Guilin beautiful Guilin!

Guilin?? That is most people’s respond. Haha.. Seems obvious that Guilin isn’t a very popular destination to most Malaysian. Haha actually I myself don’t really know about Guilin. It just happens when I was looking for a place to go for my family vacation, I came across a low-priced fare by Airasia to Guilin. I started google about Guilin and found that it is a very beautiful place, relaxing and suitable for a family with a baby vacation. So I decided to pay a visit to Guilin to see with my own eyes is Guilin really beautiful as mentioned in virtual world. For those who are wondering, where on earth lah Guilin ni kan? Guilin is in guangxi, China. Ce try google Guilin image, you’ll be amazed I tell u… hehe.. 

So, on 11th-15th Oct 2012 was our trip to Guilin! I was very excited and anxious at the same time as this is the very first time ever for Raheel being on a flight. But the wariness are all for nothing because Raheel was just fine. Behave very well and he enjoyed being on board. Raheel memang rock and sporting kan? 

Ok, back to our story in Guilin, the journey started as early as 3.30am as our flight boarding on 6am. Find out my story about our adventure during boarding in entry “Huru-haranya LCCT” 

at the airport

We touched down around 10.30am after 4hours flying. Note that there is no time difference between Malaysia and Guilin. 1st impression at Guilin airport “busuknyer! We were greeting by unpleasant smell while walking out of the arrival area. Something smell like human poop! Immediately I checked Raheel’s diaper. Manelah tau Raheel cikabiyak… but there’s nothing there. And the smell is getting stronger as we walk on the travelator and thank god disappear after that. Bagai nak pengsan aku! May be somebody done his or her BIG business in the plane and didn’t clean it properly or that thing just stick on his or her pants.. eeiiiiyuuu!!! 

Enough of that disgusting story. After collecting our luggage and done with the immigration procedure we were out of the arrival area and was welcome by our tourist guide, a not so amoi but not yet a nyona lady. Right away she started chatting about Guilin... Guilin is water and mountain and so on… oho.. I cannot recall her history tale... plus I was blurred because I can’t really get what she said. You know, English that sounds like Chinese, really hard to understand. Words she pronounced don’t sound like it supposed to be sounded. And she herself couldn’t understand us and we have to speak words by words together with sign language… urghh the language barrier… but we managed to deal with it until the end… 

one of the unique activities

Ok, let’s move on. From the airport we went for our first activity- Li River Cruise! It is one of must do activities when you visit Guilin. This is where you get the chance to see the local people activities along the river. And the river is unbelievably crystal clear! The only drawback was the boat was quite old and the people (Chinese people) in the boat talk soooo loud! Plus we did the river cruising during hot sunny almost afternoon day and Raheel was starving because he hasn’t eaten since morning as he was asleep when we ate breakfast on the plane plus we forgot to grab his munchies that were in the other bag. So you know how it is when a little boy is hungry… Raheel was being grumpy and cried and make it hard for us to really enjoy the scenery and I just wish the cruising to end soon and finally it ended! 

the only safe eating place

Next destination was of course LUNCH!! We were brought to a Muslim restaurant in the city and ate a big feast! That is the only trustworthy Muslim restaurant in town and that was where we had our lunch and dinner while we were there. After that I requested to go straight to our hotel because Raheel needs to rest. That’s one of the advantages when we travel with a private tour coz we can arrange our own schedule according to our convenience. So, to hotel we went! Have a good rest until dinner time and continue with the night tour. 

About the hotel, there’s nothing much to talk about, you know how 3 star hotel’s condition. We stayed at Baigong Hotel which I used to refer as Bengong Hotel. Breakfast is absolutely uneatable. Luckily we’ve prepared for that and had brought our own food supply. Haha.. 

Back to the tour we went for a scenic view at night at a park that I couldn’t recall the name. hehe… but here’s some photo from that tour and the scene is remarkable! Guilin is undeniably a very nice place especially at night coz they shower their park with lights… colourful lights! 

the view? simply magical

sun and moon pagoda

In the morning, we visit a park, a beautiful park (again, don’t remember the name) to see the banyan tree, a sacred tree for the local people. I relate it as the tree in avatar movie. Hehe… it was very fascinating to see the local people doing their morning activities. Our tourist guide told us, their people love to dance and I can see that. They are dancing something like aerobic in the park.

the banyan tree

After that we went Liu San jie park, the minority village… learning a thing or two about the minority people of guilin and enjoying the remarkable view in the park. There are 4 minority people if I’m not mistaken which I don’t remember the name. Haha! Nampak sangat aku memang tak pay attention on what our tourist guide explaining. 

