The quadpod was now a tripod, but we had to press onward! We had a plane to catch in the morning and that meant an early rise. With a quick stop at a local bakery we were off to get a cab and well on our way to the airport.
I honestly wasn't expecting much out of the Guangzhou airport so I was pleasantly surprised to see how modern it was. There were electronic check-ins, plenty of shops, as well as the usual security. You know how in America we get testy if we get pulled out of line for a pat down? Well here they have a woman that gives EVERYONE a full pat down, from your shoulders to your ankles. Though I was surprised they never asked us to take off our shoes.
And yes someone tried to sell me an iPod out of his backpack while we were waiting for our flight. Apparently I don't really radiate "poor student" very well. But we did accept our airlines offer to have someone pick us up at the airport for 20RMB per person, nothing to fancy.
Our flight was quick and uneventful. We were seated in the back with almost no one around us which mean I had no one to chat up. Shame, I know, but at least it gave me time to catch up on my blog cause even now I'm still a day behind.
The Guilin airport itself is nothing impressive, though not small either. Once we were off the plane we freshened up and then met our driver and accompanying escorts downstairs. We would be sharing a van with 3 elderly people from Belgium and three Chinese guides. One guide, her name was Frances, sat next to me.
We chatted for awhile about Guilin (she's a local) and she gave us ideas for our trip, and she of course was more then willing to help us "schedule things." =) But I let that slide, it's her job. She also mentioned she was traveling to Shanghai and asked if I had recommendations for a hotel. So I gave her my number and e-mail address and said to contact me if she came into town. I like making friends.
We found our hostel with relative ease. Fairly close to the river, again, and right off of the city's main road. A nice find.
We didn't have towels in our room though so I went to the front desk to ask for some, but a guy was talking to receptionist so of course I waited. Apparently this guy had been traveling in China for so long that he wasn't use to people waiting on you to finish your conversation before jumping in to ask something. He said something along the lines of "o thank you so much for waiting, it's so polite, I'm use to the Chinese just jumping in and interrupting which I think is really rude." I thought to myself "dude thanks, but the receptionist is right there, try to remember to only bitch about Chinese people when they're not actually standing half a meter away from you." None the less we chatted and he's actually some sort of retired business guy from Singapore turned roaming vagabond. Interesting guy.
From here we started on our quest to find our plane tickets. We had purchased them online and they mentioned that they should be picked up at romm such and such in some building off the main road. Well what looked like a 15min walk on the map turned into an hour long trek. We were tired and exhausted.
Yet found the building! Now all we had to do was get to the 3rd floor. But wait the escalators were out and barred people from going up them. Luckily a merchant pointed us toward the back were there were elevators for employees. We got on and to our surprise when we pressed the 3rd floor button it wouldn't light up. Well this was getting a little strange, so we went to the 4th floor instead and took the stairs down to the 3rd flo… completely and utterly under construction. At this point I cracked and just started laughing hysterically.
Eventually we composed ourselves and headed back downstairs. A few phone calls later and we found out we could just check in at the airport normally. But we hadn't found the office yet and we were assured it existed. So despite the purpose of our quest being taken away our spirit had yet to fade.
We tried once more to find the store and failed again, but this time we found another shop keeper who knew exactly where it was and even lead us there. We then got the ticket vouchers that we really didn't need to get and were on our way.
Back at the hostel we called for a cab that would take us to and from the local caves. The caves were located right outside the city a little way into the mountains. To be honest the mountain themselves were much prettier then the caves. Abruptly rocketing from the earth the mountains are massive and adorned with a plethora of trees. Even my basic knowledge of geography allows me to understand that the seismic force needed to produce such geography is massive. And there isn't just one mountain they go on and on and on. But let's go back to the caves.
The driver dropped us off at the ticket counter and said he would wait here while we went in. The caves themselves was a 5min walk down the road, and of course we were asked if we wanted a ride, take a boat, or need a do-dad at least ten times, just part of it.
