Hot and Humid Guilin

Onward to new places and different things to see. Hopped on the train to go from Kunming to Guilin yesterday. My trip was an 8 hour high speed one. I thought it didn't make sense because it wasn't that far, but soon found out it went in a real roundabout way. Went south almost to Vietnam before heading back up to Guilin. Totally different country. Banana plantations and sugar cane are now the crops with lots of rice. My seat mates on the train were gruff old Chinese men. No smiles or acknowledgements, so I put my headphones in and watched the countryside go by. Beautiful country that reminds me of pictures Amalia took of Vietnam. I arrived at dark, so I caught a taxi instead of trying to navigate by bus. The taxi guy kept yapping and

pointing about something, but I have no idea what he was going on about. He got me to the right place for the right price, so it all worked out. My room was a good room and I only had one roommate who I haven't met yet. He crawled in at 1:30am and wasn't moving when I left this morning. I had booked a rice terrace visit for tomorrow, so I headed around town today to see what was up. This place is quite picturesque. It was very hot and humid. I drank a lot of water, but it just kept pouring out of me. Got dizzy at one point. Went to Elephant Hill, a nice little lake, and Seven Star park. All quite the places to see. I had intended to do a Li River Cruise, but it goes at dark and I wanted to see the hills in the daytime. I think I will see lots tomorrow when I go out to the terraces. It was kind if hazy today, so I couldn't see as far as I wanted when I climbed up the hills. Unsure if that is haze or pollution! Hopefully tomorrow is clear. This tour tomorrow is a Chinese tour with no English, so it may be a little uncomfortable, but I

really just want to see the terraces. Hopefully I can find an English speaking Chinese who can decipher for me. If not, I will just watch the countryside and bumble my way through. Could have done an English one, but it was twice the cost and they don't spend as much time as I would like at the terraces. Hoping tomorrow will be even more interesting than today!