After a decent breakfast in the hostel our tour guide arrived and spoke no English which didn’t bode well for the rest of the day, oh well. After stopping to collect a few other groups from different hotels we headed out first to an old village with some temple or other (they really don’t interest me), a street of curio sellers where I bought a painting of Guilin mostly because it was so cheap and some that was about it when we were herded back onto the bus.
Old lady selling salty hard-boiled eggs
Me not excited about another temple with souvenir shops in the background
An old street through a traditional village
Traditional Chinese buildings
As we were walking to the bus the tour guide came up and was asking us for money and we tried to explain we had already paid at the hostel. However it appeared she wanted 65 yuan more for the next part of the tour and she made out like it wasn’t optional and the others had already paid this. A little annoyed at we just shrugged our shoulders and said no to whatever the extra was for. She seemed frustrated but we just couldn’t communicate. We then stopped and everyone got off the bus the lady again came to us to try an explain, with no English, why we should pay the money. It would appear that the whole group couldn’t continue unless we paid and could all stay together. Then a Chinese girl nearby who spoke English helped translate for us and we established that the money was for an extra part of the tour and it would take 2.5 hours so it wouldn’t really work if we just wanted to wait for the group. Frustrated we paid the extra and hoped it was worthwhile and it was as you will see.
The entrance area to the Crown Cave, Guilin
Stands of curios as we enter the Crown Cave
This train ride was quite cool but went too fast to appreciate the cave
More tawdry lighting and curios deep in the Crown Cave
a nice boat ride on a river at the bottom of the Crown cave
Low ceilings and beautifully clear water in the depths of the cave
An underground waterfall (It cost an extra 5 Yuan to see this)
Mold growing on the limestone at the bottom of the cave - probably not helped by all the curio sellers and all day tawdry lighting
Exiting the Crown Cave by boat onto the Li River (this is what we had to pay the extra 65 Yuan for)
Worth it I think for this panorama from the dock
Despite the mold, tawdry lighting and endless curio sellers throughout the Crown Cave it was a worthwhile visit with lots interesting things between two boat rides, a train ride and a barge trip back to our bus. Next was lunch (not included in the tour price) at a farmers restaurant (really just meaning fresh produce) on the edge of a rice paddy and thankfully for us our Chinese was good enough to order some well-known dishes together with just pointing at some other tables dishes saying we wanted what they had. After lunch it was back onto the bus to travel to the Gudong Scenic Area, a National Park of China. Here there were a few more surprises like 5 Yuan for some bamboo sandals and a helmet to climb through a waterfall and optional zip-line and rollercoaster activities which was actually pretty fun.
The waterfall we climbed up in bamboo sandals
A cool suspension bridge after climbing up through the waterfalls
The optional (25 Yuan p/p) rickety but fun roller coaster we took down from the top of the mountain
Our bamboo raft guide back to the entrance of the Gudong Scenic Area
Although there were some extra costs that it would have been nice to know about before hand it was a fun afternoon and we were quite tired by the time we got back to the hostel, just in time to catch sunset on the roof before going down for the buffet dinner special the hostel was putting on.
sunset from the roof top of the Ming Palace Youth Hostel
We met an Australian couple at the buffet function who gave us some great advice on what was worthwhile to see and what to skip. So the next day we decided we would do our own thing and avoid Chinese lead tours. Itinerary was Fubo Hill in the morning, Reed Flute Cave in the heat of the day and Tunnel Hill Park in the afternoon.
Why Rory Alexander is in China 