DAY 1
Took a 3.5hr flight to Nan Ning, 1800H-2135H... took Shen Zhen Airlines... it's a very small plane.. the plane is split into 2 sides of 3 seats each.. separated by a narrow walkway which is meant for only one person to walk ... and of course, they did served drinks and meal... but for the drinks.. really lousy and not cold.. I'll give 3/10... for the meal, there was a choice of fish or chicken.. i took fish - which was surprisingly nice.. 6.5/10... as the flight was heading back to China, there were many China people... and if you thought Singaporeans were kiasu, wait till you see them...
Upon touching down, we saw our tour guide.. and realised our tour group is comprised of 11 people... ( 2 + 2 + 3 + 4), youngest was a 18year old guy, oldest was a 66year old grandpa...
While on the way to the hotel, the tour guide introduced himself and brief us about what's Guang Xi's speciality - 山水, 山歌, 少数民族 - 壮族. He also told us that many tour groups complain of the water, not able to adapt to the water here. So he suggested us to drink a glass of boiled water every night in the hotel to help to adjust to the water in GuangXi. One thing I have to say is the tour bus. Its a mini bus of seating capacity of max. 15 including driver.. the seats weren't comfortable and it really affected us as there were much travelling on mountainous road for this tour....
The hotel - Hua Xing Hotel was ok ok.. but it was veri noisy.. its a common practice there for cars/bus/vans to honk whenever they are overtaking another vehicle or just switching lane.. so i couldn't sleep well that night...
DAY 2
So today was the actual first day of the tour... ate breakfast at hotel, which was quite disappointing.. after that, we took 4hr coach jouney to reach De Tian Waterfall. As the coach seats wasn't that comfortable, all of us were aching from seating so long...
But well, the waterfall was quite nice and interesting. Its the largest trans-national waterfall in Asia, and 2nd largest trans-national waterfall in the World. It stretches across China and Vietnam. So its like you could have one feet in China, the other in vietnam.
Lunch was something different. It was mixed China/Vietnam cuisine. Not really suitable for Singaporean taste ba... Took another 4hr journey back to hotel. Super rocky ride.. during the trip back to the hotel, the tour guide played a drama serial on the coach for us to see.. its called "shi wan [xx] qin yuan" [dun know how to pronounce the 3rd word..haha]
the drama serial is a very old one.. its about tourism company advertising for Cruise Ship.. their idea was the Love Boat... the main actor and actoress got married on the criuse just after knowing each other on the cruise and pa-tor for that 7days on the cruise....
Upon reaching the hotel, it was already dinner time..it was surprisingly nice as compared to the lousy breakfast..haha..
After that, we managed to go to a night market... its called 山路night market... it was just one long stretch of road where they sold quite alot of stuff to eat... like pigeon meat, lots of seafood like octopus, oysters etc, smelly tofu, BBQ or roasted seafood/vegetables, alligator meat...
Day 3
Ate the same breakfast at the hotel.. Then sat all the way to our next destination - Merryland Resort Hotel. It's our one and only 5 star hotel we will be staying in the whole trip... took 3hours plus to reach a restuarant located along the highway.. not tat nice... den another 4hours or so to finally reach MerryLand Resort Hotel. Oh ya, the hotel is at Gui Lin. And boy, the temperature is freezing.. its 4-6degrees plus the wind, its really very very cold there...
well, the hotel definitely looks better, cleaner.. more facilities.. there were gym, billard & mahjong room.. dinner at the hotel was not bad.. service was good... oh ya, there was a night show (free of charge).. so we went... nothing special la... there were perfomance like dart-throwing which is lousy (target was very near), there were girls dancing, a young girl doing balancing act - which i feel its the best perfomance... and there were singing.. which was .......no comments...
it was free and easy since we reached the hotel.. but there wasn't much things to do.. there is a amusement park and golf course.. but the amusement park closes at 5pm... we are only going there the next morning... so i felt that today it was wasted as we didn't see anything.. it was just travelling.. and enjoying the hotel facilities....
Day 4
Breakfast at the hotel was of course good!! they served both international and chinese cuisine..
after breakfast, went to the theme park!! wohooo!!
It was drizzling, and frezzing... luckily there was a store there selling gloves.. and my mum bought a pair for my sis and i....
imagine sitting a roller coaster in such freezing temperatures... imagine anything you touch, from the seat, handle are icy cold... it's a torture to try all the rides... there was a bungee jumping.. but i dare not try.. cuz i was already freezing... i can't imagine me falling through such cold air... i think i will sure catch cold and fall ill....
Ate lunch at the Merryland hotel = disappointing... after tat, it was sitting in coach again... the whole journey in Gui Lin was very cold... it was due to the rain and the wind...
went to a foot reflexology, this one is brought by the tour guide, it wasn't in the itneray... so that the tour guide can earn side income lo.. the water was really hot.. took a very long time for me to get used to the heat before i put in my whole feet...
we ate dinner @ the hotel - Gui Lin City Garden Hotel.. it was nice, suit our taste.. there were sweet and sour fish, curry tofu, claypot eggplant....we saw a show @ Dreamlike Theatre.. the title of the show is " meng huan li jiang".. its very nice and interesting... interesting use of the colour lightings... there were skillful acrobatics, ballet and dance... the show was 75mins.. the last 10-15mins was a little draggy.. but overall the show was nice...
after the show, the tour guide told us where we could shop.. but we didn't.. cuz it was raining and just too cold..hahahah... actually, this trip really no shopping de.. only got a few.. like wad's stated in the itenary - chinese tea, silk, chopping knife, herbal medicine....i intend to find something for my dear.. but reallie never see anything really nice...
