water from the kettle into it. Oops. A bit tired.
Next day.
Early
checkout. We found that we needed the services of a taxi again as it
was just less hassle to get to the old town section of Bangkok. The
cost estimate didn't include the 70 baht in tolls and the ride alone
cost 150 baht. Not too bad but when we arrived the driver pulled the
old 'I haven't got any change trick' and I told him he was doing his
bit for the gold tooth taxi drivers across the world. We managed to get
some change off the hotel front desk and he still decided to short
change us. I did notice at the time but decided it just wasn't worth
the effort for such a trivial amount. Well at least some things in the
world do not change.
We checked in then headed off to the weekend
markets. Well we jumped on a bus and hoped that we would find them.
There were plenty of other tourists so we figured that they were going
as well and decided we would get off the bus when they did. Good guess.
It was really hot in the markets. First day of heat for us and it was
tough. Day temperature is about 36 deg C. Too much for us at the moment
so we retreated back to the hotel. Same trick. Didn't know where to get
off but heard another tourist say our street so decided to get off when
she did. Worked perfectly.
Hid in the room for the heat of the
day and enjoyed the airconditioning before heading out for a wander to
one of the worlds most famous backpacker market streets - kao san. So
many tourists and not our usual travel companions. Feels a bit too much
like a tacky tourist theme park. We have decided that we need to get
away from the tourist trail and back onto the traveller trail ASAP.
Have we become travel snobs?
Bye,
David and Vanessa