Then we went for tea drinking and I was excited to taste their assorted flavor of tea. And we bought a canister of osmanthus tea. Osmanthus is a flower found in Guilin and known for the goodness in health. I don’t actually really care about the goodness, I care about the flavor and it was the most expensive tea I have ever bought. One canister cost me 300 yuen or approximately RM150. Never mind the price coz the tea can last for years and it tastes good! Plus it is a healthy drink. Hehe… 

one of the minority house

Then after lunch we were heading to Yangshou, few hours journey. Haha.. it’s been quite some time before I manage to write this entry so I can’t remember how many hours it took to reach Yangshou from Guilin. On the way there we stop by a village for river rafting - Another unique experience where we were cruising the crystal clear river by a bamboo rafting while listening to a girl singing. Then we watch a demonstration of a bird catching fish in the water and spit out the fish from its throat and gave it to their master. Very fascinating! Then we watch something like opera shows on the river which I don’t understand not even a word by their performance yet entertained by it. The show was actually about the custom of one of the minority people in Guilin. 

After enjoying the rafting adventure we headed to Silver Cave to enjoy the scenary in the cave. Then we went to our hotel that is just nearby the famous street in Yongshou known as the west street. We have a good rest and at night we went shopping at the west street – a super crowded market. This place is where we can see a lot of orang putih… ehehe… west street is a nice place for shopping china’s goods but we really have to know how to bargain in order to get a good price. The starting price set by the hawker are extremely and ridiculously high. We have to bargain and bargain and bargain, otherwise we will end up buying things that is far expensive than the actual value. 

down park of this picture is actually reflection of the upper part. . amazing kan?

sea of people in west street

 The next morning we visit the crown cave. A very very very beautiful and unique place where we can experience different kind of things all in one place. To reach the cave we have to ride a glider/ slide something like a cable car gondola which I found a bit scary because of their lack of awareness about safety. Can u imangine riding a vehicle with no wall/ fence without seat belt? And we have to drive that ‘gondola’ ourselves and follow our instinct weather to accelerate or hit the brake. Luckily we were safe! Hahaha… Then in the cave we have to walk then ride a boat. Again no safety because no life jacket was provided. I just pray to Allah to protect us especially Raheel. After boating, we walk again, up and down the stairs then a mini train and finally we ride and elevator. How cool they have lift in a cave! The view along the journey in the cave was spectacular! 

the 'Gondola' and it is not attached to each other tau.. 

After that we headed back to Guilin. Have lunch and went to visit silk store. Then head back to hotel and have a good rest after very tiring yet thrilling day. 

In the morning after breakfast we visit another park, yushan park and relax while enjoying the breathtaking view and listening (not listening actually) to our tourist guide another history tale. After that we went to a not very satisfying food massage but we cannot complaint because it is free. Hahaha, free because it was actually a trick for them to promote their super expensive traditional herb. We were not buying it! Haha.. 

yushan park

zheng yang street

After that went to head to Zhenyang Shopping Street (something similar like our petaling street) we just survey survey jer.. boring because I wasn’t able to do as much shopping as I wanted to coz we have running out of cash after shopping SAKAN at west street in yongshou. Haha.. padan muka aku! 

We did'nt change too much Yuen but we did bring a lot of RM assuming we can at any time change the money at money changer in case we’re running out of Yuen. Unfortunately they do not accept RM, their banks only accept USD. Silly…. Ntah hape2… GrrRrr!!! 

After loitering around the street we went back to our hotel, then out for dinner then back to hotel again and wait for the morning to come. And when the morning comes we pack our bag and back to our beloved country Malaysia… end of adventure in Guilin sweet sweet memories

Summary, Guilin is a very interesting place to visit to see countryside Chinese people culture and very remarkable scenery. It was a different experience we had that you will never have here like seeing worker sweeping in the middle of a highway without any safety sign. However, atmosphere and the surroundings make us love Malaysia even more because Malaysia is tidier and the people are 100 times more polite than the people in Guilin.

keje gilerr...

for more photos, macam biasa, ada kat fb.... 

fuhhh finally siap jugak entry nih!!