Guilin, and When We Discovered Dragons

Guilin was a great change from the odd experience that was Guangzhou (just perhaps, Dennis and Andy might have been right).

Guilin is a lovely 'town' with a natural beauty on just about each street corner.  It is as if someone took Ha Long Bay, drained all of the water out, turned the boats into buildings, gave everyone electric motorbikes and turned all of the signs Chinese.  

Walking along the river in Guilin

Finding the way from the north train station to our hostel, after a fast train from Guangzhou (248 km/h), was an adventure that involved: using my backpack as a blocker  to get on the bus (much like in an American football game) and walking through the walls of a Ming Palace.  The Ming Palace Hostel was more like a hotel and with the exception of heavy metal music during breakfast (selected by a nice guy who introduced himself by his English-name 'Jelly'), I would certainly recommend it.

Inside one of the 'rockparks'

Shrines on the canal

It was just such a lovely place to walk around.  The river runs through Guilin to Yangshuo, a place we intended to visit, and would have but for a miscommunication on which station the bus left from.  Instead, we walked the river and side-streets of Guilin, discovering rock-parks and small shrines all about the place.

Guilin is a great launching point for a visit to the Long Ji and Jin Keng rice terraces, also known as the Dragon's Backbone.  Sa Pa was a beautiful place, but for sheer size, the Long Ji terraces blow it out of the water.  They are a testament to human's ability to adapt their environment to suit their needs.  Although I saw many terraces during my time in Nepal and even Cambodia, it was never really as close or as intimate as either of these experiences.  Unfortunately, the weather hampered our photographic experiences.

We spent four nights climbing about the various viewpoints in the area, with two nights in Ping'An village and two nights in Dazhai.  We happened to be in Ping'An at the start of what I would have to describe as the field preparation season, and to celebrate a huge festival erupted in a town nearby.  With fire-crackers and food and music and loudspeakers, everyone celebrated the time when the fields are ploughed in preparation for the planting of rice.  Workers abounded with their tools slung carelessly across their backs and the local women poured into the streets offering us to take photos of their long hair (like Chai and the H'Mong people, they never cut it).

Towards the festival

The whole area is experiencing a construction boom - much like in Pokhara - required simply to accommodate the thousands of daily Chinese tourists.  So much so that really the most peaceful time we had was our early morning hike (about four hours) between Ping'An and Dazhai.  

On the peaceful walk to Dazhai

Through the valley

Not that I am complaining, the whole time there was wonderful, and while there were many tourists of all shapes and sizes, you could not wish them away, the views were just too good.  While on the walk, we had a breakfast just by the viewpoint 'Nine Dragons, Five Tigers'.  It was quite difficult to work out how to order, or even to be sure that they were preparing something for us, but in the end there was nothing to worry about because we got exactly what we were after, the mainstay of Chinese breakfast - noodle soup.

The Dragon's Backbone

From the Jade Buddha viewpoint

One has to use their imagination, much like at the caves of Ha Long Bay to see the shapes inherent in the names of the viewpoints, but I think that Dragon's Backbone is the most apt.  Other spots we visited had names such as 'Seven Stars & Moon' & Jade Buddha viewpoint.

Costs for things that matter:

• Local bus (Qingtan bus station to Long Ji gate) - 21RMB /person
• Bus from gate up to Ping'An - 10RMB /person
• Village entrance fee (pay once and stay as many days as you like) - 100RMB /person
• Accomm - 100-150RMB /double room

Bamboo Rice and smoked sausages

Tips:

• Do the lovely walk between Ping'An and Dazhai in the early morning, before the tourists and heat come out to play.
• Pick a hotel in Dazhai considering where the sun will be, it can be freezing if you are always tucked in the shade (we were there in April).
• Guilin - don't go to the wrong bus station to get the bus to Yangshuo - hint: it's not Qingtan.
• If we weren't watching the budget, it would have been great to try the bamboo chicken in Ping'An.

Locked in a disabled bathroom in China

People say that it is hard to get around China if you don’t speak Mandarin, at least compared to other countries were you don’t speak the official language. They are not wrong. I have found China more challenging than most every other country I have been to, even with my miniscule amount of primary school Mandarin. Some interesting experiences so far:

Failure to locate food in the third largest city in China!

We found ourselves in the centre of Guangzhou unable to locate any food.* Wholesale shops full of clothes, yes, but no food. 

