We began the day with the great buffet breakfast at the hotel again, and then we met our guide and driver for a day of sightseeing in Guilin. Because the visibility was particularly bad, we started at the Reed Flute Cave. The mountains in this area are made of limestone and thus full of caves. This particular cave is one of the larger ones, and it’s full of interesting formations. To make it an appealing tourist destination, they’ve added a paved path, colored lighting, and music. Frankly I found the colored lighting a bit tacky, but it was a really nice cave.
Next, Angela took us to a pearl factory. We tried to talk her out of it, but she said that she would get in trouble if she didn’t sign us in since it was part of the tour. We’ve both seen the whole pearl thing before and were not the least bit interested in a sales pitch. I don’t think Angela really believed us until we walked right through, used the bathroom, and waited at the exit.
By now visibility had improved somewhat, and the sun even hinted at coming out. It had also gotten warm, about 72 F/22 C. I shed the winter coat and sweater, but I was still too warm. We drove back into the center of town to see the Elephant hill and then Fubo Hill. Elephant hill looks like an elephant, but I kept asking why the other one was called Football hill—it wasn’t spherical or shaped like an American football. It turns out I misunderstood her accent. The hill was named after the legendary general Fubo who shot an arrow through a mountain and used part of this hill for testing his sword. It is said that he used a giant stalactite to test his sword, and it really does look like somebody cut clean through it. It was over 400 steps to climb to the top of Fubo hill. Angela and my mom climbed half-way to a viewing pavilion, and I climbed the whole way. Between the heat and humidity, I was absolutely dripping in sweat by the time I got to the top.
Then next stop was lunch at a tea house that had the claim to fame that the Clinton family ate there, and Hillary and Chelsea hung out there while the president was in a meeting. It also had its own book shop with books in many different languages. I picked up a book on teaching your child Chinese. Lunch was probably the best we’d had yet. Everything was very artfully arranged, and it did not include sweet & sour pork and fried rice as so many of our previous meals had. Angela and Mr Lee ate with us, and it was nice to sample their food and share ours with them. As usual, there was a lot left over, but they were reluctant to bring us boxes so that Angela could take home the leftovers. Apparently it is pretty uncommon for the tour guests to invite the guide and driver to eat with them and take the leftovers.
Out last stop on the tour was the Tea Research Institute. We had a very knowledgeable guide there who showed us both about how the different types of tea are picked and did a tea ceremony/tasting. Tea ceremonies are big in Japan, but according to him, they originated in China. It seems that in recent years, tea ceremonies have become popular in China again, especially among younger people as an alternative to alcohol. I liked some of the teas and some of their accessories, but the stuff they had at the gift shop was just way too expensive.
So then it was back to the hotel to pack and rest. Packing shouldn’t have been that hard since we each had only one small suitcase and one carryon, but this also became the problem. Our stuff had expanded, so I went out for a walk in the local shopping area to get one of those woven plastic zippered bags to use as an extra carryon. We got to the airport just before it opened, but there was no problem with the extra bag. They even let us check it.
In line ahead of us was a couple from Hong Kong who had just taken a similar tour. They’d noticed that we hugged our guide when saying goodbye and genuinely meant that we would miss her. They struck up a conversation, and it turns out that they didn’t like their guide at all. She was fresh out of the university with a degree in English, yet she didn’t know anything about the places they were visiting and couldn’t answer any of their questions. I guess we really got lucky to get such a good guide.
The flight back to Hong Kong was an hour long and uneventful. From the airport we took the bus back to within a few blocks of the hotel. That took about an hour, but it was also uneventful. Getting off the bus was the only challenge. First, we were a little uncertain about which was the nearest stop when coming this direction, and when we did get off, the bus was rushed with Indian men offering to carry people’s luggage. They were blocking the doorway and grabbing at the suitcases. Most people were ignoring them, but since I had to put down the first bag and grab the second and third from the bus before the bus took off, I was a bit snappish in telling them to get out of my way. They were so surprised that they stopped dead in their tracks and backed off.
Our new room at the YMCA was on the 14th floor, so the view was even better than the previous room. The room was a little smaller, but that didn’t matter; we made ourselves right at home.
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