Tag: Guilin
Train Ride to Kunming
by Cinnie on Jan.31, 2010, under China
So..we got on the train Guilin –> Kunming without any difficulties. We already start to get the hang of all this shouting-and-pushing at the train station. At the station itself we ran into our very first Israeli backpacker – Neal, and we also met the same two Swedish guys (Viktor & Niklas) we had the bamboo ride to Yangshuo with. Apparently China is not so big after all… 
Guilin
by Tsemer on Jan.26, 2010, under China
The train to Guilin took 3 hours more than the stated 22.5 hours. If there was any notification of delay – it wasn’t in a language we could comprehend. So the last hours on the train were a bit nerve wrecking, constantly hoping we’re not missing our stop, even though we knew that Guilin is (supposedly) our train’s last stop. Maybe I should remove the parenthesis.
We arrived in a much bigger town (city?) than we anticipated. However, we had explicit directions from the train station, either a 2-stop bus ride or a 10 minute walk. So we hoisted our bags on our backs, and started marching straight in the wrong direction. After 15 minute walking, when we hit the city center, the smell of mistake was in the air, so we followed the recommended instructions when losing your way, and stopped by a police car to ask for directions. As expected, the policeman could not speak a word of English, so he called a younger man, who could not speak a word of English, and together they told us many wonderful things in Chinese. The younger suddenly manifested a blinking light bulb above his head, whipped out his phone, dialed, and gave us the phone. On the other side the voice said “The guy with the phone – he is my boyfriend. You should trust him. Get in his car and he will take you to your hostel.” Let me tell you, as much as Chinenglish is hard to understand face to face, it is nothing compared to how undecipherable it is over the phone. Regardless, since we were instructed to trust him – it seemed perfectly safe to trust him, so we squeezed into his car/minibus.
Chilling in Hangzhou
by Cinnie on Jan.24, 2010, under China
We’re not kidding. We’re litteralily ‘chilling’ over here, it is so c-o-l-d!! Shanghai was already getting much colder when we left it but it’s nothing compared to this…
We arrived yesterday by train, which went suprisingly well. Those Chinese seem to have it all perfectly under control – all is amazingly organized, clean and – even though most is in chinese – relatively understandible. The metro system in Shanghai is impressive and works like clockwork. Moreover, our train to Hangzhou left at 12:34 and arrived at 14:14 exactly – just as they said it would. Take that Dutch Railways!