I also have a ridiculous problem that I am embarrassed to admit. Growing up in Melbourne and going to the schools I did, I have been surrounded by elements of Chinese culture and food. I didn’t realise this until now, but unfortunately this means that I have a strong association between Mandarin characters and food. This has resulted in me thinking I have found a restaurant any time there are big characters out the front of almost any shop. Yes, like I said, embarrassing!

*We eventually found food but it took a minor hike!

We did find a lot of mannequins!

Getting stuck in a disabled bathroom!

I managed to get stuck in a disabled bathroom at Guangzhou train station. I had forgotten my personal supply of toilet paper tissues and upon seeing it wasn’t provided in the female toilet (the norm), I ventured into the disabled toilet. The light didn’t work and apparently the lock was faulty. I completely panicked with images of an IT Crowd episode flashing in my mind (the one where Roy gets caught using a disabled toilet in the cinema and pretends someone stole his wheelchair!) I tried the lock a dozen times, banged on the door and yelled lots before remembering that disabled toilets often have a panic button. Feeling my way around the bathroom I found the toilet and a button. On the other end was woman speaking Chinese…and luckily a tiny bit of English! Relieved, I spent a long time explaining I was stuck. Unfortunately I did not know if I was in the south toilet block or not. She told me to wait. This was of course when I tried the door again and, easy as you like, it opened. I’m still not sure if the gaping cleaner outside had let me out or if I was losing my mind. Luckily we had lots of time to make our train still and when I found Rob again, he wasn’t the least bit concerned!

Urgent bush toilet situation in the rice terraces*

During our time in Ping’An I had an unfortunate run in with an upset stomach. Around the half way mark of a 1.5 hours walk to one of the rice terrace viewpoints it struck. The need for a bush toilet was urgent and this was not one I will forget; there aren’t many places to go when you are amongst rice terraces. I will spare you the rest of the details, except to say it is not an experience I wish to repeat!

*Unrelated to language challenges but a challenge nonetheless! 

Lost in communication?

*Asking for tea at a random village between Dao Zhai and Ping An and receiving puffed rice in soup.

*Singing a line of a Mandarin song I learnt in primary school in the hope that a child nearby would know the song and teach me the rest of it.

*Potentially sitting in the restaurant car of a 21 hour train ride when we were meant to be at our own cabin. (Clue: the conductors were eating their meals there.)
*Fooling our ten year old neighbour into thinking I spoke Mandarin for the first few hours of a 21 hour train ride. Playing UNO to overcome all language barriers.

*Communicating with waitresses at a tiny café dedicated to mangoes via a smart phone translation application.

Puffed rice soup thingo with my little friend

Rob and our 10 year old neighbour - our most enthusiastic UNO special rules player yet

Tiny mango shop in the middle of a shopping strip in Guilin

Sunset and Sunrise Mission 2015! (Part 1)

I thought it would be nice to have a Sunset and Sunrise Mission for the year. (Okay, if I am honest, it was initially just a Sunset Mission but I thought I'd make it more enjoyable/easier.) The aim is to see a sunrise or sunset in every country we visit. Here is our progress so far:

Malaysia
We have already blogged on our failed attempt at finding a sunset spot in Kuala Lumpur, and we really did not have many other tried at it. Luckily, on our trip to Pulau Selingan we caught the below sunset before we were ushered off the beach in case the turtles arrived to hatch. It was not spectacular but at least we have one to show. (And we will always remember Rob hacking at a coconut for half an hour while I did laps on the sand!)

Pulau Selingan

Nepal 
Nepal likes to turn on the fog or up the pollution in time for sunset. From Kathmandu you cannot see much at all and Pokhara sunset was rather disappointing. We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise at Poon hill but I really like this shot from Chitwan National Park. (Taken around the time Rob was looking for a brown crack.) 

Elephant in a Chitwan sunset

Vietnam
Phu Quoc purportedly provides the best sunsets in Vietnam. Whilst we did enjoy saying goodbye to the sun from the beach with cocktails there, we think our Mekong sunset took the cake for Vietnam:

Phu Quoc March sunset

Mekong fishing village

Cambodia
As it was severely hot in Siem Reap, we got up before dawn and rested during the middle part of the day. On our second morning at the temples we visited Banteay Kdei and Srah Srang and I captured this couple a bit after sunrise. 

