Early morning breakfast was KFC’s porridge with You Tian and portugese egg tarts as the cafes at west street offered really expensive breakfasts.
It was scouting around for bikes next and we ended up hiring a mountain bike each for 10RMB and the guide that will come along for the whole day at juts 20RMB. We weren’t exactly that keen to take the guide as we had wanted to do the trip on our own. However, their persistence were too strong to resist and we succumbed to it.
The bike ride along the banks of the Yulong river was really scenic. A backdrop of mountains stacked together and the river by the side, it was nature at its best. As the cold wind breeze past your body in this cooling winter, the bicycle trail was fantabulous. After much discussion, we decided to take the bamboo raft down the Yulong River. The hesitation lies in that each raft costs us 150RMB and we needed 2 rafts because we had 3 people. We were certain that we could actually get it at a cheaper price if we were to do it at other parts of the bank. However, having hired the guide, it was something we cudnt really avoid because we cannot possible move off to try and explore for a cheaper location to get on the bamboo rafts. We were also pretty certain that the guide will take a certain amount of commission from it.
And so we took a 1.5 hours raft down the river, enojoying the scenic view along the way. The raft wasn’t easy to maneuver as all 3 of us had difficulties directing the raft after taking over from the strong Chinese rower. After some light conversations, it is rather sad to realize that these rowers only get 20% of what we had paid for after all the hardwork for 2 hours. They’ve had really huge arms, a sign of having worked hard for the past years. Tipped them 30RMB each because we felt that they deserve that money and they were all smiles thereafter! Everyone is happy!
Next stop was climbing of the Moon Hill and it took us about 45 minutes for the climb up. Similar to the peak, it was a panoramic view, but the difference lies in that we are now looking at mountains, villages and the LongJi terraces. High rise buildings and street lights were not part of the view. Fantastic.
Another interesting part of the climb was the selling tactics of the old women. They tried to sell bottles of water to us and in order to gain our sympathy, they tagged closely behind us for the climb up the Moon Hill! To illustrate the physical demands of the climb, all 3 of us were panting having arrived at the summit. But these old ladies didn’t give up and persevered with us for that just 3RMB per bottle of water, that’s 0.60SGD. We weren’t that evil and bought a bottle each out of sympathy.
The ride back from the Moon Hill just got even better as the scenery was awesome. Went back and had dinner for the 3rd consecutive day at the same restaurant as we felt that the food was great and value for money. “Shi Hui’ the Chinese call it.
A regular bus ticket would cost 15RMB but we decided to try on the unofficial buses. One of them offered 14RMB but as we rejected and walked away, he offered 10RMB. However, the disadvantage is that the bus doesn’t leave immediately. Tch tried to bargain with another driver for 7RMB but he rudely walked away upon hearing the price! Not willing to give in to our prides to raise the price to 10RMB, we decided to pay 15RMB for the official government bus to GuiLin. No way we will give in!
Walked for about an hour upon arrival at Guilin as the building to take the bus to the airport was rather far and we had to navigate our way their with the map. What was most sianed was that we realized that the last bus to the airport had already left! Had to bargain with a bunch of taxi drivers in order to get the best price and our walkaway tactic worked and a finally price of 70RMB was settled.
It was a dark dodgy ride to the airport as the driver claims that taking this path is cheaper than going by the airport highway. Well, since we were all sound and safe after the ride, we gotta believe him.
A 2 hour wait at the GuangZhou airport followed next as we waited for Song’s uncle to drive us back to DongGuan. It was rather surprising to see an international airport closed after midnight. Yes, no flights were taking off or landing after 12 midnight and most of the lights in the airport were closed. We then had to spend our time away by playing cards practically in the dark..
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