Guilin again again only briefly

Just arrived back in Guilin, only a 1.5 hour bus ride North from Yangshuo. Had a great time down there. Just in Guilin for another 3 hours.

Dropped our bags at the hotel we stayed at a few nights prior, and I went for a quick jaunt around areas nearby. I wanted to see what was going on at the restaurants, as someone had told us there are restaurants here that offer just about any type of meat on the menu, and the animals are kept live in cages at the front. I didnt see anything too shocking to my Western sensibilities, other than snakes and toads which we've seen alot of in Asian restaurants. There were some kind of Rodent type creatures I've never seen before. Kind of large rabbit sized but almost spherical with a puggish face. They didnt look too happy about being in the cage. I did get to witness a customer picking out a nice healthy looking Duck, which gave a few final quacks of protest and flapped its wings furiously before the girl, who was quite short and probably not much older than 18, swung it at the pavement. I saw a few fish being prepared this way also. The damage to the duck was devastating but not quite fatal, it lay in a pile of blood for a bit writhing away before it was chucked in a bucket, still writhing and sent to the kitchen. The fact that I found this shocking made me realise I've never actually seen an animal being killed, highlighting once again how removed we can be in the West from the realities of where our food comes from. In our various bus rides on this trip, I've seen a number of chicken and duck farms, and they all appear to live free range in pretty natural setups. The ducks and chickens here are huge and plump, but humaneness is not the reason for this, rather the Asian demand for good food I would say. The animals in cages outside these restaraunts - chickens, ducks, pheasants, rodents, snakes, toads, fish of multiple kinds, toads, fresh water prawns - looked pretty stressed mostly. Not that I can tell when a snake or a fish is stressed.

I've tried to witness and understand more of the attitude toward animals in food here. I figure either I should be a Vegan or I should be able to eat anything, otherwise its kind of living by double standards. I'm still sitting in the middle however, my conditioning, or my culture if you like, obviously runs pretty deep. I guess I only speak for cityfolk.

Catching overnight train from here to Shenzen, which is closest city on mainland to Hong Kong, which is our destination. We think we're there 4 nights. Need to double check our flights. Alot of updating of photos and vids to do, so should have downtime in HK to do so.


Guilin again from tgoodwin on Vimeo.

One Night In Yangshuo

We spent a night in Yangshuo - the town itself - last night. Yangshuo is a town of great character as it is nestled in between the distinctive Karst peaks. So within the town you are surrounded by them. They're like giant rocks that have just been dropped from the sky. On one of the peaks there is a pagoda on the top.

Once again it is a touristic destination, and rightly so. The centrepoint of this is one main walking street lined with old buildings containing the obligatory travel souvenirs and other items. There are bargains to be had they, as Em and I both got ourselves some good outdoor jackets - real Northface ones from the factory and not fakes - for about $20NZ each. Not bad I reckon. Not really sure what they fetch in NZ, but wouldnt be surprised if it would top $200.

Also become short term locals at a bar/cafe called "Loove". I was attracted by the sign which read "F**king Good Food". There I met a guy who would turn out to be a drinking buddy for the evening, an Indian man who had moved to China a year and a half ago to retire - at the ripe old age of 39 - and was in Yangshuo for a few months for the hell of it. He described it as "his paradise". We chatted for some time at Loove, and decided to let it go from coffees to beers (Pijiu). From here the evening was extremely entertaining and included taking part in birthday celebrations for a local girl with her somewhat-drunk-but-keen-to-practice-their english pals; playing drums with a Chinese Pop Covers group (for the 2nd night in a row) - video evidence of the show will be posted later; sampling some damned fine late night street food; leading a pinkfloyd acoustic singsong circle - not knowing the songs or lyrics didnt prevent anyone from singing at the top of their lungs; being joined by possibly the funniest drunk I've ever witnessed, a middle aged Chinese man with excellent american english but who takes a liking to dancing and singing loudly to the jukebox, "if you dont know the words make them up" he yelled at us. So he would insert any obscenity he could think of here and there amoungst the proper lyrics. His dancing I cannot begin to describe.

So an extremely entertaining evening. The next day, after a well deserved sleep in we did some shop gazing, coffee sipping, tea sipping then jumped on a bus. Oh, we were walking along the street on our way to the bus depot, and the bus actually caught us. Woman was hanging out the door yelling "Guilin" at us, so we jumped on. Didnt need to find the bus station, they found us.


Yangshuo1 from tgoodwin on Vimeo.