Guilin: beautiful, amazing and fun!

guilin lake pagada at night

We flew to Guilin yesterday. We were met at the bus by a group of venders who had tours of the area.  We went with one gal into the bus/station : travel agency.  Her name was Helen: she arranged for us to catch a late night tour of the guilin area on a boat....   more on that later...

We stayed at the Jade motel.  It was a great place that had an amazing lobby.  It was not a brand new place and looked a little tired but it was very different and unique. The lobby had a huge skylight with red ribbons (about 6 feet wide) running from different points in the roof and ending at the skylight.  It was neat looking.   The floors were marble and they had many groupings of furniture.

detail of a bridge we passed under

  There were ponds with gold fish and waterfalls.  Off to one side and up two stairs was the breakfast area.  (we missed the breakfast buffet this morning but will go to it tomorrow.  We had to order off the menu.)  The breakfast area was sort of surrounded by a moat of water with cute little goldfish.... 

We went to a nightime lake and river cruise when we got in last evening. It was really amazing. all of the trees on the sides and all of the mountains are lit with different colored lights. It was stunning..... then like it couldn't get better an entire orchestra was sitting in a huge island pavillion playing traditional songs. It was very brightly lit and they all had on red outfits and the ladies had on red evening gowns.   They sounded very professional .

pagoda: all of the banks and trees were lit on the sides as well as many buildings. it was a great trip...

.... they
We went through locks between the lake and the river.  That alone was so interesting.  David said the trip was worth it just for that as it's the first time we have gone through locks.  It is amazing how quickly it fills: then we drive out when we are at the next level.   the pictures we took did not do it justice.   There were also two  tiered pagotas. They were on little islands and the lights from them reflected on the water.... guilin city really thought all of this out...beautiful.  
Then on the River there was another brightly lite island pavillion and a group was performig chinese opera. It was so great. The pilot cut the engines and we sat and watched.  The boat cheered when they finished a song.

bronze horses; 7 of them together signify sucess.

  Then back through the locks. The cruise lasted one and 1/2 hour. We were the only Americans and the only ones who didn't speak Chinese but everyone was really nice. They passed out complimentary dvd's of the cruise.  That was a huge bonus for us!  We didn't expect to get it.   It was funny on the boat someone asked where we lived (miming) and we gave them our little picture album with pictures of our 3 daughters and the area we lived in.   One of the pictures was a post card with a redwood tree... It was obvious they thought it was trick photography but redwoods really do grow 15 feet wide and hundreds of feet tall...   All in all the people were very pleasant and it was fun although we realized everytime we talked it was a bit disruptive as no one  could understand us.

This is the wonderful group of musicians on the lake. Traditional sounding songs...

   We tried to keep it to a minimum.

We got back to the motel and asked the manager if he knew of a restaurnant: near by. (He was still working although it was almost 10 PM: what incredible dedication.) he asked what kind of food? muslum? koshur? american?  no! .... we wanted Chinese.  He recommended the restaurant in the motel: ... excellent choice!  We got eel with bamboo shoots, duck tongues (they had a bone!!!) with vegetables, rice, tea, a huge plate of fruit, round water chestnuts with celery and macadamia nuts all for twelve dollars total.  The duck tongues were so funny to eat.  I popped one in my mouth then discovered they have a long, flexible bone in them.... they had to be eaten off the bone.

guilin

While we ate many, many people came in (from tour bus)  and ate at the group tables on the sides where they have big lazy susans that spin and allow everyone to dish up.  We have eaten many of those free group meals and felt very fortunate to be eating on our own.  Although the variety is good at the group meals you don't actually know what the dishes are & that is part of the fun!  Plus, the meals tend to be hurry hurry and it is so fun to linger and chat after a meal.