When I woke I knew that I was still in a bit of confusion about what to do next and here I did what I first thought was a clever thing, but looking back I realise it was a bit thick headed.
I was alone, the hotel staff didnt speak any English and the chances of finding a taxi driver that could speak English was slim and with no internet I had was debating if I should make an attempt at finding my original hotel or just pack up and head on back to the bus station and try to find an early ticker to Hong Kong, which was my next due stop.
What I SHOULD have done, was get out my mobile and call the hostel up and ask them to send someone to pick me up and pay the costs, but as I didnt think of that til at least 24 hours later what I DID do was the next best thing. I packed up, checked out and then followed the streets trying to find the busiest and widest ones using the logic that where you find big streets you find cross roads, shopping centres and thus tourist information offices, or at least tour agencies which do a similar job and are just as likely to speak English.
After a couple of duff directions I found my way to a very busy street, to the real bus terminal ( not the small stop off where I was dropped last night and was why my directions to get to the hostel from the bus station were unusable ) and also to a shopping Mall. A quick perusal found a travel agents who furnished me with a map and that my hostel was just down the street but I was feeling confident again and realising that I was heading away from the city centre when I passed a youth hostel / hotel a couple of doors further down I decided to stop here instead as the prices still seemed reasonable and it would be much closer to reaching anything that I wanted to visit.
This was around 11am and as they also had a tour desk I asked if they could arrange me a tour, and although only one of the receptionists spoke any English at all, they did manage to sort something out and it left in twenty minutes, so I barely had enough time to drop off my rucksack before they arrived.
It was a lot colder here than I had experienced the last time I was here, or over the last few months, and although happy to have a lighter rucksack I began to doubt the logic of sending home both my thicker sweaters as now I had nothing to keep out the cold except one long sleeved t-shirt.
When the tour guide arrived she did not speak any English, neither did her driver or friend and being the only guest for the first location it was a lonely and quiet bus trip up the road to the prince city, or city within a city, that served as both a tourist attraction and a functional albeit small university campass.
The drab grey and cold meant that the colours of the buildings and trees did not do the place justice, and neither was the mirrored image of the hill top temple as magical as it would be in the heat of summer, but my imagination soared and I could tell how it would look most of the time and was pleased to be here.
A hurried rush through a couple of throne rooms and theatres made little sense, as the guide remained silent and nothing had multi language signs, so I passed quickly through to the main attraction and up the steep steps which posed a problem to the other tourists but I breezed up them two at a time and overtaking many on the outside lane, only slowing when there were others trying to come down using the same flight of steps.
Up high the view was even more obscured by the fog and cloud than at ground level, but it was still impressive none the less and for my efforts I was rewarded by being made an honorary district magistrate complete in all the robes of duty. Well I say rewarded, but I think the 30 CNY had a bit to do with it as well.
I didnt quite understand why she was rushing me so much, but my guide didnt seem to want to wait around anywhere and kept waving at me not to dawdle when taking photographs so I expected that when we got back down we would be rushed off to ourr second place only to be completely dumb founded when she informed me that I now had half an hour to go where I wanted before our next trip.
Wandering around, I managed to find a cafeteria but not knowing the Chinese for rice I tried to mime it, only to get two cooks arguing and shouting at me, so I left and headed off to take some photos before grabbing a coke and chocolate snickers bar and heading off back to the van.
Getting to our next stop was a joke, as we went round and round in circles picking up one passenger after another and then trying to get me to go with them first to a restaurant and then to a couple of gift shops, each time I just looked at them with disappointment, got out and duly walked round for all of two minutes before ignoring all the salesstaff and getting back in the van.
Finally we made it to our second venue, a place where we could go inside a cave and see lots more bizarre stalactite and stalagmite formations lit up with different coloured lights. Inside the cave it was lot more muggy and humid as its isnt self ventilated with huge open shafts going through the roof and the lighting was also not as bright or frequent as the bigger caves elsewhere in Guilin which meant that taking photos was harder, but it still worth the effort of visiting.
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