Steve's Day 7 - Back to Guilin, On to Lijiang and KFC!

(Steve)

We were all happy to see Rico again the next morning, though not particularly happy to be leaving Yangshuo. Still, we eventually all piled into the van and set off back to Guilin. On the way I found out why driving so far hadn't seemed to fit all the bad things we'd heard: in the cities, drivers are relatively careful; outside of them, less so. At one point, I was reminded of a game of musical chairs - every second car on the road, including our own, crossed into the oncoming traffic lane to take the position left open by the car ahead. Except for the one that didn't have the timing quite right and had to slip back into its own spot to avoid a head-on collision with a truck. I suppose I should have been on the edge of my seat the whole way back; instead, I took a nap.

All of the Guilin area had once been underwater, which was the reason for the strangely-shaped limestone hills everywhere, and also for the caves in those hills. One in particular had developed some truly impressive stalactite and stalagmite formations. It was called Reed Flute Cave because many of the stalactites resembled traditional Chinese reed flutes. That was where Rico took us when we got back to Guilin. The rock formations were really fascinating, partly because of the creative and colorful lighting that had been installed, but mostly just because of the amazing and beautiful shapes that you'd never expect a rock to look like in nature. It was very nice having Rico with us, because we never would have noticed all the designs and animals that the rocks sometimes resembled. The rock city, complete with a stream that mirrored the river winding through Guilin, was especially impressive. It was definitely a good way to say goodbye to Guilin and all the incredible nature that surrounded it. Saying goodbye to Rico was a bit harder. We took a picture with him and thanked him (and are still thanking him), then headed through security for our plane.

The flight from Guilin to Kunming was delayed, but not enough to interfere with our connection from Kunming to Lijiang, and other than that it was fine. I suppose that should have clued us in that something would go wrong on the second leg. When we arrived in Kunming, we were horrified to see that the time listed for our flight was two hours earlier than it should have been, and that we had only 15 minutes to check in, get through security, and make it to our gate. Just as we were all about to break down a Chinese man who thankfully knew English explained that the listed time was not the flight's departure time, but the earliest time that we could check in. Able to breath again, we waited until the now-less-scary check-in time and everything went smoothly after that. Still, it was another reminder of how helpless we were without being able to read any of the signs or ask anyone for information. We were all very relieved when we arrived succesfully in Lijiang and met our new guide, Danny, who could do all the talking in Chinese that needed to be done. My first impression of Danny was that he seemed very nice. My second impression was that he was very short. Both turned out to be true.

None of us had eaten, but we were all so exhausted that we decided we'd rather just go to bed. The smell of barbecue from the market next to the hotel was wonderful, though, and my stomach woke up enough that after dropping off my luggage I snuck back out. I was not confident enough in my ability to communicate to try to navigate the market, so I went to KFC instead. After a couple of very small chicken breasts, I went to the counter and attempted to order "bingqilin" in Chinese. I understood very little of the response, apart from "mei you bingqilin" - "we don't have ice cream". I later found out that the cones I'd seen came from a place further down the road. Dejected, I headed back to the hotel. *End Week 1*