The rice terraces hike is one of the highlights of the Guilin region and I have infact found Guilin rice noodles in a Perth supermarket. What I loved about this weekend was the joy of travelling with this group of people. It all started quite vague and last minute but by then Nick and I are used to this. So we packed the absolute minimum got into our hiking gear and joined a group of 10 students and another volunteer Sylvia. We all contributed 250 Yuan ($37) each, not really sure what this was covering but Richard was the organiser and we trusted him. We all boarded the local bus to Guilin in jovial spirits and an hour and half later were enjoying lunch in a small restaurant in Guilin. When Richard insisted on paying it started to fall into place, the Chinese usually travel in groups, Nick and I were unusual in that there was only two of us and we were finally experience how the real China does the tourist thing – and it was great, the added bonus for us was that we had 10 fluent Mandarin speakers to sort out absolutely any little problem that came up – bliss. So then we got to watch Richard bargaining for 2 mini vans to transport us up to Longsheng and he used the walking away technique, just like Nick and I had been practising! So any way what seemed like an argument turned out to be a very satisfactory arrangement. The drivers then accompanied us up the mountain to our hotel enjoying the fabulous views of the rice terraces, I met a couple from Narrogin and one of our students helped them with the language barrier. The next morning we got out early to enjoy the views before the mist settled in and unfortunately that was the end of our viewing pleasures as the mist was low that day. So the 250 Yuan covered transport, entrance fee’s, meals and accommodation! Actually we got a 4 Yuan refund, but don’t tell Nick as I pocketed his.
