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Saturday, 18th September 1999
Guilin - Xi'an: 750 miles
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Another
early start with an alarm call at 6:30 so that we
could put our bags out at 7:00, stagger down to
breakfast and be on the coach by 8:00.
It
is an hour's drive to the River Li. Lizzie had gently
chided two couples, Dave and Diane, and John and
Pauline, for hogging the front seats. They ostentatiously
invited others to sit there today. I seized the
opportunity and jumped in. This had the advantage
of seeing the most picturesque journey so far from
a good viewpoint. It had the disadvantage of seeing
Chinese driving from a good viewpoint. They are
crazy. There were no give way signs, and they would
not give way to anyone. It seemed to be one enormous
game of chicken. We narrowly missed other cars,
bikes, trikes, pedestrians, pigs and a water buffalo.
All of these just went wherever they wanted to.
Overtaking was achieved by simply moving into the
wrong lane, regardless of what is oncoming (like
us). To turn left, vehicles moved into the left
hand lane, then drifted gently into the wrong lane
and swept round into the junction. As a consequence,
there was a lot of traffic on the wrong side of
the road. It was very exciting, not to say traumatic,
and we resolved that we would never, ever, sit in
the front again.
We
arrived at the river station to join what seemed
like hundreds of others getting onto the tourist
cruise boats. Our boat left at 10.00 |
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The
cruise was magical. The landscape is unique
and very beautiful, with the river winding
through curiously-shaped steep hills densely
covered with acacia, bamboo and other lush
vegetation. It was quite misty, but that
added to the magic as it coloured the more
distant hills with delicate shades of blue. |
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We
saw a number of the famous boats with fishermen
who use cormorants to catch their fish for
them and then return to the boat where they
disgorge their catch. |
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Our
boat, like all of the other boats,
was appointed
with comfortable armchairs with antimacassars
and low tables. We had lunch on board.
It was not to everyone's taste, but
I enjoyed the river weed soup. It
was prepared from a kitchen at the
back of the boat. No-one tried the
snake wine - a large jar of very yellow
liquid full of small and very dead
snakes... But we could refresh our
palates with the watermelon slices. |
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It
was a memorable experience and, what with one thing
and another, lasted three and a half hours.
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On
landing, we had half an hour in the
market, where I bargained for a flute
for David and a mask for us. Antique,
she told me. I'm not convinced, but
it'll look good with the others in
the hall. |
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Back
to the coach and on to the Reed Flute caves.
Everyone else enjoyed them, but I thought
the coloured lighting was gaudy. It was,
as they say, an experience... |
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Back
to the coach and on to the airport to catch the
8:20pm plane to Xi'an. We ate in the airport restaurant,
which was surprisingly good. Guess what was for
dessert? In fact, we had watermelon after every
meal (with one exception)! Bruce was happy to fly
on a China North West Airbus A300-600R. The flight
was half empty and a bit bumpy but we soon arrived
at 10:10pm
A
new coach and a new guide: Nina - a very jovial
lady, especially considering that she had not been
told by CITS that we were on a later flight and
had been waiting (with the driver) since 4:00pm.
Liz told us that Nina had broken the "one child"
policy - by the simple expedient of having twins!
A
quiet drive to the Xian Garden Hotel, which was
an hour away. It seemed very posh with flunkies
to open the doors and others to give us hot towels
as we arrived. We went to our room and waited for
our luggage to arrive. One nice thing about this
holiday is that we don't have to drag our luggage
around. We put it out of our room shortly before
we leave and it is collected and taken to the next
destination, usually in a separate van and even
on separate roads, as for some reason they cannot
travel on the motorways we use. It is then delivered
to our room shortly (well, most times!) after we
arrive. In this case, it came very quickly and we
were asleep by midnight. |
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