Huaihua to Yangshuo

I ended up reaching Yangshuo much much faster than I thought. For a big part, this is to win 2 days of relative quiet before the big crowds arrive. So I committed here for 4 nights, 2 of which are more than doubling in price for the same room,

 

But a big part of this is the connection from Hunan. Huaihua was the only way out (other than heading back north from the village of Fenghuang - being the main transport hub locally. I quickly found out, however, that there were no buses whatsoever going or stopping at Sanjiang (the entry port for Guangxi's Dong villages) or to Tongdao (the equivalent option on the Hunan side).

 

So I got me a ticket for the Guiling-headed bus that would stop in Longsheng along the way. The lady selling the tickets said it will be about 5~6 hours to Longsheng, and the only bus was leaving at 17:30. A quick calculation could show that on an optimistic view, it will be somewhat tough to be doing any price negotiations on hotel rates arriving when I would, but there I was writing my last update in Huaihua and waiting for the bus.

 

As I was looking at the map on the bus, and knowing that the way to Guiling was to take 10 hours, I quickly figured that 5~6 hours might not be the best of estimates. After a couple of hours on the road I asked the driver, and he estimated arriving at Longsheng around 1AM. Ouch - in towns like that you can expect the doors of all hotels to be locked.

I told the driver I would be staying on the bus all the way to Guilin, since I don't expect to find any place to stay at that hour. For some reason he did not bother to ask for extra money.

 

With some luck, the bus had a flat tire and we had a stop for a couple of hours for the drivers to figure out what to do and then change the tire. I'm not being sarcastic at all about the "lucky" part either. That meant that I could stay lying in the sleeper bus the few extra hours, and we ended up arriving in Guiling just past 6AM rather than the middle of the night.

 

I still had to wait until 7AM before anybody woke up to talk to me in the designated hostel, and until 12AM before I could get a room. So left my bags and went for the Guilin round - not that much to see in these mini-cities anyway.

I made the right bet, heading straight for the hill-set at the north of town, called "Folded Brocade Hill" (Diecai Shan) - rather a set of three hills packed into one "park" - great views of the city's surrounding, and a great morning wakeup set of hill-climbs.

When I say views - the city itself is quite boring in terms of city views per-se, but the city is built in between and around a set of Karst peaks, like those in Zhangjiajie and Dehang - they give a nice view around, and it's interesting to see neighbourhood built in between clusters of those peaks.

 

So the next morning, after a long sleep, I took the bus heading for Yangshuo. It's another very small town - I basically got to see the main streets here in the 15 min walk from the bus station to the hotel at the other side of the center. But it's the surrounding that should be really really nice, and I'll be heading out there starting tomorrow.

 

Today, I will be finally heading to the much awaited (on my side) show by Zhang Yimou called "Impressions" - a big nightly show running for quite a while, supposedly using some 600 paticipants, and a light show over some neighbouring hills. To be picked up for the show in 15 minutes.

 

All this talking of hills brings us nicely to address Chris' comments on the food here.  The connection is quite straightforward and was forming in my mind for a while.

 

I find that climbing hills/ steps is very much like eating spicy food. The more you do it, the less you can full the "itch" of it. Spicy food doesn't taste so spicy, and your lungs and leg muscles complain much less after climbing Zhangjiajie's 4,000 steps to the "yellowstone village". But with that numbness of the associated pain, does not come a real relief for the body. Even after getting completely used to climbing or eating spice, your bidy still knows what's happening - the way to realize that is the sweat usually - it's a way to know you've been eating super-spicy food or have been climbing for a while, even though your mouth or legs do not really complain ...

 

And with this connection, When I saw Chris' comment this morning, I tended to agree - the food in Guiling that I managed to sample twice was quite hopeless. Mainly, in the center, you see a lot of touristy traps which I tend to religiously avoid. Those probably were serving the supposedly local "Beer duck" dish.  But my opting into what seemed like nice local options was not with much success this time. I ate in a very down-to-earth-local joint for lunch/ breakfast - it was quite busy with locals, north of the north hills, near the "east gate" - dishers from 1~2 yuan to big ones for 5 yuan ... I can still feel the bad taste from that imitation-tofu dish I tried there.

At night I went for something claiming to be Chongqing food, to taste one of the worst ever imitation-lamb dishes.

 

However, walking around Yangshuo (maybe somebody heard Chris complain before), I saw quite a few Dumpling stores (dedicated ones, no less, with names like Dumpling King). So it's here waiting for you if you're into it.

Also managed to find a cool restaurant for lunch with English menu and some cool Sichuanese dishes (marked nicely by 3 chilly symbols, and with nice extra spice as asked).