So here we are in China! We had a lot of hanging around at the airport yesterday, as we got there early, but then our flight was delayed by an hour and then we sat for quite a while on the Tarmac before we got the all clear to take off. We were served jasmine tea and biscuits on the short one hour flight to Guilin. We were met by our pre-booked taxi, and as the driver didn't speak a word of English and we didn't speak any Mandarin, we had a rather silent journey to our hotel. Well, silent apart from the occasional gasp from me as vehicles overtook each other in the path of oncoming traffic, and when our driver swerved from side to side now and again, as if just to check that his steering was still functioning! At least it reassured me that he was still awake, as most of the time it looked as though he was asleep.
The city of Guilin really noisy, even at night, with lots of traffic and people, and all the shops seem to be open late. Luckily our hotel is set up on a hill out of the town, so it's lovely and peaceful. We have an amazing view of the Li River and the towering limestone Karsts, which are everywhere in this area. We had dinner on the outdoor terrace, wonderful Chinese dishes, and lots of vegetarian choices too! The portions are enormous, I don't know if that's because they're trying to cater for western appetites, so we were really full up afterwards! This morning we had the Chinese breakfast option, dumplings, and noodles, which again was incredibly filling, so we didn't need any lunch. We walked into the town and spent about an hour trying to find a place where we could withdraw some cash, along with a French guy who was having the same trouble. Eventually we went to the Bank of China, and after filling in reams of paperwork Tony was able to change some English money, as the ATMs don't seem to like our card! We hired a couple of (pink!) bicycles, and joined the throngs of other cyclists, (this is more like it!), braving the chaotic traffic and headed for the famous landmark of Moon hill. We stopped en route to see a famous 1400 year old Banyan tree, which apparently features in a lot of Chinese legends. We were the only Europeans there, and we attracted a lot of attention - I think more people took photos of us than they did of the Banyan tree!
We made a lot of new Chinese friends among the other cyclists on the way to moon hill, as all the young people wanted to practise their English - most of them just said,'Hello, I am very pleased to meet you' and then pedalled off, giggling, but some were obviously studying English, and were really good - completely putting us to shame with our lack of Mandarin. By the end of the day though, we had at least learnt 'Hello' and 'thank you', so that helped. Climbing Moon Hill was a bit of a challenge, hundreds of steps, but it was worth the climb to see the wonderful view fom the top.
When we'd got our breath back, we made our way back down, which was equally challenging, due to the unevenness of the steps, and cycled back to town. I lost sight of Tony at one point, as I'd made a new friend along the way, who insisted on cycling REALLY slowly, while he was trying to think of English words. When I got to an enormous roundabout, with traffic going in every conceivable direction, I didn't know which way to go (as all the signs were in Chinese) so decided to get off and walk blindly around, hoping to spot Tony, which I eventually did, as he thought it had gone a bit quiet and noticed that I wasn't with him!
I'm now finishing this on Tuesday, as I ran out of time, not much more to add, except we had another delicious meal at our hotel, and have enjoyed meeting some of the other guests, who have been very helpful in advising us about things to do and places to go in the local area. So I'll go straight onto today's blog.........