Thursday 13th November 2014
Reed Flute Caves – Elephant Trunk Hill
Fubo Hill – Guilin Bravo Hotel – Sun & Moon Pagodas
Our alarm rang at 7am today. Our guide is meeting us in the hotel’s lobby at 8.50am and we are going to the airport and flying direct to Guilin.
We set off from home a week ago today and we have seen so much already. My highlights off the top of my head are: the lady in the Temple of Heaven Park and Anne and I stretching our legs with her, the Great Wall, the Muslim Quarter and the Terracotta Army.
There was lots of traffic as we travelled to the airport. Many vehicles switch lanes and push in without any indication, bad driving appears to be the norm.
Jessica was her usual informative self and told us that there are twenty thousand English-speaking tour guides in Xi’an alone. Her husband is also a guide; apparently he speaks better English than her (although we all agree that she speaks excellent English). She told us he corrects her if she uses an American word or phrase and says that she must use correct English. Jessica explained that due to the huge population in China there is a lot of competition. She added that employers tend to believe that their employees lose their drive and enthusiasm after 10 years in a position and are therefore often demoted. Apparently she worked her way up to be Head of Housekeeping in a 5* hotel. Then, after 9 ½ years, a much younger and less experienced member of staff was promoted above her. This, she told us was a great loss of face and she left the position shortly after and retrained to become a guide. She has been a guide for just three years. She says that in another 3 or perhaps 4 years she will again rethink her career and retrain in a different area. She now sees all of this as something positive and says it makes them push themselves more and learn more. We said farewell to Jessica at Xi’an airport, she has been an excellent guide and we would all highly recommend her. We now know that it isn’t the regime telling guides not to offer too much information, it was just that Li Biao was a very poor guide.
At the airport the four of us jog our memories about the small town of Guilin and flick once more through our guidebooks. Although we all read a lot before we came, the information all seems to meld together and it is therefore good to refresh our minds. We all decide that we would like to see the sun and moon pagoda illuminated this evening.
Dave and I had chosen an aisle and middle seat on the flight. The man who was sitting next to the window didn’t give me a chance to stand up and move to the aisle to let him in, he just pushed passed me and you know how much room is in front of you on an aeroplane seat!! During the flight the guy sitting next to Pete and Anne hacks loudly and spits into the waste bag. Anne and I catch each other’s eye and grimace, we will never ever get used to this, but I suppose if you have been doing it since you were a child, it is the norm.
On our original itinerary we were scheduled to go directly to our hotel after arrival in Guilin. However due to a direct flight to Chengdu (next Tuesday) not being available during the winter months, we will have to take a flight to Chongqing and then a two hour train journey to reach Chengdu. Because of this there will be insufficient time to do the planned sightseeing on the day that we leave Guilin. Therefore we must do it this afternoon. When we were first notified of this change we were concerned that we would run out of daylight hours and suggested that we went directly from the airport and we also agreed to omit the Seven Star Park from our itinerary. So we will be visiting the Reed Flute Caves, Elephant Trunk Hill and Fubo Hill when we arrive.
Marco our guide for this stage of the holiday introduced himself at the airport and we were quickly ushered to our vehicle and on our way to the Reed Flute Caves. Marco kept telling us to use our imagination and see different things ‘within’ the rock formations. He pointed out unusual shaped stalagmites and stalactites that could be perceived as animals, a snowman and even a Christmas tree .. Although beautiful, Dave and I felt that the caves had too many colourful lights and we would have preferred to see the natural beauty. It could have been softly illuminated to enhance the wonderful shapes and crevices. There was a small lake in a cavernous area of the cave, its reflections were beautiful and it’s depth appeared endless.
We stood and admired the reflections whilst also watching a light show; this was followed by a short excerpt from one of the scenes from Swan Lake projected onto a glass screen.
