I just got back from, what is now, one of my favorite places in China. I kept hearing people talk about Guilin and how I needed to try to get there. I didn't understand why until I actually went. Now I know why everyone talks so highly about Guilin. I am now hopping on that bandwagon too. Get to Guilin.
We took a plane. We could have taken a train but we have done the train thing before and, trust me, flying is a better option, for more than one reason. While we were sitting in the airport waiting for our flight, I saw four foreign girls. This is strange because Guiyang doesn't have hardly any foreigners so I figured that they had to live there. Turns out that they are from Canada and they do live in Guiyang, teaching English. But in all this time, we have never ran into them anywhere. Which isn't that surprising when your city has more than 2 million people in it. They were also staying at the same hostel we were staying at. We quickly bonded and spent the rest of the weekend with them.
Our plane ride to Guilin was the shortest plane ride of my entire life. When we started landing, I was a little bit concerned that maybe we were just making an emergency landing and I didn't know it because they were only telling us in Chinese. It was that short. Thank goodness it was the real thing and it wasn't an emergency landing.
I know I have said it before, but I love hostels. I love the people that you meet there and their stories. We stayed at Wada hostel. If you ever go to Guilin, you need to stay there. It was comfortable, had a good vibe, and the Wada girls were so helpful.
{we had to sign the wall}
The first night that we were there we joined the hostel all you can eat BBQ. It was so fun to just sit around and get to know people from all over the world. There was a lot of food and a lot of beer. Someone even made the comment, "Wow, you guys know how to drink. Look at all the bottles on the table." There was a lot of beer. Shelby and I were the only ones not drinking. It is interesting to see how different our lives can be from other peoples lives. We don't drink, we don't smoke, we don't dress like everyone else, we don't look for the best bar or pub in town, and just little stuff like that. Before coming to China, I was never really around people that drank or smoked but now it seems like it is a common occurrence. I am so grateful for the standards that I have in my life and I am so grateful that I was taught from a young age to keep the commandments. You don't need to have a beer in your hand in order to have a good time.
You can't go to China and not go to a rice terrace, right? I don't think so either. While in Guilin, we went to the Longji Rice Terrace. It was amazing. It was so cool to see. We took the cable car up the terrace and then walked down. It ended up being a good thing that we took the cable car up because we got a little bit lost and wandered around the rice terrace not knowing where we were going. We quickly ran out of time and after a quick lunch looking over the rice terrace, we walked down the mountain. It was so neat to walk right through the terrace. We got to see farmers at work and people living their lives on the terrace.
{the ladies wrap their long hair into a bun on the top of their head}
We were also able to go on a couple bamboo rafts while we were in Guilin. The first one was down the Li River. It was amazing! So many good views. The Guilin mountains are beautiful mountains. This bamboo raft wasn't a real bamboo raft. It was pretty much made of rubber and it also had a motor. There were four people to this raft. But it was still so worth it. Unfortunately we had a raft guide who seemed to be more concerned about our safety than he should have been. We wanted to stand up and take pictures but he wouldn't let us move. It is disappointing because everyone else on all of the other rafts were able to get up and move around. Maybe he wasn't confident in our swimming abilities. I don't know, but we would have been just fine.
{our raft guide}
{this background is on the 20 yuan}
Next we got to take a real bamboo raft down the Lijang River. This river was located in the middle of a village. This raft didn't have a motor so our guide just used his long bamboo stick to navigate the raft. On the river we got to see a villager cormorant fishing. That is where the birds catch the fish. It was sweet! This bamboo raft ride was my favorite out of the two. The views were awesome and the water was pretty clear. I just wanted to hop in because it was so hot outside. After the rafting we got to feed and ride a water buffalo.
{fishing}
{typical chinese hat}
{famous guilin rice noodles}
{mango drinks}
The day we left Guilin, we rented bikes from the hostel and rode to the river and around the city. I didn't want to leave Guilin. Even though it was crazy hot and I was constantly dripping sweat because of the 80% humidity, it was a beautiful city. Rafting down the river on a bamboo raft and seeing the rice terrace has been one of my favorite things I have done in China.
It was a short trip but we had the best time ever. Our flight was delayed about five hours due to bad weather. Unfortunately, we were already at the airport when we figured this out so we got to spend that time just sitting in the airport. I really just wanted them to completely cancel the flight so we could stay in Guilin for one more night. It didn't happen.
It is strange to think that I only have one month exactly left in China. We all know how fast that time will go. It will be nice to get back and have a normal life again but I am sure going to miss all of the adventures that China has given me.
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