4ever Discovering
A day in the city of Guilin
Read about how we spend our full day in Guilin
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We started our morning by eating traditional noodles for breakfast. (I know noodles for breakfast... at least I have all day to burn those carbs off) It was this soup noodle based dish where you could add more water, or more spices yourself.
We took the bus to the Guilin caves. These are called the Red Flute Cave. You pay to go through and enjoy the landscape of the caves. The caves are made of natural limestone but multicoloured lights have been places throughout the caves to give it a more modern appearance. At the airport, there was a sign that said “ you haven’t discovered Guilin until you go to the caves.” So I guess we had to do it. It was quite enjoyable, we got the chance to walk all by ourselves because there was no English tour. This was a little upset because it means that we won’t really learn about about the formation of the caves and how they got so popular. It’s a little bit of a tourist trap, but I am happy we went because we got to see this amazing palm painter.
Yes, I said palm painter. This guy painted the rolling hills along the Li River with his hand, he even did little details; like trees, and boats- with his finger nail. It was very cool to see! Danielle and I each picked up a souvenir from him.
We got out and walked around these people “renting” bamboo boats on the water. We said “why not?” which is our usually saying aha, and gave some money to rent this bamboo boat. The lady insisted on coming on the boat with us but I convinced her that we knew what we were doing and would be OK. I have a paddle board at my cottage after all…
So we went on this bamboo raft trying to take amazing photos, however it was really relaxing and gave a sense of tranquility. At first, it was a little struggle to get it moving but then when you got the hang of it, it went pretty good. The only bad part was you got your pants a little dirty from the yucky water and we only have 2 pairs of pants so, we gotta keep those bad boys clean for as long as possible. While we were paddling, we noticed a bunch of people taking our photo! LOL- I guess they thought it was surprising to see two Canadians paddling on this lake.
After, I “perfectly” packed the bamboo boat, we went back into town to explore. We wanted to check out the sun and moon pagoda and the elephant trunk hill. We started with the pagodas, we saw people fishing and a live band. There were so many people in Guilin however I was really surprised to see all the green area. The sun and moon pagodas are also referred to as the “Gold and Silver pagodas”. The moon pagoda is on land, while the sun pagoda is surrounded by water. They are 10 meters apart, and the only way to reach the sun pagoda is to walk through an underwater tunnel, where you can see fish above your head on both sides. We went during the day, but if you have time to check out the twin pagodas at night, you would see the beautiful colours they display.
We walked around and got on a boat for a water tour. We heard there was construction going on around the elephant trunk and this might be the only way to see it. So we got on the boat and took a river cruise which goes on the 5 rivers of Guilin. We got to see the pagodas up close and other cool green areas. The parks were so spacious.
We got to see the elephant trunk hill, however you couldn't get a good picture because of they were setting up a stage for the Chinese New Year celebration. It is suppose to give you good luck, so just seeing it was enough.
We got off the boat at the national bridge and decided to walk home. We got the chance to see more of an everyday life in Guilin. We saw so many things (lots of things related to food)
When we got back to our hostel, they had a dumpling making party for free! We joined in, and learned how to make leek and egg dumplings. First, we learned how to shape the dough to perfectly fit the filling., then how to fill and seal them! There was around 12 of us preparing dumping and it only took about 20 minutes to cook! We saw and eat our masterpieces… soooo many masterpieces. There was probably a total of 6 plates with 40 dumplings on each. They were super yummy and delicious and I was super full and satisfied.
We watched a movie, turned on our warming pads, and went to bed.
** ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TRIP WAS HOSTELS THAT HAD WARMING PADS!
Guilin was a fun, beautiful stop. The gorgeous scenery and the good food helped it be best destinations of the trips.
