Levin has already been to Guilin for a work trip . . a work trip that was kind of a debacle in its purpose, but it meant he'd already ridden the bullet train to Guilin and had a little experience. Guilin is somewhere we've been thinking about for a long time as it is an amazingly beautiful place, but also somewhere within driving distance of our home in Guangzhou. Of course we don't have our car yet, but we were anxious to check it out so we took the fast train there.
I was a little confused when we arrived in Guilin and was told we had a 2 hour car drive still. What? I guess I should pay closer attention. We stayed in Yongshuo. According to our tour guide/owner of our very small hotel, Yongshuo is the county within Guilin (I think county is more like town) that is the most beautiful of the beautiful Guilin.
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| This guy just camped out in front of our kid so he could charge his phone. Leah and Oliver didn't seem to mind/notice so we just let it be. |
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| I have always loved seeing construction done with Bamboo scaffolding. There must be a lot of stuff being built around here. Besides seeing a lot of construction, in Guilin there were tons of shops selling building materials. |
We couldn't have asked for better hotel owners/tour guides. They hired a van to pick us up, and then when we arrived they were so friendly and so concerned for the children. We went on a walking path. If the kids look a little less than amused it is because it was extremely hot.
At the end of our walk we realized we'd had some miscommunication and had to walk the last stretch on the actual road to get to the restaurant they told us served western food. Walking single file down a road while cars, motor bikes, and bicycles pass you with occasional honking just to let you know they are there . . . is a little nerve racking. We arrived hot and sweaty.
I didn't get a picture of the food, but it was very Chinese for western food. The pizza crust looked pumpernickle, although it didn't taste that way. The waitress when we said we wanted the tomato sauce (there was another option) thought we wanted sliced tomatoes on our pizza. The "chicken steak" had skin on it and was definitely not chicken breast but I'mnot sure how they got the piece it was smashed into that shape. The fries came with a soy sauce based dipping sauce. Lance has a penchant for sugary drinks. He's never met one he doesn't like. And if he has one, he won't eat real food. But on this night . . at a restaurant that had no bottled water, and we just got over a bout of stomach sickness . . . I wasn't taking any chances. Lance had plenty of Sprite and Coke. Yes, I believe the principle that Coke kills what ails you so I made sure everyone had a sip at least. Lance had more than a sip, but I had to get something in his body right? We bought cold bottled water later . . . we seriously drank sooo much water, but it was so incredibly hot and humid.
Here we are back at our hotel. Isn't it beautiful? No buildings are allowed to be more than 4 stories high so as to not obstruct the view.
The view from our hotel room. Lance had to sleep in between me and Levin. The Coke came back to bite us. The next day, he had no Coke.
We tried to get an early start to beat the heat and the tourist. It is tourist season in China since the kids are out of school here, the same as in America. We went rafting on this beautiful river. It was quite shallow.
This buy pushed us along. So a little old lady forced used water guns into our children's hands. Initially, I was put off by it, but then I realized this might be the only way she eats today and the water guns cost $.90. We would have bought them at Dollar Tree if available so we paid the lady. And the kids had a great time getting wet. Other boats were serious about shooting each other with water, but we kept to ourselves. The rafts also come with more heavy duty water guns. We may or may not have broken one, the only one we tried. Oops. Half of it is at the bottom of this river now.
Later we took a walk to see some of the agriculture growing there. With the young people going to work in factories in the cities, there are only old people and children left to tend to the family farms. If the younger adults are making enough money, or the farmers have turned to making money off tourism in some way the farm land is no longer being planted. But there was plenty that was. This is rice behind Levin and Lance.
Later we drove up into the moutains to places less touristy. This is a village well. The first part they get drinking water out of. The second section is for washing fruits and vegetables. The third section is for laundry and the last section a girl was washing her dog in. I obviously didn't understand something because these people were doing this here at the well, but they also have the well water pumped into the homes.
They grow a lot of kumquats here. This was one of my favorite views . . the kumquat orchards, growing up the sides of the mountains, and the villages there, plus more of the gorgeous mountains. The villages were a big surprise to me. I expected "traditional" style homes. We did see a few of those, but they mostly look abandoned. The villages all have white buildings that are very boring if you ask me. There is very little beautification of the buildings either. I mean, not much color - I saw one that had a yellow front. No flowers are planted, not many curtains showing through the windows. In Russia on our "rural" trip the people are also poor, but have painted their houses beautiful colors with intricate window frames. Maybe when nature around you is so beautiful you don't feel the need, but with long grey Russian winters with white snow on the ground for a long time people feel more inspired to add color to their lives. Anyway, it was interesting to me.
That night we went into town, not by our hotel, and found a pizzaria that was actually quite good and less than half the cost of the previous night's restaurant. I had a pasta dish and Levin had a Chinese fried pork. I'm not mean enough/demanding enough that all our kids eat Chinese food. The pizza was "different" enough that we can't go completely native.
We had our first dragon fruit and passion fruit. We had breakfast at the hotel both mornings and it was good - toast, bacon, eggs, and fruit. The dragon fruit was rather plain so you could taste the seeds too much for my liking. Lance liked it however. The passion fruit was amazing though. I've had passion fruit mousse from Brazillian friends and I love it. The actual fruit did not disappoint. I'm hoping to find some here in Guangzhou.
Our kids had several opportunities for Chinese people to take their picture. In the entryway of our hotel they had a few toys and here is Lance being photographed like he is a celebrity.
Our tour guides/hosts and their family. They have four children and live at the hotel so it feels like we were staying with them in their home. We already have plans to visit them again. And just in case you were wondering, yes four children is unusual in China, but the whole one child policy thing is kind of not as strict as we perceive in America based upon my very non-scientific study. I admit I cannot communicate with too many Chinese people, but everyone I have communicated with . . either has more than one child or if they don't yet have any children, they grew up with siblings. I have literally yet to meet an only child or the parent of an only child. Levin has met a couple, but is also amazed it isn't more.
