Hiiiiiiii~~~
I was just welcomed back to Singapore's Terminal 3 yesterday. and greeted with good weather (also meaning azure blue skies and NO HAZE). Just the day before, the PSI hit a 16 year highest record of 401. There I was, worrying about delayed flights…or rather, whether the hazy weather permits flights to land in Singapore.
So, I've just returned from a 8D 'Scenic Guilin + Hanoi & Halong Bay Experience' organized by ASA Travel. Trip goes like this: Nanning--->Guilin--->Lipu--->Yangshuo--->Guilin--->Nanning--->Pingxiang--->Friendship Pass--->Liangshan--->Hanoi--->Halong Bay--->Mong Cai--->Dongxing--->Nanning--->Singapore
Sounds like a lot of travelling?
Total hours of bus rides across all these states and borders = 20+.
Nanning to Guilin itself is a 6/7 hour bus journey. That's like Singapore to Genting…or maybe even Cameron Highlands.
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*My apologies if some photos look like crap. I was using a really old camera which produces grainy photos, and is unable to zoom in to capture close up shots. Hence, I used a mixture of that camera & my iPhone. But of cos, there's also poor lighting issues, and being hurried here and there to different destinations does not help either. As for blurry photos of me…. I've to thank my mother, who has absolutely no creativity/skill in handling even the most basic iPhone camera.
Day 1:
Arrive at Nanning (南宁), the provincial capital of Guangxi (广西). Check in at Kaiyuan Hotel (凯源大酒店).
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Day 2:
1. Breakfast in hotel before setting off on coach.
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| Typical breakfast in all the hotels I stayed in thereafter |
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| COOKING OIL - USED LIKE ITS FREE. |
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| Signboard reads: GUANGXI WELCOMES YOU! |
2. Lunch at some roadside restaurant
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| Also a typical lunch. Almost every meal consists of cucumbers. Basically plenty of veggies. |
The meals provided throughout this whole trip was really average. Nothing much for me to boast about, sadly ):
*Reached destination (Yulong river) after about 7 hours*
3. Bamboo rafting along Yulong river (遇龙河) + watch Cormorant fishing (鱼鹰抓鱼)
Additional info from Wiki:
"The Yulong River (Chinese: 遇龙河; pinyin: Yùlóng Hé) is a small tributary of the larger Li River in Southeastern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region that runs through the major city of Guilin to Yangshuo. The Yulong starts in Northern Yangshuo County near Litang and runs for over 35 kilometres (22 mi) through small villages of the Yulong River Valley, including Putao, Litang, Chaolong, Yima and Gaotian town, before emptying into the Li around the town of Ping Le."
"The Yulong River (Chinese: 遇龙河; pinyin: Yùlóng Hé) is a small tributary of the larger Li River in Southeastern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region that runs through the major city of Guilin to Yangshuo. The Yulong starts in Northern Yangshuo County near Litang and runs for over 35 kilometres (22 mi) through small villages of the Yulong River Valley, including Putao, Litang, Chaolong, Yima and Gaotian town, before emptying into the Li around the town of Ping Le."
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| Paddling against the current (逆流). Old men maneuver these bamboo rafts with much skill and strength. Their skin color and wrinkles are giveaway signs of much toil under rain or shine. |
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| Cormorant fishing!!! |
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| Removing the fish from the bird's mouth. |
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| A maiden sings to these scholarly figures, who sing back to her. Tune sounds pretty wayang-ish to me. |
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| The scenic Yulong river and the natural lush greenery as backdrop. |
4. Yinzi Cave (银子岩) @ Lipu (荔浦), center of Guilin city.
(Note: NO COLOUR EDITING WAS DONE FOR THE PHOTOS TAKEN IN THE CAVE)
This is a limestone cave with natural forming shapes/structures and the multicolored lightings serve to make it resemble a 'fariytale cave'. On closer look, these limestone structures really have shiny crystal deposits on them.
"It is an underground network of caves penetrating through twelve hills. Nowadays, 2 km of the cave has been presented to tourists. " - http://www.discoverchinatours.com/travel-guide/guilin/silver-cave/
Many steps , its really an up-down climb in this cave. Might be slightly tedious for the elderly.
"The three-top deposits are the Music Stone Screen, the Deep Imperial Palace and the Flying Waterfall in Snow Mountain. Not like the grey deposits in other caves, they are pretty white and "clear".
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| The Magnificent Music Stone Screen |
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| I know this picture looks really WRONG. LOL. |
5. Dinner at a restaurant just beside the cave, ate the famous Lipu Yam cuisine
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| Benefits of Yam. |
6. Impressions of Liu San Jie (印象。刘三姐)
"This is the world largest natural theater which utilizes the waters of the Li River as its stage, with twelve mist shrouded hills and the heavens as its backdrop. Mist, rain, moonlight, the hills and their inverted reflections in the river all become the ever-changing natural background. Its auditorium is housed on the natural islands of the river with the audience standing on the designed terraces, surrounded by green plants. " - http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/guangxi/yangshuo/impression-sanjieliu.htm
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| Performance on water. |
7. Walking around Xijie (西街) - Foreigners Street in Yangshuo (阳朔)
Sadly, I never managed to capture a photo of this street.
8. Check in at Starway Hotel XinFuAn (星程新富安大酒店), opposite foreigners street.