Sunrise from Banteay Kdei looking towards Srah Srang

On our third day at the temples we spent some time trying to capture the beauty of Angkor Wat. 

Angkor Wat

Hopefully there are more sunsets and sunrises in our future- stay tuned!

Hanoi

Although it might seem like it from our recent posts, we didn’t spend our whole time in Hanoi playing the “It’s a 3-way!” or avoiding buying every item under the sun! By Hanoi we really needed some relaxing time and it was Easter after all. We strolled around Hoàn Kiếm Lake, visited the cathedral, enjoyed coffee(s) in the French Quarter, promoted our blog, tried bia hoi (the local beer), sampled the local cuisine and checked out the temple of literature. I think Hanoi has a really nice atmosphere and it is accessible by foot. I always find being near water very peaceful and Hanoi is no exception. I really enjoyed coming back to Hanoi at a time outside of Tet.

Accommodation recommendation

Our hostel in Hanoi, Golden Time was easily one of the best on our trip to date. After the worst experience so far it was so nice to be met with a friendly smile and welcome drink. (And later welcome mango or welcome lollies...) Golden Time 3 is a bit more central (and more expensive) but either are good locations.

One of many lake strolls

Hanoi's Cathedral at Easter Time (Parents are there for school pick-up!)

Coffee's in the French Quarter

Zoom in for my message: blog promotion at wonderful note cafe!

Rob sampling some bia hoi

Concentrating at the Temple of Literature

It’s a three-way!

Though not everyone has heard of it, the game “It’s a three-way!” has a long and proud history. Here is how it works:

Players: 1 or more people

Location: most places

Equipment: eyes, ears and a certain level of brashness

Aim: to locate three particular items at once thus creating a ‘three-way’.

Instructions to play:

Any player must spot the following items and say the required phrase:

1. Dog                        Say “Zitch dog” – credit to “How I Met Your Mother”

2. Postal box              Say “Do you need to post anything?” (Other players answer)

3. Yellow vehicle        Say “Spot it motorcycle/car/scooter/bike”

When all three are located in the same vicinity the player/s must yell with pride:

“It’s a three-way!” (causing embarrassment/confusion/excitement to those around them.)

“Three ways” happen a lot in Melbourne but rather less as we have plodded around South East Asia. When Rob and I landed in Hanoi we started to notice the postal boxes were more conspicuous that other places. This had often been the missing link. Every country has had oodles of dogs (even dogs shaved to look like lions or dogs in Winnie the Pooh costumes) and at least some yellow motorbikes/cars, but postal boxes have been harder to come by. 

I told Rob on our last day in Hanoi if we didn’t “get” a “three-way” then I would manufacture one for the blog. Around 5 minutes later I found a post office to send a painting home from. There was the post box, next-door was a small dog and flying past I found a yellow scooter!

“IT’S A THREE WAY!” I yelled on the busy streets of Hanoi.

Noone really noticed too much…

As I took the photo of the dog, the owner probably thought that I mustn’t have seen a dog before! Success…was mine..and Rob’s! We live in anticipation of our next three-way. What country will it be?

Would you like to buy some bread?

Tet 2008 Hanoi: 23 year old Kathryn wanders the empty streets. The only thing left are garbage collectors cleaning up after the celebrations the night before and a few vendors. One such vendor has a megaphone with a recorded voice on repeat. In Kathryn’s mind it is clearly asking, “Would you like to buy some bread?” Mainly because one time she saw them, they were indeed selling bread. *

Would you like to buy some bread?

Flash forward to 2015: Kathryn and Robert arrive to stay with Tim and Steph in Ho Chi Minh City. They ponder on the various vendors’ announcements. Kathryn reignites her idea that they are asking if you want bread. Robert favours this idea. From then on, whenever a street vendor is nearby, they ask, “Would you like to buy some bread?”

They ask this even when it is clearly not bread…

BUT…

Flowers

OR

Hats

OR

Pineapples

Or

Fruit

Or

Face masks

..and much, much more. 

Because the fact is, in Vietnam you can buy almost anything from the street and often it will come to you (even if you don’t want it!).

Having fun

* Steph and Tim told us all about the guy they used to hear in their old Ho Chi Minh neighboured who used to yell what sounded like: “I kil-led my dog!"