While travelling to our next stop Marco informed us that the cormorant fishing show which was on our schedule for one of the two evenings while we were in Yangshuo would indeed be this evening. We were dismayed, as we had already planned our evening, after further probing we believed that Marco had decided this himself. Saturday was our free day and also would be his too unless he and the driver had to come out to accompany us to the fishing show. He had already told us that the Impression Show was booked for tomorrow evening. We firmly told him that we didn’t want to change the day. We explained that we had already had many changes and indeed Joyce, the manager in Beijing had told us there wouldn’t be any more and to ring her if there was the slightest problem. This seemed to do the trick, and he said ‘whatever you want’, if you want to go on Saturday, it’s okay’.
We were pleased that Marco like Jessica was informative, telling us about the area, that Guilin is a small town and it’s name means ‘Forest of Osmanthus Trees’. He also told us about life in general in China. Apparently Marco’s baby brother was born four and a half years after himself, and just three days before the one child policy rule came to his small village. Therefore the date this baby was born saved his father a great deal of money in taxes to the government. Our guide went on to say that there are 8 million Chinese people without an identity, due to this 2nd child policy. This means that they can only go to primary school until they are nine years old. They cannot go to high school, or to university, neither can they get married due to the fact that officially they do not legally exist. He hopes that now the one child policy is being relaxed things may alter for these people.
Our next stop was Elephant Trunk Hill, a well known landmark of Guilin, so named as it resembles an elephant drinking water from the River Li. We then visited Fubo Hill, one of the many karsts that can be seen in this area. We saw a cave with Buddhist sculptures at the bottom of this karst and then we climbed to the top. It took us just ten minutes to reach the peak of this karst.
The light was fading quickly so we only had a few minutes to enjoy the view of Guilin and it’s surrounding landscape.
The descending sun disappeared into the mist. The karsts in the distance appeared like shadows of the ones in the forefront. We returned to the bottom of the hill where a statue of General Fubo, who the karst is named after stands.
Marco advises us that our hotel is situated in two different buildings and that we have been upgraded to the five star one. Great! It has an outside swimming pool on the ground floor, which is surrounded by pretty plants.It is a very tranquil setting. It is of course not the time of year to swim outside, our last hotel did have an indoor pool but with our hectic schedule we didn’t even get round to seeing it!
Our hotel room is fabulous; in fact, it must be one the best that we have stayed in. The bathroom is luxurious with a huge shower cabin and ohhh the deep bath with its gold coloured fittings, complimentary deluxe bath oils and huge soft fluffy towels are so tempting! However, there is so much to see here in Guilin and we have given ourselves just 50 minutes to freshen up and change. We are then meeting up again with Anne and Pete. Our 50 minutes included two visits, one from a maintenance man to fix the telephone. The other was a maid offering to turn back the bed, when I told her it wasn’t necessary she pressed one single wrapped polo mint into my hand – oh well, we’ll have to share it!
I suspect that my right eardrum burst again on the flight but thanks to the health centre at home, I have the medication and I start treating it immediately.
We walked to the Sun and Moon pagodas. They are stunning and are built in the Buddhist style. They are subtly illuminated when the sun goes down. We sat by the lake for a while enjoying the wonderful setting and a beer. Then it was time to go to the so named ‘waterfall’ hotel that Marco had suggested we visit. The Chinese have another Guinness book of records entry for the world’s biggest artificial waterfall in the world.
Every evening at 8pm the exterior of this hotel becomes a waterfall and accompanied by classical music thousands of gallons of water cascade down the rear of this hotel. It was definitely an interesting and astounding sight to see.
By Chinese standards we were late for dinner and as we entered the eatery that had been recommended by our guide, the staff were mopping the floors. However, we were offered menus, and served quite quickly. Shortly after we had finished eating, they brought us the bill and asked if we would pay it, we did so and swiftly finished our drinks to enable them to lock up and go home.
We returned to our plush hotel room. A thick cream carpet with plum blossom covers the floor of the room. I love the hidden lighting under the bedside cabinets and under the bathroom cabinet. This enables you to find the way to the bathroom without putting the main light on in the night. Of course Dave and I as usual, no doubt, will have to have a bit of a flashing disco light session before I locate the correct switch.
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