Chinese New Year is in another 8 more days. Excited? Not yet. Maybe soon enough I will be when I go home, and be surrounded by the Chinese New Year songs.
Last Chinese New Year, I went back home, and on the 4th day of Chinese New Year, I flew to Guilin, China. I did not feel scared because I was going with a friend whom with the same level of Mandarin as me, and I thought that we are going to totally be so lost! Thankfully, she has worked there long enough to understand and speak Mandarin in their accent. Yay to Vivien! She is my penpal since I was 16 years old. I treasure my friends a lot, and will try all means to be in contact with them. :-)
She was flying from the States and I was flying from Malaysia. We decided to do this trip while she was still working in China then. She is now back in the States. There were a lot of emails going on between us deciding on the itinerary and the place of stay. We made it!
On 9th February 2011, I saw the aerial view of Guilin, China from the window of the Air Asia plane. I love Air Asia. They make all my trips come true. But it is so unfortunate that they are withdrawing the flights to Europe in March 2012. *heartbreak* How am I going to go to Europe now? I digress. *still heartbroken*
As I touched onto Guilin, I was so excited to meet Vivien again! The last I saw her when I was 17 when she came to Malaysia. And the first thing we did was to snap a photo together.
Vivien did her research well, and she pointed out the means of transportation to get to our hostel. We boarded the shuttle bus to the last bus stop in Guilin town. It was about an hour ride which costs RMB20 (RM10).
Once we reached the bus stop, we were approached by many taxi drivers. When I went inside the taxi, I was taken aback that the driver is on the left side. And I was surprised by their driving skills. I was fearful of my life. Haha! Seriously, though! The driving was so reckless! The taxi ride to the hostel was about 15 minutes which costs RMB12 (negotiated from RMB15, as the hostel did advise RMB12 only). We stayed in YHA Guilin. I love YHA. I totally support their existence! They are a God-sent for budget travellers.
This taxi driver asked if we were Koreans. Little did we know, that everyone who spoke to us will ask us that. Maybe because of our accents. But both of us spoke different accents altogether.
The one thing I failed to look at in Guilin is the temperature. I thought I could withstand it because it was the end of winter. But nope, I failed. Thankfully, the bed in the hostel has a heater mat under the bed sheet. Oh the warmth.
After placing our luggages in the hostel, we went to look for lunch. Luckily, there is no time difference between China and Malaysia. Same same!
The must have local meal - mi fen mian i.e. rice noodles. Delicious!
We ordered pau too. Pau is made from flour, and steamed. Yellow beans and pork fillings. I love the yellow bean fillings!
After lunch, we proceeded with the first place - the Elephant Trunk Hill. It was just a 10 minutes' walk from our hostel. Paid the entrance fee of RMB40, and was greeted by an elephant bush.
Next up was to visit Seven Star Park. Entrance fee of RMB95 as we wanted to see the Cave too. Without the cave, the fee costs RMB45. At this point of time, I realised all entrance fees in Guilin are expensive. Well, I did know that when we did our research. But the price increased.
As we proceed to walk further into the cave, I realised that the formed stalactites and stalagmites have names to resemble them. One must have good imagination to match the name with its formation. One must quickly snap photos in the cave, as the lights are switched off after about a minute.
I love this formation the best with its cleverly-arranged lights.
For this formation, one has to pay to go in to snap photos. In this Cave, the operators allow private individuals to snap photos for tourists and if the tourists lik e the photo, they can pay and get the photo immediately. The photo costs RMB15. The photos turn out really nice because these individuals brought extra lights.
And that was the end of Day 1. For dinner, we had instant noodles. Their portion of instant noodles are huge! The instant noodles were so welcomed because I felt the cold seeing I was back at my place now. All I wanted to do was to go under the sheets and have some warmth.
By the way, I am a 'banana' if you do not understand the title of my post. 'Banana' is a name given to the Chinese who can't understand Mandarin. A banana has yellow skin - like a Chinese, but is white inside - a Chinese who speaks English. Yes, I have been speaking English ever since I could learn how to speak. But now, my Mandarin has improved tremendously, speaking that is. Writing still 'banana'.
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