2 Unlimited Get Ready 4 This #1 in People's Chart of China - Part 20 - Last day of Guilin
Another night at the Sheraton - another bad sleep... We had the balcony door open all night but it didn't really help all that much in terms of heat in the bedroom. But this time I was armed with a 1.5 litre bottle of water - so the dehydration didn't really happen for me (apart from Ant who was suffering a little hangover - klassy with a k).
We had bakery again for breakfast but we are finding the range a lot more limited than Nanjing or Shanghai - there is no Bread Talk :-(
As we only had a half day to do sightseeing in Guilin before having to go out to the airport for our flight to X'ian - we made fast tracks to the Prince Palace / Hill Scenic Spot thingy. The entrance fee was pretty steep - 50 yuan - as too was the climb up the "Prince Hill". Ant and I had passed about 85 chinese going up the hill - but we never saw anyone up at the peak - apart from all the staff shouting at Ant not to take any pictures of a Buddha statue or the staff manning the "hokey Chinese period costume photo shop". It seems like every tourist attraction has hokey Chinese period costume hire and photo places - WTHIWWTC?! The view was a bit limited by the smog (of course!).
We checked out a grotto (how Playboy Mansion) - complete with heaps of rock carving do-dads... When you exit the grungy grotto - you enter into a marble laced gift shop - complete with the whole Chinese overstaffed disease.
We also checked out a "Exhibition Hall" where I got to pose with a "Chinese Baseball Bat" quickly before the guards would notice. Ant and I made a quick pitstop at a public toilet - although it looked rather gucci - there was a very un-gucci pile of sh## in one of the squat toilets which almost made me vomit. After we survived the 30 seconds in the toilet... I double dared Ant to go back and take a picture - he took up that dare and we now have a pile of sh## in our photo collection.
We both went into another hall (which we dubbed bizzaro hall). I think the deal is you go through these places with a tour guide - whereby the staff perform shows and stuff for the visitors in groups. We sought of threw a spanner in the works when Ant and I decided to go without a tour guide (they were all in chinese anyway). We entered the first room - not knowing what any of it was about (was all in chinese). We entered into the second room (which was pitch dark until we found the lights) - meanwhile a group was getting a "laser and light spectacular" in the first room (well not really - it was just some hokey chinese music with a screen).
It was the most surreal experience - so strange - Ant and I couldn't wait to find the closest exit. Planet Bizzaro didn't end at the Bizzaro Hall - they were piping this terrible traditional Chinese music with a Chinese guy sounding like he was doing a jazzercise workout over the music. If only I had a taperecorded - I could have captured it all...
The Prince tourist site was very overpriced and very underwhelming. None of it made much sense - and when compared to the stuff in Nanjing - it was a rip...
Outside of the site - there were some choice cuts of meat on show on the street. There was a dead, skinned deer on the back of a motorbike (probably Bambi's mother) and a guy carrying a gutted, skinned dog down the main street... Yummy.
Speaking of yum - Ant and I went back to the Taiwanese place for dinner. Although the soup was scolding hot, it was only 16 yuan for 2 people (who cares if your stomach gets heartburn – at $2.50AUD for 2 people you cannot complain)…
We headed back to the hotel only to find that the Sheraton had pulled another “New Plaza Hotel” stunt on us by locking us out of the room (5 minutes before checkout)…. After the slight delay of getting back into the room and grabbing all of our booty – we headed to the airport via taxi. My favourite bit of chinglish was the “Welcome Again to Guilin” on the road going to the airport. The airport isn’t exactly Guilin (it is 30kms out of town) and we weren’t exactly going to Guilin (rather flying out of Guilin Airport to Xi’an) – so I don’t know about the “Welcome Again” bizo.
Ignoring the whole “airport touts”/”New Plaza Hotel” horror stories (plus my sick day in the Sheraton) – we really enjoyed Guilin. The Li River cruise and the tour to Longsheng was a definite highlight of the trip. Although Guilin was really a launching pad to other things – it was a lively town with more atmosphere than Canberra after dark (which isn’t a hard feat to achieve). The sightseeing itself in Guilin was a little lacking (Elephant Rock and the Princes Hill/Palace doodad) – but nevertheless we had a good time. A big shout out to all the prostitutes that hang around the Sheraton Hotel area (I think I might have forgotten to mention them thus far)… They are all a little direct (saying “Massage” then “Sex”) to any foreign male in the area. I had worked out a brilliant way of getting rid of them – as soon as they approached – I would cross my arms and make a loud clicking noise with my mouth. They would either scurry away and cower or laugh and not harass us anymore – a great technique!
