Ahmad: We got a hard sleeper train to Guilin from Shanghai, and had a pretty uneventful trip. Both of us agree that Indian trains (when you manage to book one at least) are superior to Chinese trains, the berths are more comfortable and you get some semblance of privacy as most of the cabins have curtains.
——->Budget
Our Budget for Asia had been £10 a day each (including accommodation), we doubled this in Shanghai and I can honestly say we lived like kings! It was actually quite difficult to go back to living on £10 a day in Yangshuo and Xingping (though you do miss the luxuries – e.g. Curry)
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On reaching Guilin the first thing to hit us was the humidity, it felt like Kerala all over again, and in the 300m walk from the train station to the bus station we were sweating like pigs. We eventually found the ticket office, and purchased tickets for Yangshuo. The bus was air conditioned (which was a relief) and we spent the journey looking out the window at the magnificent scenery, the little mountain like hills popped out of a generally flat landscape. We arrived into Yangshuo and were picked up by our hostel (Trippers Carpe Diem). The hostel itself was okay, but it had been advertised with a lake view, all it had a view of was a building site!
After checking in, we walked into Yangshuo town and found another hostel which was cheaper, with a better location and better air conditioning. We had eaten when we arrived in Yangshuo at a local Muslim restaurant (Muslims seem to have a franchise on cheap and delicious food in china), we spent the evening chatting to some of the other guests and eventually went to bed.
The dorm we stayed in did have air conditioning, but it was next to useless. I was rudely awakened by Laura at 1AM, as she hadn’t slept and was literally dripping with sweat. To get some sleep we moved her mattress onto the floor, I took the floor and she took my lower bunk. We moved to the Showbiz Inn as early as possible.
The staff at the hostel (especially Vivian) were absolutely lovely, and couldn’t do enough for us. On checking in we met a guy called Freddi, whom we went to have breakfast with. Freddi was from Mauritius and worked in South East Asia, in the hotel industry for the past 8 years. After breakfast we spent the day swimming and had a few beers on the rooftop bar after dinner.
The next day we climbed one of the three local mountains, went swimming and as a reward pigged out on a KFC bargain bucket (I’m as disgusted with myself as you are).
Yangshuo was a nice town but incredibly touristy. Walking down the main bar/restaurant street in the evening was a nightmare (dawdling Chinese tourists) and felt more like Blackpool than the rest of China.
We checked out of the hostel the following day and got a bus to a local village called Xingping, Xingping was breath of fresh air, there were relatively few Chinese tourists, on checking into our new hostel (we treated ourselves to a private room) we immediately got a good vibe from the village.
After checking in we climbed the local mountain and were sweating like pigs again once we got to the top, the view was definitely worth it though, all you could see were the mountains and the Li river. I would definitely recommend staying in Xingping rather than Yangshuo if you come to Guangxi.
We got back to the hostel and after a quick change we went out find a good spot to swim in to cool off after the mountain. We walked over to a makeshift marina, and were accosted by old women selling Bamboo rafting trips down the Li River, one women even followed us close to 2km and only gave up as she spotted two older (and much wealthier) tourists walking the opposite way. We went swimming in the River and eventually went back to the hostel, had some dinner (when we want to treat ourselves we have Pizza) and then had a relatively early night.
The next day we went back to Yangshuo and chilled out at the hostel during the day (it was raining for most of the afternoon). In the evening we treated ourselves again and went for an Indian. I was a little uncertain at first as the chef didn’t look Indian at all (turns out he was from Darjeeling) so I ventured a few words in Hindi (as a test) and he passed with flying colours. After our meal we sat outside talking to the chef for an hour or so before heading back to the hostel.
We checked out mid-morning and got the bus back to Guilin, we got our train (on time as always) to Kunming and had an uneventful journey.