Inside the caves we tried to travel in between tour groups which were just chockfull of old white people. We even found a large group of French people which Sandra and Clement made fun of to no end. The stalagmites were beautiful. They reminded me of Atlas kneeling on the barren earth but motionless, and masterfully sculpted holding the heavens on his shoulders. I really didn't like the multicolored light shows and fake background music though. This was a cave, caves do not have birds chirping, they just don't. There was even a fake built in pools which annoyed me to no end.
Towards the end of our "spelunking" we paid an additional 5RMB to see insanely old turtles. They were rather big. I felt bad for them though, especially the giant sea turtle which was stuck in a really small pond. Also it's weird to me why a turtle expedition needs like 6-8 people to run it. There were 5 large turtles; do we really need so many staff wandering around, most of them doing nothing but staying out of the way? You better really like your colleagues because they have plenty of time to just stand around. A good high school job though cause they should have plenty of time to do homework.
Once we left the caves we asked our driver to drop us off at a nearby park that was supposed to be really pretty, but sadly they wanted to charge us 70RMB to get in. Instead we decided to walk along the river in the more local area of town which was rather pretty. We also happened to be walking along when all the school children got out. Chinese kids are so adorable!! Clement even tried to ask a group of them for directions but they ran away laughing. Stopping at a local shop ran by a granny (they're called "Nai-nai" pronounced "nigh-nigh", it's technically what you call the father's mother), and had fun buying a few nick-nacks. Sandra got a skirt, top and necklace. Clement just got a necklace, and I got a black bracelet with a tiger on it (I've named him Mr. Wang Jr., tiger's character is 王 which is my Chinese Surname, Wang).
Did I mention that peeing in public isn't a big deal? I think I saw at least four people peeing during our walk and at least one everyday during our little journey. This is particularly common for babies, where their parents would just hold them over a bush or side walk… or anywhere, actually. But kids and adults (always guys) have no problem whipping it out either. Just an unwanted observation.
Our touring of the day over, we went back to the main road and since we had been craving western food for awhile now we went to a Pizza Hut. *sigh* I can't wait to have pizza back in the States. It just sucks here plain and simple. The restaurant was nice though, very clean, and obviously a "special occasion" place, which means the price was also a bit high. My pepperoni, onion, and black olive pizza wasn't to bad, but there wasn't enough cheese and the sauce simply wasn't there, no joke.
Coming back from Pizza Hut we ran into a local event. Apparently each night a large number of merchants set up shop along the main street and sell various wares. Even though the same goods could be found at multiple stalls it was probably one of my favorite shopping experiences in China, merely because no one harassed us even when we stopped at their stalls. We were so please that we actually spent an entire hour just meandering along looking at various things.
Clement and I even bough a pack of cards that had Death Note art on them. I've always had a thing for cool playing cards and these look pretty awesome because they each have a various picture from the manga on it. If you have no idea what Death Not is you should definitely watch it or at least the very least wiki it (www.wikipedia.org). I did get really embarrassed though because I had counted out my money in my wallet but never actually gave it to the merchant, so when it came to leave the merchant was puzzled why I hadn't given him money. Well I thought I had so there was a small exchange back and forth until I finally recounted my money in my wallet and realized my mistake. =(
Sadly we encountered our first pickpocket of China. We were standing at a stall browsing some wares when Sandra suddenly felt a weight on her purse. So she just flung her purse around knocking the intruder's hand way. We didn't make to big a deal about it but it was clearly this small women standing next to Sandra. Luckily nothing was able to be stolen.
After our jaunt through the market we wanted to see the two pavilions in the middle of the city. They were quite pretty. As much as I loved the view I think I enjoyed the Chinese family next to us just as much. They were merely laughing and talking but with such vibrancy that I found it to be rather touching.
It was while we were sitting there I decided to flip through my cards when it suddenly occurred to me that in fact my ace of spades was missing. Surely I couldn't have lost it. Did the merchant sell me a crappy deck? I couldn't really go back and complain because of the money instance, he would think I was trying to cheat him and use the previous instance as proof. I got so desperate that I event ried to find the same deck at a different stall but to no avail. It wasn't till we were back in our room Clement complained that a few of his cards were stuck together that it dawned on me the same could have happened to mine. Sure enough right behind the joker sat my much needed ace of spades!
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