Guilin Reflections

(Ms. Arkin)

We are in the airport in Guilin, waiting for our flight to Kunming, where we will switch flights to get to Lijiang. Our guide, Rico, dropped us off about 45 minutes ago and we just learned that there is a delay in our flight. The duration of the delay is unknown. Molly is reading a book that takes place (somewhat ?) in Guilin. Steve is immersed in his Chinese phrasebook and Candice is listening to her ipod. We got to sleep in kind of late this morning (8ish?) and Rico picked us up at the Yangshuo hotel at 10:00am. The four of us were all on time - packed and checked out with no left belongings or lost tickets! (When we left Hong Kong I had lost my immigration slip, Candice left her winter coat in the YMCA and Steve lost his train ticket in the station.) Anyhow, we drove about an hour to get back to Guilin where we visited the Reed Cave. The cave was impressive. There were so many stalagmite / stalactites that, as Rico said, if you “use your imagination” you can see lots of different things. They have parts of the cave named for the different images it projects, and have created stories to go with them. For example, there is a part that looks like a giant centipede scared away by a magical mirror. The only caves I have been in before were in Kentucky, and this cave was much bigger and more intricate.

After the cave we went to lunch at another hotel in Guilin. We are not sure what all of the food is that we are eating. They serve us so much food that we cannot possibly eat everything. Today was the first day that we cleared any plate, and that was fried chicken that tasted like chicken fingers. They keep bringing out more dishes, even when we are full! One dish today had French fries mixed with one of the unknown fried meats. The four of us courageously sampled the ‘unknown’ and unanimously agreed it was pretty good.

To be continued