"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #58 Chengdu to Guilin, China February 27, 2017 Monday Cloudy & 50 degrees Part #1 Of 2 80 Pictures

Seems as if we just closed our eyes, drifting off to sleep, and it was time to get up. These over-size beds were so comfortable with the sheet-covered duvets, that it would have been nice to spend more time sleeping in them.

Opening the drapes, we saw that it was going to be another monochromatic gray day – pollution at its best (or not). In the daily newspaper, there is the forecast for the major cities in China. The symbols are cloudy, drizzle, dust, fog, haze, overcast, rain, shower, snow, storm, thunderstorm, and lastly….sunny. Few places are labeled sunny in the part of the world. The "dust" forecast comes when there are sand storms, which are common during high winds.

We went to breakfast by 6:30am. He food was fresh and hot, and mostly untouched yet. We prefer to start the day early, giving us more time to re-pack and do some emailing. Nice to take advantage of the free WIFI while we are off of the ship.

Re-packing was easy, even with the addition of our new panda bears. Once again, in hind sight, it would have been better to have taken two medium size duffels, thus splitting the weight between the two. Leaving extra room for heavy jackets would have been nice. We were both allowed 44 pounds, and we never would have brought that much. Anyway, we did bring a hand-held scale, and it has helped immensely keeping us under the 44 pounds.

Our guide Susan was early and waiting for us in the lobby. Once we checked out, we were on our way with little traffic to the airport. We arrived there within ½ hour, where we said goodbye to our nice young lady driver. Her name was so long, we never did hear it correctly. Susan escorted us to the counter with the shortest line. Taking our passports, she secured seats 18 d and e, aisle and next to.

Before going through security, we said goodbye to Susan, who had been a wonderful guide. What's nice is that she was just as interested in learning from us, as we were from her. She added that she was sorry to see us leave, because we had gotten into some good conversations about family life, health care, the stock markets, and even religions. Normally conversations avoided, she seemed to value our thoughts as well as sharing hers.

Security was easy, since we have gotten the hang of separating the things we should put in the checked bag and the stuff in our hand carry ons. Once again, we could leave our shoes on, but the jackets had to come off. Computers could stay in the case, but cameras needed to be out of their case. The camera bag had to be scanned twice. We were then wanded, patted down, and free to go. We passed once again.

Forgot to mention, while entering the security in Xian's airport, there were large plastic tubs for dumping all liquids from containers. Most everyone in China packs a drink bottle or thermos with them all day. They are mostly filled with tea. Now at this airport today, we spotted water stations where people can get cold, warm, or hot water for brewing their tea again. What a great idea.

Our flight had been scheduled for an 11:45am departure, but by the time we arrived to the gate, it had been delayed until 12:45pm. Now the boarding time was 12:20pm. Not bad, but expected this time of year, as bad weather can delay many flights. This was an opportunity to work on captioning photos while waiting. Never a dull moment.

Also a good time to buy some coffee at a KFC. Actually Coke sounded better, but they did not sell it. Strange huh? We only had 50 yuan ($15USD). So we were not sure how much the coffees cost. No one at KFC spoke English. In fact, we saw absolutely no other tourists that looked like us. Good luck had followed us, since a nice lady next to us, helped translate what we wanted. We ended up with two coffee lattes, and got change back too.

The final boarding time was adjusted to 12:10pm, and once the gate opened up, the people fell into line. We were in the middle of this line. It was so much easier boarding this way. Forget the group numbers. Taking notice of what people carried on the plane, we realized they traveled lightly, checking in any large bags. The overhead bins were not full.

To our surprise, a lunch was served on the flight. Not sure what the main was, but it did come with a sticky rice. The meal looked like vegetarian, tofu, or fish in a sauce. Fish it was. It also came with a soft white roll and a most tasty pound cake. Yum. Ice cold orange juice was our choice of drinks.

The temps in Guilin were 13 Celsius, or 55 F. It must have rained because the tarmac was full of puddles. At least this is a much smaller airport with not a long way to go to find the baggage area. Our bag came quickly, and we were off to find our driver. At the exit, our luggage tag was checked to match the one on our back. A fellow by the name of Jeremy, our guide, led us outside to find our driver. His name is Hi. We were on our way to Guilin by 2:30pm.

Jeremy began his description of Guilin and the surrounding limestone mountains. We can get into more details once we are on the river boat tomorrow. We shall see the limestone mountains and the area that is named "karst" for its unusual landscape.

Most of the modern high rise towers of apartments were built near the airport. The older city of Guilin was more country than big city, filled with trees like osmanthus (cassius), camphor, ginko, and palm trees. We like that even better. So did President Richard Nixon when he visited here in 1972. He stated that among all of the cities he and his wife visited in China, Guilin was his favorite. Also his favorite……Peking duck.

Weaving through the narrow streets in town, we crossed a bridge that reminded us of the Golden Gate in SF, only much, much smaller. We thought it crossed over a river, but was in fact, a moat left over from a previous dynasty in 970 AD. We arrived at the Shangri-La Hotel, which is built on a hill overlooking the river.

Getting here by 3:30pm, Jeremy helped us check in. He will be back tomorrow at 8:15am to pick us up for our tour on the Li River. Later in the evening, we will be going to Impressions, a show on the river. We had some confusion as to whether we would be coming back to the hotel after the river tour, or staying out for 5 hours, then go to the show. We prefer to stick to our original plan, even if it means driving for 2 extra hours. The show starts at 7:45pm, and we would need to have dinner before we go, preferably at the hotel. So we shall see.

We settled into our room at the hotel, which is only 7 years new. It has the largest rooms available in all of Guilin, we read. The room is nicely laid out, but cannot hold a candle to the St. Regis. However, it is as good as it gets here. We felt we were short of bottled water and bath towels, so one phone call took care of that. All was delivered within minutes.

Connecting to the internet, we keep our fingers crossed that it will continue to work. Needing some exercise, we walked around the outdoor garden that surrounded the pool and another large pond with a fountain. We even came across a mini-zoo in the back corner. We saw ducks, black swans, peacocks, ringneck pheasants, koi carp, chickens, and some rabbits. But the cutest animals were two friendly piglets, and one tiny pig. Of course, they were the only smelly ones, that's why we don't raise any. Now the biggest display housed a pair of ostrich. Really? We wisely did not get too close to them, as they can be aggressive.

Dinner for us was in the Li Café inside the hotel. A most friendly chef invited us to have a salad from the salad bar while we waited for the burgers and fries. Coke Zero really hit the spot, as we have been soda-deprived for days now. We finished the meal with small ice cream sundaes, vanilla topped with chocolate sauce, slivered almonds, and shaved chocolate. Price-wise, this was the most affordable meal so far on this excursion.

Bill & Mary Ann

Sharing the bed with our pandas