Today started off pretty smooth. I woke up early and went to visit Bao Feng Lake. I was still contemplating last night on whether I should visit this touristy place since it was not cheap at 85rmb and the entire place is only worth about 2hours. Heading there this morning, there was quite a fair bit of fog and the crowd was already there. Past the entrance, it was a 15 minute walk to the pier where I had to wait 20 minutes for the next boat.
I was pretty fortunate to be on a board that was only 1/4 filled and the tour guide spoke rather softly too. The 20 minute boat ride took me along the lake to different parts, all photogenic. Even though the fog made the photographs not as clear and the waters were also not as blue due to the overcast sky, the fog did gave the place a mythical feel.
After the boat ride was a walk back to the entrance, in which I passed by a giant salamander pond where they kept two giant salamanders as pets. However the housing conditions were not as ideal. Eventually I headed back to my hostel and the entire outing took slightly more than two hours.
Back at the hostel, I met a new friend, an Australian named Jack who has been cycling and backpacking in China for the past two months before heading to Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in November. It's really quite amazing to interact and chat with these backpackers in real life and hear of their stories.
Eventually, I made my way to Zhangjiajie Airport and that's when a massive mess was realized. Turns out that I booked my guilin flight for 27 Oct instead of today and my Kunming flight for 31 Oct instead of 30 Oct. I had to quickly buy a new ticket for today and rush to the plane. And for my itinerary, I will book and spend one more night in yangshuo. But this delay by a day resulted in me having to miss going to Stone Forest and YuanYang Rice Terraces in kunming, which is such a bummer. Now I have two spare days in kunming for me to fill. Time to look for other affordable places to visit. Plus the new ticket for guilin costed me 750rmb in CASH!
The flight to guilin was via OKAY Airlines and turns out they only use turboprops for their planes. This means their planes are those with giant propellers and not the modern engines that we are used to seeing. This fact meant that the ride felt like I was sitting on a spinning washing machine for 1h 40mins. Eventually, I was in Guilin and the airport express bus took me downtown where I had to hail a random rickshaw driver to send me to my hostel. The driver stopped halfway and insisted that we walk to my destination!
Turns out that Guilin Central Hostel is a hidden gem in this touristy place. The hostel costs 45rmb for a bed per night and the rooms are really clean with free WiFi, two power sockets beside each bed and an awesomely clean toilet with RAIN SHOWER!! If only other hostels emulate them! It's the only accommodation with toilets that I've dared to step in barefooted.
After settling down, I headed out and the main walking street with all the young folks was just 3 minutes away. Decided to splurge a bit to sooth my disappointment with myself on the flight booking mistakes. A bowl of Japanese Chicken Curry Don, a plate of Beijing pork dumplings and a bowl of cold Mango sago cost just 48rmb! Took my time to slowly enjoy my food while reading an ebook. Decided not to explore the place tonight since tomorrow I need to be awake at 6am. Plus I will be back in this hostel after two nights in Yangshuo. The weather in Guilin is warm, just like Singapore.
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