Traveling with Jack and Theresa

Main Menu

Introduction

To Group Or Not To Group

Hong Kong

Hong Kong to Canton

Canton

Guilin

Mr and Ms First Nighter

Surprise

Fini

 

Chinese Tour Psychology

Guilin

Souvenir

The mood of the group remains less than enthusiastic, and many expect that the flight from Canton to Guilin will be aboard a Ford Tri-motor purchased from a defunct South American airline. The craft which arrived, however, is a new CAAC (China Airline Always Cancels) Boeing 727. The flight is smooth, and the attendants showered the passengers with a variety of souvenirs, including plastic mirror cases, plastic fans, and orange juice in plastic sacks. Well, they’ve finally got it right, most were thinking as the plane made a perfect landing on the Guilin airstrip. And so an optimistic group filed off the plane to be greeted by a new tour guide-driver and his Yamaha special, which wound its way through the streets of Guilin to the Hidden Hill Hotel. This property is located far from the center of anything important in Guilin and there is no encouragement or information about sightseeing on one’s own from either guide or desk clerk.

Hidden Hill Hotel

In all truthfulness, it also should be reported that the hidden hill is nowhere in sight. Several in the group who were more adventurous, did take a evening stroll up and down the adjacent streets after listening to the guide’s warning that they should be careful, no street signs, and they all took the same–the streets, that is. Row after row of two-story buildings, each with an open front shop of one kind of another on the bottom level. Many are eating places, and a few display the evening menu choices in cages along the sidewalk. There is no reason to be fearful, however. Most of the animals and foul have had their legs broken so that they would be unable to attack passers by, even should they have the strength remaining to do so in the 100 degree temperature.



Din din was available at the Hidden Hill with no fanfare. The group, if we read it correctly, was not disappointed and dispersed to the hotel lounge or the bedrooms following Splintered Bone ala carte.

Ala Carte or Full Dinner?

The next morning brings a slow, all day boat ride down the Gui River. This is much like viewing a ten minute single loop film of “Tranquility in Rural China” 97 times, nonstop. The high point of the day is a meal prepared on board the flat bottom boat. The greens look suspiciously similar to the various weeds growing in the slow-moving river Gui. The piece de resistance is fresh carp, caught several days before, and kept in a holding tank by a local traveling fishmonger. If you think carp is inedible in the first place, then you should sample it ala finely splintered bone. The old Chinese two-choice option again!

Gweilin

The day drags on and everyone is pretty much discouraged by the time we return to the Hidden Hill Hotel at sunset. By now the nine by nine sparsely furnished rooms look pretty good. Then it is announced that the special dinner scheduled for tonight will be at the most famous café in all of Guilin. It is located about 20 minutes by the Yamaha from the Hidden Hill, our guide informs us. What happened to the before dinner shower and cocktails?

On A Slow Boat In China

 



© 2014 Theresa Ripley