Guilin-Day 1

After the ignominous start to the trip, we landed in Guilin airport with no further incident and was met by our guide, Siow Tung who directed us to the van he had hired to ferry us to the city. The van used the regular road and here was quite a bit of traffic around. Perhaps it was the evening rush hour. I looked around at the scenery but was sorely disappointed that while there were a few of the famed limestone hills, they were hardly significant nor worth mentioning. This is Guilin?


Dropped of behind our hotel, we had to pass through a lane of rubble to get to the front. Here Siow Tung checked us in and after dropping off our luggage, proceeded for dinner at a restaurent around the corner from the hotel. It must be a popular restaurent as most tables were occupied with Chinese men mostly dressed in black and, a normal feature of China, most puffing away after a meal. Thankfully, we were led to a separate room and made sure the door remained shut to prevent the smoke from leaking in.

Being the only Mandarin speaking one in the group, Woon did the ordering. We were so hungry most of the dishes tasted wonderful. No pics here but will upload later. After dinner, we decided to do a recce of the hotels in the vicinity and ended up taking a walk along the main market thoroughfare of Guilin. We checked out a few lower end hotels for those who may be interested to backpack and ended up at the Banyan Tree Park which was beautifully lit. (Pics later)



It had been drizzling since we left the restaurent and the rain got heavier as we walked along the main street. I stopped to buy a cap (Pink) and we return to the hotel for a good night's rest. The weather was freezing, not to mention wet, and the wind blowing did not help matter. What, I wondered did the next day hold?