Day Fifteen - Guilin

We left early for Guilin by bus stopping at the South China Pearl Museum (factory outlet). I rested on the bus while Lucie went in to take a look. From the museum we went to lunch, Francois and I skipping lunch and taking our tour director, Liu,up on his offer to take us directly by taxi to the Lijiang Water Falls Hotel. This was a kindness I will always remember.

Since I didn't attend any excursions due to my illness, I will share some thoughts about the tour and the tour company - Sinorama. Throughout the trip we were guided by Liu, a University History Professor from Xi'an. His main role was to handle all of the logistics of getting the 25 of us to and fro the various hotels, buses, excursions and airports. Considering he never lost anyone I would say he did his job very well.

In each major area, a local guide was added to provide color commentary for the region we were in and to illustrate the places we visited. These guides were for the most part very good with varying levels of proficiency in French. One of the best local guides was Ben, also known as Sylvain.

Each morning we started our day with a breakfast buffet that was regularly very good. Most places offered an omelet bar, cereal with yogurt or milk, many kinds of fruit, pancakes or French toast, regular toast, croissants, and a variety of muffins. Along with this usual fair you could also have steamed vegetables, rice, noodles, chicken, fish, dumplings, and potatoes. Juices, coffee and tea were always available.

The buses were always comfortable and the drivers professional and courteous. In Beijing the driver had a cooler on board with beer and water which was a welcome treat after a long visit. We were able to leave our valuables on board making it easier to walk through the sites. Liu recommended we rotate seats but we never really did, although we rarely sat in the same place twice. Each time we changed hotels, we had to get the luggage outside our room by a certain time and the following day it was delivered to the new room, very efficient.

The hotels were excellent throughout the trip. They advertised 4 & 5 star hotels and that is what we got. Internet was difficult, rarely accessible in the rooms but usually available in the lobby. Facebook was never available and I only occasionally had access to this blog. One weird quirk of all the hotels was the way they had wired the lights. Practically all the lights in the room were wired to banks of switches next to the beds, labeled with 6 font black text. Needless to say, trying to turn out the lights was a comical moment to end each day.

The airports were very similar to ours with the same type of security checks and restrictions, except you didn't have to take off your shoes. All of our flights ran on time.

By the way, today is the 23rd anniversary of the Government's suppression of the protests at Tienanmen Square. There were no visible protests or marches and no mention in the papers.

Our freedoms are something we must never take for granted.

Tomorrow we visit  Zhongshan.