Day 5
Breakfast at this hotel was even worst than the Hua Xing hotel..hahah.. travelled around 2hrs to the mountaineous area to a minority race village - Zhuang Jia village... saw terraced paddy fields, and how the villlages live their lives...
The 2 photos above are pictures of 2 tour groups.. mine and another from Malaysia.. joining together to sing along with the ah mei of their village... it was fun and entertaining...
Lunch was their special steamboat.. just so perfect for the weather.. ^^..and a good change of food.. as we had been eating the same few food - chicken duck fish and many type of vegetables... they served their wine - rice wine... it was very sweet and nice.. just able to warm up the whole body...
Came back from the mountain area... went to 2 places where the tour guide could earn commission... went to a silk and chopping knife shop... no one bought anything from that two shops... as in we dun need those, why would we buy???
Cuz after visiting the 2 shops.. the tour guide talked to us in the coach.. he openly told us that they earn extra income from such shop and want us to buy stuff.. to help them.. i personally didn't like that move... we will only buy stuff that we would use and not just buy to help you ma...
next destination was the foot reflexology centre... this time was the real food reflexology.. it was very good and relaxing.... maybe should try in Singapore too..haha..
We ate our dinner at a restaurant... their speciality was 3 different "mi fen" or bee hoon... actually nothing very spectacular.. its like normal fish slice bee hoon, fried been hoon and dry bee hoon.....
we had free and easy time after the dinner.. so we decided to go walk walk around their "pasar malam".. they didn't sell special stuff.. we came across a few stalls selling a special kind of egg.. its a plant inside with auspicious words on the leaves.. my dad asked me to buy 3 of that for my dear and her sisters.. i felt that they would like or use it.. so i didn't buy...
thoughts and feelings so far:
~ our tour guide is not very hardworking.
~ weather is too cold for me.. till now, we still havn't seen the sun at all...
~ [emo part] I feel that LOVE is when you are freezing in cold weather and rain, you feel warmth from inside from when other people put you before them.
E.g. buying gloves for you like my mum did, lending his/her jacket pocket for your hands to hide to keep warm....
Day 6
According to the local news, there will be heavy rain the next few days. But while waiting @ hotel lobby, we finally saw the sun for the first time during the whole trip..haha...
Wemt sight-seeing.. and also went to "shopping", brought by the tour guide... even went to a park, while walking through the park, there was an exhibition place selling jade... my tour group didn't buy much... den as expected, the tour guide wasn't tat happy... but well, hack care...
went to a place where we all sat a bamboo raft to enjoy the river scene, to sing "shan ge" with ah mei while on the raft... and we saw a certain kind of bird catching the fish in the river... there was hot tea, and peanuts served on the raft... but it was veri windy and cold.. so mainly we drank the tea... hahah..
but the cruel thing is that they tie their neck area so that they can't swallow the fish..after catching.. the trainer will squeeze the fish out of the bird's throat... ouch... below are the few photos..
after tat.... we went to another place.. to take a river cruise to witness the best scenery... the scenes are super breathe-taking man... there's a famous saying..
[桂林山水甲天下] - "Guilin’s scenery is best in the world."
At night, we went to an open-air threatre to watch the famous "liu san jie". the famous movie was directed by Zhang Yimou, using the scenery of the mountain and rivers so beautifully.. it was drizzling at first, so they distributed disposable raincoat... while during the show... we had free lightning and thunder effects... it did rained periodically throughout the show, but many of the spectators perservered to watch on.. but there was one downpour, and everyone started to run and seek shelter... it was chaotic and reallie wet...
upon reaching the coach, we were driven back to the hotel to have a hot shower and rest... so that won't catch any cold... so tats how day 6 ended.....
Day 7
Well, today was considered the last day of the tour and day 8 was mainly taking breakfast and then taking afternoon flight back to Singapore....
Today breakfast was a little special.. we have to sit together as a group to have our breakfast.. all the time breakfast was buffet dinner...
After breakfast, we went to Silver Limestone Cave.. its very nice, you will be amazed by the beauty of nature...we took around an hour to walk the whole cave.. tiring but worth it...
after the 1hr walk, we at lunch at a restaurant... not tat nice... maybe cuz eat till very sianz le.. every meal was like the same few dishes.. fish, chicken, duck, vegetables - many kinds...
next was the long and tiring 5.5-6hr journey back to Nan Ning...oh ya..after dinner, we went to a dvd/vcd stall and buy lots of dvd bacl..haha.. now got lots of show to watch at home..haha.. finally can watch Red Cliff.. missed that when it was released in cinemas...
Day 8
well, nothing much.. went to a park to see the scenery and see what do the pple do in the park... there were many old pple singing songs and performing.. there were none jogging..haha.. maybe too cold, or they dun have the habit to exercise....
after tat, went to airport.. which was quite disappointing.. i thought maybe could find something for my dear and her family.. but after checking in, it was straight to the waiting area.. there was a small duty-free shop.. selling electronics.. there wasn't any proper food/drink stalls.. there was a small stall selling cup noodles and some drinks....tats all... reallie bad impression....
well, finally typed out the blog of my 8D7N holiday.. lazy and keep procastinating.. well, for the photos.. i uploaded to my facebook account... can go and see - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69419&id=682111918&l=8a980
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69422&id=682111918&l=bd95c