Another night at the Sheraton - another bad sleep... We had the balcony door open all night but it didn't really help all that much in terms of heat in the bedroom. But this time I was armed with a 1.5 litre bottle of water - so the dehydration didn't really happen for me (apart from Ant who was suffering a little hangover - klassy with a k).
We had bakery again for breakfast but we are finding the range a lot more limited than Nanjing or Shanghai - there is no Bread Talk :-(
As we only had a half day to do sightseeing in Guilin before having to go out to the airport for our flight to X'ian - we made fast tracks to the Prince Palace / Hill Scenic Spot thingy. The entrance fee was pretty steep - 50 yuan - as too was the climb up the "Prince Hill". Ant and I had passed about 85 chinese going up the hill - but we never saw anyone up at the peak - apart from all the staff shouting at Ant not to take any pictures of a Buddha statue or the staff manning the "hokey Chinese period costume photo shop". It seems like every tourist attraction has hokey Chinese period costume hire and photo places - WTHIWWTC?! The view was a bit limited by the smog (of course!).
We checked out a grotto (how Playboy Mansion) - complete with heaps of rock carving do-dads... When you exit the grungy grotto - you enter into a marble laced gift shop - complete with the whole Chinese overstaffed disease.
We also checked out a "Exhibition Hall" where I got to pose with a "Chinese Baseball Bat" quickly before the guards would notice. Ant and I made a quick pitstop at a public toilet - although it looked rather gucci - there was a very un-gucci pile of sh## in one of the squat toilets which almost made me vomit. After we survived the 30 seconds in the toilet... I double dared Ant to go back and take a picture - he took up that dare and we now have a pile of sh## in our photo collection.
We both went into another hall (which we dubbed bizzaro hall). I think the deal is you go through these places with a tour guide - whereby the staff perform shows and stuff for the visitors in groups. We sought of threw a spanner in the works when Ant and I decided to go without a tour guide (they were all in chinese anyway). We entered the first room - not knowing what any of it was about (was all in chinese). We entered into the second room (which was pitch dark until we found the lights) - meanwhile a group was getting a "laser and light spectacular" in the first room (well not really - it was just some hokey chinese music with a screen).
It was the most surreal experience - so strange - Ant and I couldn't wait to find the closest exit. Planet Bizzaro didn't end at the Bizzaro Hall - they were piping this terrible traditional Chinese music with a Chinese guy sounding like he was doing a jazzercise workout over the music. If only I had a taperecorded - I could have captured it all...
The Prince tourist site was very overpriced and very underwhelming. None of it made much sense - and when compared to the stuff in Nanjing - it was a rip...
Outside of the site - there were some choice cuts of meat on show on the street. There was a dead, skinned deer on the back of a motorbike (probably Bambi's mother) and a guy carrying a gutted, skinned dog down the main street... Yummy.
Speaking of yum - Ant and I went back to the Taiwanese place for dinner. Although the soup was scolding hot, it was only 16 yuan for 2 people (who cares if your stomach gets heartburn – at $2.50AUD for 2 people you cannot complain)…
We headed back to the hotel only to find that the Sheraton had pulled another “New Plaza Hotel” stunt on us by locking us out of the room (5 minutes before checkout)…. After the slight delay of getting back into the room and grabbing all of our booty – we headed to the airport via taxi. My favourite bit of chinglish was the “Welcome Again to Guilin” on the road going to the airport. The airport isn’t exactly Guilin (it is 30kms out of town) and we weren’t exactly going to Guilin (rather flying out of Guilin Airport to Xi’an) – so I don’t know about the “Welcome Again” bizo.
Ignoring the whole “airport touts”/”New Plaza Hotel” horror stories (plus my sick day in the Sheraton) – we really enjoyed Guilin. The Li River cruise and the tour to Longsheng was a definite highlight of the trip. Although Guilin was really a launching pad to other things – it was a lively town with more atmosphere than Canberra after dark (which isn’t a hard feat to achieve). The sightseeing itself in Guilin was a little lacking (Elephant Rock and the Princes Hill/Palace doodad) – but nevertheless we had a good time. A big shout out to all the prostitutes that hang around the Sheraton Hotel area (I think I might have forgotten to mention them thus far)… They are all a little direct (saying “Massage” then “Sex”) to any foreign male in the area. I had worked out a brilliant way of getting rid of them – as soon as they approached – I would cross my arms and make a loud clicking noise with my mouth. They would either scurry away and cower or laugh and not harass us anymore – a great technique!
posted by NicknAnt @ 6:58 AM
2 Comments:
oh no! where have they gone? :)
t
I learned how to say "Buyao"! - which I think means I don't want it (sex/crappy postcards/dead cats, etc)or go away. Most times it worked.
Julia
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