After a 4am rise, we took a shuttle bus from the Tune Hotel back to the LCCT airport for our flight to China. All went smoothly- fairly easy to navigate around the airport having been there before though there seems to be many more steps in getting through than in other countries especially compared to China where they were disinterested and you're just sent through with no check! We were grateful that our hotel had remembered to send a car to pick us up for a 1/2 hr trip into the city of 5 million- a small city for China. Our hotel was very Chinese from the pungent burning incense in hallways to the traditional furnishings- very comfortable - even the standard hard beds. The position was fantastic- away from the busy main streets and overlooking one of the lakes. Our toiletries trays included the usual plus stockings, feminine odour reducers (!) and a variety of condoms - though you did have to pay for them. We were a bit concerned it may have been a sign of the clients that utilise the hotel but all was fine.
We went exploring and booked a Li River Cruise from a hole in the wall travel agent - 100 yuen cheaper than the hotel but it was trusting of us (and scary) handing over money when you only get a receipt in CHinese that may not be authentic for the boat! What can you do? We continued to some back alleys and went into a tea shop where we tried some teas - presented traditionally by a local with no English and proceeded to buy a local black tea.
Guilin is mainly visited by Chinese tourists and hadn't much to offer us. A walk around the lakes was nice but apart from that we just felt like we were in another big city full of modern shops and hectic traffic. Close to the main streets you could find lanes with outdoor food preparations of chicken feet etc but not enough to recommend this place to anyone. Fine for a stopover. It was hard to find somewhere to eat, without a guide book, so we returned to a cafe we had seen by the lake and had a lovely meal of Guilin Beef Rice and spinach and pork dumplings. Mum is already having to accomodate a bit of heat in the food - the rice dish was mild for this area but FULL of chillies.
The next day we sat in the lobby half an hour early, waiting for our pick up for our boat trip, a little worried that no-one would show but at 8am precisely, a mini van arrived for us with an English speaking girl who clearly explained the procedure of being taken to a bigger bus after picking up a few more people (Chinese) and then being passed over to an English speaking guide who would accompany us on the boat. She also talked to us the whole way pointing out all the sights including every mountain that had a special name - all mountains look like something to the locals - one is even called Hello Kitty! The boat was a mix of Western and Chinese tourists although we were told that we pay more because we are separated! Our guide talked to us all the way on the bus to the pier about our trip and was very fluent and informative - the benefit of having a guide and a tour. The pier was similar to Halong Bay (on a slightly smaller scale) but probably had 30-40 boats available to follow each other down the winding river to Yangshuo. 4 1/2 hours of beautiful scenery from a comfortable vessel - a very relaxing trip. Haven't mentioned the weather! It's very cold and on this trip we noticed it quickly on the top deck when taking in the karst scenery. Probably around 10 degrees on this day but no drizzle which was perfect. The buffet lunch was generous and lovely - an unusual mixture of local dishes, cake and french fries - we tried just about everyting although we didn't know what some things were- something looked like eyeballs but tasted like chicken so that was ok. We were sitting with an Australian man from Bateman's Bay area and a friendly group of Chinese- lots of smiles, head nodding and gesturing to communicate. There was another group of 3 middle aged Australian males who we also chatted with. Although touristy, this trip was worth the money and time - a peaceful way to get out of boring Guilin.
