Guiling - Day 27

Stairs.
Feels like we don't do much else in China but climb up stairs (or sit in trains). Whether it be the endless stairs of every metro station in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing, the crooked 'stairs' of the Great Wall, or the stairs we climbed today, the ones leading up to the Solitary Beauty Peak of Guilin.

When arriving late last night in Guilin, we could already sense we'd come quite a bit South from Beijing. Although dark and closer to midnight, people where up and about, while Beijing usually went silent when sun set, around 5 or 6. We didn't need to wear doubble layered pants, and tripple layered shirts anymore either, which had been a neccesity in Beijing and Shanghai during the days, not to mention in the middle of the night.

Waking up this morning and being able to hunt for breakfast (ie. walk along the streets hoping to find a food stall with something eatable, perhaps even delish. Sophia will write more about this later) in shorts and little else, felt, well, unbelievable. We thought we'd never escape the cold, since it hasn't really gotten any warmer since Moscow, until now that is.

Later on it felt almost a bit too warm, sitting and sweating in the sun, reading a book (and being forced to pose with the businessmen walking around the pond in groups), in the park of the Sun and Moon pagoda, while Ruut and Sophia were hunting for lunch, water and shade.
It didn't get any cooler climbing up all the stairs that were mentioned earlier, to the Solitary Beauty Peak (entrance fee 70 yuan, for that you don't only get to climb mentioned Peak, but also see the replica of what used to be the home of a prince, the Peace Cave, and a lot of Uni students playing hoops). But it was definitely worth the climb, as we got a good view of the city, and the beautiful mountains surrounding it.

So far we like this city, and we especially like our hostel.
A bit far from the 'food street' (that we adore, of course. More of this later on, as said...) but right by the Main Road, and only a walking distance from the train station, our Xiao Yang Lou IY hostel has proven out to be worth every 2 euros and 27 cents we pay per night/person. It's extreemly new and clean, definitely fresher than any place we've stayed in so far. So if you like it clean, this is the place for you. Oh, and did I mention our beds are about two metres wide and our quilts made in heaven? However it sorta lacks character in all its steralized whiteness(especially compared to our last hostel, Pathfinder in Wuhan), but in a way that's a nice contrast to the city, in all it's colourfullnes and sounds and smells.
Ever since the train ride Ruut described, we're a tad sensitive when it comes to the smells... but hopefully that'll pass.

Oh well, off to brush my teeth and check if our laundry is done. Have to let Sophia write a very important blog post about the thing we love most when traveling: the food.
//H

ps. Since blogspot is off limits in China, we can not see our blog nor reply to your comments (luckily we see your comments though, and are able to blog, once again thanks to Ninjacloak) so I'll just have to reply here, for now. Varsogod Mona! Nice to hear that you liked it, wanna give me your e-mail or sum, so I don't have to reply here in the future? We love getting comments from you, abogal! Hugs!