By Richelle
Thursday 5th of October 2017
Guilin is what comes to mind when you think of a Chinese city. Not the famous UNESCO world heritage packed cities of Beijing and Hangzhou, but a simple, functioning socialist style city. It's impeccably clean, the buildings come in all shades of grey and white and the streets are wide and spacious and splashes of colour come in the form of celebratory looking street flower arrangements. It even boasts a clean looking canal that runs around the outer ring. We had only expected to stay a night here to be within driving range of the airport, but, due to the Longsheng accommodation debacle, we ended up staying two.
We were greeted by the smiling faces of Cyndi and her boyfriend at around midday as we walked down and out of the town towards the bus station. The road seemed to have quadrupled in length and it took a little while to arrive. It didn't matter in the slightest though, we waited another hour and a half before the bus decided to leave. The ride from the rolling rice fields was long and squashy. We were piled in along the back seat of the bus where everyone fell asleep within a few minutes. Everyone except me. My Chinese neighbour had somehow perfected the art of chewing a mandarin peel in her sleep and making a variety of sounds with her gums and lips. Fast forward a few hours and we were back in Guilin. We said goodbye to the couple who had saved our lives, promising a catch up in London in a few years.
Our hostel was within walking distance of the centre of town. Not missing out on a profit opportunity, they, like everyone else in the country, had doubled their room prices, making a dorm bed the same price as what a double should be. It was annoying, but whatever. I took a squeaky top bunk and Daniel squeezed in around someone else's luggage to find his bed. Sleeping in dorm rooms hasn't really bothered me up until now. Over the next two nights, I would clock a total of 6 hours sleep. The room was a swinging door of comings and goings. Light on at 3am, light off. Bathroom light left on. Bathroom door left open. Kids screaming in the hall way. Adults yelling in the hallway. Chinese couple watching videos. Chinese couple whispering. Chinese couple leaving lamp on. Swedish man snoring. It was the worst.
The kitchen did cook good food though, that kind of made up for the lack of sleep. There was also a really cute baby who remained relatively quiet when left in his pram, but became a tornado of noise in a wheelie chair that provided him with the balance and speed his growing legs could not yet provide.
Guilin is famous for its Sun and moon twin towers. And for its 2 rivers and 4 lakes. We spotted them from the road and were half expecting to have to hand over some yuan to see them, but to our surprise it was free. We wandered around the bank a little further trying to find the art institute. We found mooncakes and ice cream, a street full of western brands and an atm, but no art institute.
Feeling extremely hot and tired, we headed back to the hostel, ready to pack our bags and fly out to a place that's lived vividly in my imagination most of my childhood, Xi'an.