Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
生日快乐 Clayton! You don't even know how long it took me to type that out. I know you would ask me the pronunciation, so the English characters are 'shengri kuaile'. Hope it's awesome!
Sorry about my unfinished entry yesterday, ending randomly with the word 'hot'. Fixed it. App was freaking out with the hostels slow wifi! Anyway, this morning we got up and walked our way down the main drag to the south gate of the Xian city wall. Xian is a massive city and the ancient city walls certainly don't encompass even half the city, but they enclose quite a decent amount and it contains a lot of the historic areas near to our hotel, such as the drum and bell tower and the Muslim quarter. We bought yet another entrance ticket and walked up the wall. We rented bikes and biked partly along the wall then back again, taking about an hour. When we had reached the east gate, there was a massive celebration going on, with fireworks, giant screens, music, and dragon dancers. The dancers were amazing, balancing on platforms and hopping on and off each others shoulders to make the dragon look as if it were rearing. It was really cool. Once we got off the wall, we headed back to the Muslim quarter to look at the stalls and seek out some lunch. We decided again on dumplings and soup, then walked around for a bit. It was crazy packed today, I guess being a Sunday. After a bit of poking around (you could watch the vendors cooking for hours.. It's really neat!) we sat in a square in the sun just to chill out for a bit, neither of us slept that well last night. Another guy came up and got a photo with me, and there were some more sneak attacks. Still don't get it.
At about 3 we went to grab our luggage then hopped on the airport shuttle bus near the bell tower. Xian was a good city. Busy, food was spicier then Beijing, less steamed buns, great dumplings, same fascination with white people, and there were actually a surprising amount of people that tried to help us out when we were confused (which is most of the time). Some people would come up and practice their English with us. It's just a pretty typical Chinese city; People spitting everywhere. Bikes and motorbikes around every corner. Cars trying to fit down impossibly narrow streets and honking the whole time. I'd come back, for the food and huashan if anything. I'd live to hike from the bottom to the very top of the mountain.
Our flight was air china and scheduled to leave at 6:20pm. But, characteristic to china, not only did we have a gate change but a 40 minute delay too. China.
We arrived in Guilin at 9pm. Guilins a pretty big city though and we had decided to stay about an hour and a half out, near a town called yangshuo. We had a debate: either taxi all the way, or bus to the train station, bus train station to yangshuo, then taxi to our hotel. I was for the former, mom for the latter as it would have been cheaper. I figured that we would get in well after midnight if we did the bus route though, so we shelled out for the taxi. We've already noticed that we have definitely passed into southern china's tropical climate. It's raining, the air is fresher, and it's warmer. Even at night it's 17 degrees.
We made it in just over an hour and I am shocked our taxi driver made it without getting lost, as our hotel is in the country, about 10 minutes out of yangshuo. We are staying at the giggling tree retreat, a restored eco farmhouse, and the rooms are beautiful. Large, with wooden floors and skylights. As we turned out the lights though, mom found a massive spider in her bed. I hate the tropics. Hate hate hate them.
- comments
Cfen Thanks Ali! and clearly the pictures are from you just being a dimer! How about you come home hey?