Our Big Explore: Guilin...

Thursday 3^rd Oct.

We got ready for our next stop Guilin. We already had booked a hard-sleeper train that was 20 hours drive. First we were fine with the circumstances, but after hearing some bad stories about the train rides, we got a little skeptical about it, but couldn’t and wouldn’t do anything about it. Thought we needed to experiences it, before we made the judgement.
So no big expectations and that’s probably why we didn’t get disappointed. We booked the top and the middle bunk bed.
There were unfortunately only two seats attached, to the six beds in our little room (not really a room, but the whole cabin is just filled with bunk beds, with no doors to the isle). We sat on the two chairs from the beginning, cause you couldn’t sit in your beds (it was only the lower beds, you could sit in proberly), and we didn’t wanna lay down for 20 hours.
The ride itselves was smooth and comfortable (also this 200 years old train, drove more smoothly on the tracks, than the newest danish trains does!!!), and the train was equipped with free hot water, so around dinner time everyone was having cup noodles, and of cause we brought that aswell. The toilet facilities was in a bad shape, both toilets were standing toilets and with no handles to hold on to, so your flexibility and balance were put in a test. And you definitely only went, when you really needed to. I saw one kid getting carried of his dad, while he was peeing, and he didn’t hit the toilet hole once, so you can imagine how it looked out there – and smelled. There was a sink, but no soap and nothing to dry your hands in.
The people didn’t bother us during the afternoon and evening, but in the morning the chinese people started to get really noisy, eventhough they sat right next to each other, they spoke so redicilious loud, and at some point we started to do the same to each other, just to try to make them realize how loud they were, but they didn’t even notice that we were making fun of them. Anyway we got to our destination and felt reliefed of get out of the train. We will not hesitate to do it again, for sure worth saving that much money. For both of us we payed 677 RMB (610kr) for over 1600 km train ride.

Friday 4th Oct.

In Guilin we took a public bus, towards the hostel we already booked in advance, luckily we meet another backpacker (Leah) that was going in the same direction, so we got lost together with her a few times, before we found the hostel. We booked a 6 beds dormetry room, but apparentely the hostel made a mistake, so we got a double room for the first night, for the same amount of money (the next morning we had to change to the dormetry).
We went out for a short walk around the area, and had lunch with the girl – Leah (from Boston), that we just met, now we could tell that we were far away from the big cities – there was horse and dog on the menu cards… In the afternoon we chilled, at the hostel and did some research for our next destination, Yangshou.
The evening went by with a walk around the beautiful lake just near by, and enjoying a beer on the waterside. We are really getting use to streetfood, so we had that for dinner, but we’re also still curious about what we’re eating. We’re always asking what kind of meat it is, but most of the times they can’t tell us, so that’s when we start to imitate the animals noises and movements. That usually makes the locals laugh at us, but we’re getting use to that aswell, but they understand us, and that’s the most important thing.

Later in the evening, we went for 30 min. food and 30 min. back massage, that came to 200 RMB for both of us. That was sooo well-deserved for our bodies and a great experience, eventhough Erik hesitated when he realized that he was getting massage from another guy. Got seriously tired after an hour of relaxation.

Saturday 5^th Oct.

We (us + Leah) wandered around town, walked by the riverside and watched some more foodmarkets. For the first time we saw the chickens kept in a cage and small snakes in net. Pure animals!!
We enjoyed lunch in a local restaurant that served raclette, he didn’t understand a word english, so we pretty much just pointed, at the stuff we wanted and got a lot of food, which we fried on the pan on the table. In order not to get it to stick on the pan, we poured a lot of oil on it, so everything we got was really greasy. I mean it tasted good, but afterwards, it was like when you have visited Mc Donalds, and ate way too much, and you just feel overfull and dirty inside.

In the afternoon we planed to hike a limestone mountain in the middle of the city, and watch the sunset from the top. Unfurtunately there was a lot of clouds in the sky, so it wasn’t as beautiful, as it could have been. But still a fantastic view over the city, and all the limestone mountains . We stayed on the top until it got dark, and walked down with usefull help from our headlamps. We spend the night with researching, beers and writing our blog.