Stop 21 - Guilin, Mainland China

The Great Firewall...
No match for me. Or so I thought. Got a VPN sorted before I arrived in China, so had hoped that my phone and laptop/chromebook would be fine for the two weeks I had in the mainland (for clarity - the Chinese government block out websites that don't allow them to monitor/censor the information available, which Google//Twitter/Facebook/many others don't allow - however a VPN allows you to still access these sites). Unfortunately, my chromebook uses a Google-based operating system, and after a little while just got shut out on my first day here in Guilin - hence the delay in blog posts.
All good now, but not the start I wanted when arriving in China. My phone worked throughout my time here, which helped preserve my sanity.
I got the bullet train from Hong Kong, pretty nifty. Also, it's massive:

And made my way straight to the hostel, Sky Palace Hostel, which was great. It was fairly cold throughout my time in China, which unfortunately made the lovely rooftop terrace pretty redundant:

I very quickly noticed that there were no foreign tourists in the hostel at all, everyone else there was Chinese. That was pretty much the case for all of Guilin, I think I pointed and grunted more than I spoke English. The Google translate app is an absolute lifesaver. As was the one guy that worked at the hostel that could speak English, as he offered to help me get a SIM card. I was feeling a little isolated without any conversation with anyone, whether at the hostel, or even on WhatsApp etc., so this brightened up my evening a bit.
After getting my SIM sorted, I went exploring around Guilin town for the evening:

Lovely place, and some of the local people made an effort to be really welcoming - two street vendors offered me free food, and people were saying hi as I passed through the streets. All going well, until I saw this in front of me:

Yes that's a dog. On two feet. Wearing a pink tutu and backpack. Just casually walking around the town. Very weird. Kind of gave me the heebie-jeebies, so decided I'd had enough for the day, and went back to the hostel to chill out. No dogs would be walking on two feet there, thankfully. 

I asked the one lad that could speak English what I should do the next day, given it was my only full day in Guilin. He recommended a day trip to Yangshuo, which is where the picturesque river and karst mountains are - get up at 7a.m. and head out there. Unfortunately, the week in HK caught up on me, and I wasn't feeling the best the next day, so that plan went out the window fairly quick. Instead I took it handy, did some laundry, booked my trains through China, and had a day in. I mustered enough energy to head out that afternoon, and see what else Guilin had to offer:

Before stopping off for some traditional rice noodles with beef/pork (at least I hope that's what it was):

And taking in one final lap of the surrounding sites of Guilin, including the sun and moon pagoda, that night - the Chinese really love their LED lights:

And that was pretty much it! Only 1.5 days so a quick stopover. Guilin  is a very nice place, but as a stop itself not too much to write home about. I do regret not going to Yangshuo, so if anyone ever finds themselves in Guilin, head out there for the day - I'd seen similar karst mountains in Vietnam when I was there, so that's how I justified my laziness to myself.

Back on the bullet train the next day to Chengdu, which should be a bit livelier.
That dog is still haunting my dreams.

Big love,

Stu.

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