Mix Hostel was located right in the center of town providing easy access to the modern panda conservation center. Bus #1 took us all the way there – after ninety minutes that is. Funny thing happened. Our big #1 bus had just switched to a mini #1 bus, one that was extremely overcrowded and smelly. I was smashed up against the dirty windows and Niki had some three foot Chinese lady standing on his feet. Lucky Cara was crammed in the back on a seat measuring 2 inches by 3 inches. As the bus pulled up to the exit gates, the ticket collector shouted something (as they always do) and half of the people disembarked and walked three meters outside of the gate thing. Then the bus drove out and they all got back on while the guardsmen and police watched. Apparently, overloading a bus is only illegal at the actual checkpoint. Before and after is just dandy! Great enforcement of laws they have here.
The pandas were fantastic! I was very impressed with the facility that housed over forty pandas. The animals all looked in good health, were given plenty of food, and had enormous pens to wander around. Being the animal lover that I am, I usually dislike visiting any type of zoo or aquarium. However, this was the only opportunity to visit the endangered bears while in Chengdu. Niki, Cara, and I spent a few hours wandering around and enjoying the scenes. The bears were pretty lively in the morning as they rolled around in their breakfast bamboo and put on cute antics for the viewers. We also saw the nursery where Cara and I oohed for much too long. Niki finally had to pull us away by our elbows.
A Bit of Chengdu
Our Chinese tastes have expanded. We tried hot pot one night – no picture menus but we managed to receive an array of eatable dishes. Hot pot is a popular Chinese cuisine experience – give it a whirl if you ever get an opportunity. The customer sits around a table with various selections of meat and veggies. In the center of the table are two boiling pots of broth, one “spicy” and another “spicy #2.” The raw food is then thrown into the pot to tumble and twirl in the steaminess until thoroughly cooked. Great food – Only downside – we didn’t have anything to drink and were all bright red in the face by the end of the meal. Gotta love the spice!
Birthday celebrations followed as we joined Niki for some drinks that evening – only a mere twelve hours after his actual birthday. Although we had big plans for a night out on the town, our group didn’t go far and, instead sat in the common area of Mix hostel throwing back liter bottles of Quing dao. Eventually, we also found some stale vodka on the shelf which we decided went perfectly with some equally flat 7-UP. The night ended pleasantly when we found out that we had some visiting rats in our hostel room! I wasn’t bothered until I found out they had eaten my apple and possibly walked around on my bed. It left some present behind. Never a dull moment.
Round and round we go
Our traveling posse broke up the following afternoon when Tim and Niki boarded a flight to Kunming. Cara and I then headed to the train station (this time making sure to get off at the right stop) and hopped on a night train to Guiyang. This one was nineteen hours and, despite the weirdly creepy man with the leg twitch, we arrived into the pouring down rain of Guiyang with few hours of semi-sleep. Then our problems began.
Plans never work out properly. We were suppose to catch a night bus bound for Guilin that evening. The LP stated that the fare would be a mere 108 Yuan, a surprisingly good bargain for Chinese transportation. Being the cheap hopefuls that we are, we took a taxi clear across town where we then discovered that the bus was three times that price. Well, neither or us wanted to pay $50 US for a bumpy, dirty old bus so back into a taxi we went to our starting point at the train station. There, we bought tickets for another night train that was due to leave in thirty minutes. Of course there were only soft sleepers available but Cara and I were not going to spend a wasted day hanging out in the rainy, one horse town. This train lasted twenty hours- oh boy. Do the addition – we spent nearly two whole days on a train. Never want to do that again.
The soft sleeper was nice – the beds were a tad bit softer than the rigid platforms of the hard sleepers. However, we had nothing to entertain us. After five hours of reading and playing cards, we decided that we needed some local Chinese to keep us occupied. Our own company was boring us. At least in the busy 2nd class carriages we can talk among ourselves about the staring, spitting, and snoring that always keeps us alert. To waste time, we decided to go on a “date” to the dining cart for dinner. Very exciting prospects but it wound up to be a lost cause – the dining cart didn’t have beer and every dish was made of some inner organ or shredded bone. Cara and I trudged back to our room with hanging heads. We then tried to flag down the little man with the food cart for some tasty treats. However, maybe our twenty plus hours of traveling made us look haggard for he just looked at us, grimaced, and walked off. Luckily, always prepared as I am (thanks mom), I had a supply of bananas. With Cara’s chocolate biscuits, we sustained ourselves through the night until our 2 a.m. arrival in Guilin.
Backstreet Backpackers hostel was closed for the evening (as it should have been at 2:56 a.m.). However we had nowhere else to go at that point and were getting a little frustrated, worried, exhausted, etc. With a little door pounding we brought the sleepy little reception girl to the door and finally fell into a comfortable bed for the rest of the night. The morning brought even more surprises. We thought the hostel was a good catch until we discovered that the advertised “24 hour hot showers” was actually ONE luke warm spit of water located in reception next to the squat toilet. The en suite rooms had cold water, not an exciting feature on an rainy day. Nevertheless, Cara and I tramped down the three flights of stairs each morning in our pajamas to shower in the very public showers – have to get our money’s worth right?
Guilin is a favorite destination for Chinese tourists. The streets were teaming with families and happy couples on holiday – for good reason as there are plenty of reasons to come to Guilin, the fantastic shopping being one of them. We stayed a few days and spent some time sight seeing the various parks and temples. Then it was on to Yangshou, our current home away from home.
