We were touched by the great hospitality, we enjoyed at Jenny’s younger brotherś place (meals, laundry service, travel info and snacks). Everyone wanted to make sure we had a great stay in China. Jenny’s oldest nephew took a day off to drive us to airport for the start of our “China exploration”.
Our commute to the airport, the check-in process and flight from Shanghai to Guilin (2 hrs) went very well. I noticed that I have already started to ensure I don’t loose my place in the disorganized queues that takes place everywhere in China. There is always someone trying to squeeze. By being a bit larger has its privileges! We arrived at Guilin airport around 4pm and prompted boarded a shuttle bus to the Guilin’s bus terminal. From there, we hopped onto another bus that would bring us to Yangshuo some 40km further. We opted to go directly to Yangshuo.
We arrived in Yangshuo around 7:30pm. We quickly noticed the town was booming of tourist walking the streets. As we walked with our backpacks and sweating in the heat, we made our way towards a hotel we had identified in our travel book and we were hoping that we would be able to find a room. Luckily for us, we had no trouble getting a very nice room for around $30 and encountered very friendly/helpful staff at the Morning Sun Hotel. The night life on the street enticed us for a long walk. The town is clearly geared for tourist… there are restaurants everywhere, coffee hang-outs, souvenir shop and plenty of night clubs. As our first meal, we tried the local specialty: the “beer fish”.
We realized we are still suffering a bit of jet lag as we keep on waking-up in the middle of the night around the same time.
On Tuesday morning after a Pad Thai for breakfast, we traveled to a small town some 40km away to take a “bamboo-like” boat trip upstream and downstream along one of the nicest stretch of the very beautiful Li river. The three hour ride (2h15 upstream; 45 min downstream) offered superb scenery. Back at hotel, we enjoyed a few hours of rest before our evening supper followed by a walk along the souvenirs shops.