Valentine's Day in Guilin

(Deanna Biddy - senior at Dover-Sherborn High School)

Hello all!

Today is Valentine’s Day and we all rose early from our beds at 06:45 to encounter an early breakfast accompanied with much food. Our food spanned from vanilla yogurt with Rice Krispies, Croissants to Fried Eggs with Sausage, generally the meals kept coming and we tried to aim to finish one whole plate but to no avail. Afterwards, we went back to our rooms to quickly pack our belongings to get into the van to go see Elephant Trunk Hill and Reed Flute Cave.

Regarding Valentine’s Day, I promised Patty that I’d sing to her as her Valentine’s Day gift and she was happy. In travelling to Elephant Trunk Hill, we learned that in certain villages there is a set speed limit that is very slow to prevent accidents but in the speed that we travelled (20 mph, if it is your interest) made the rate of getting to the Hill longer than it could have been. We travelled for about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to Elephant Trunk Hill. In Elephant Trunk Hill, the hill is shaped as an Elephant and it appears as if the trunk of the Elephant is in the water. We took pictures of the Water Moon Cave which appeared as a moon reflecting upon the water and we saw people climbing within it. On a funny note being there, Michael and I were stopped by a nice elderly Chinese man and asked to take pictures with him. As you can tell, Michael and I in appearance are quite different and we’re often stared at for long periods of time by locals. We walked over to the Love Island (another lovely thing to see since it is Valentine’s Day) which is a sculpture of two people kissing in a shape of a heart. Brandon and Michael comically took photos and a small boy asked Michael to join him in a photo. A woman called Michael and I “beautiful” in which we were both quite flattered. I reiterate to the group that being in China really defines us as individuals due to our differences both appearance wise and culturally.

We went to Reed Flute Cave that started out with haggling in a gift shop where I looked at a gift item which was 100 Yuan and it ended up being reduced to 50 Yuan, Michael encountered the same experience but it was hilarious to see something worth about 500 Yuan and after about 5 minutes it was reduced to 60 Yuan. That was an intimidating experience for all of us where we didn’t expect several woman to follow us around a store for the full length of time we were in there all trying to sell us the same items. In proceeding into the cave, it had many different sections that refer to nature, including a light and music show within the cave.

With our tour guide Lily, we drove to the airport and ate lunch there. We went through security, said goodbye to Lilly and took our flight to Kunming. In landing, we were all very excited because we all had our luggage which in our flight from Toronto to Beijing, Veronica and my luggage didn’t arrive. In picking up our luggage we realised how warm Kunming is. Today it has been approximately 70 degrees and we walked out to see Mr. Hoover which was wonderful because we have not seen him in many years. It was honestly such a relief to see a familiar face as well as being in a fantastically warm place. We went to a park in the centre of the city which was breathtaking and we realised how much we liked Kunming in such a short amount of time. In the evening, we ate a delicious dinner with Mr. Hoover, and Michael made an attempt to eat chicken head. We actually peer pressured him into eating it and he was not very appetized by the chicken head. After dinner, we came to the train station in which we are currently situated in chairs awaiting our sleeper train to Dali. As we sit, we share snacks and photos and enjoy each other’s company. I honestly await our arrival in Dali even despite my wishing of being in Kunming longer, each day awaits a new adventure and experience and we fearlessly take on eat different meal, person encountered and location with joy. In our few days in China, I have come to admire our group’s hard work effort in trying to speak Chinese because we’re certainly not fluent but ever learning.

I look forward to updating you again soon on our travels!