Guilin's Ming Palace Hostel

The time really passed quickly and before we knew it we had arrived in Guilin. As we waited for the doors to open, the man who had put our bags on the shelf helped us get then down. Erin tried to lift one and exclaimed that it was very heavy. The man agreed and told her that he was surprised that we could carry such heavy bags.

Erin was taking the bus, but was kind enough to walk us out of the train station and help us find a taxi. It was not an easy task for her to get someone to take us to the address of the hotel we selected, I shudder to think of the horrors we would have experienced without her assistance. Ultimately, we went in a little thing that looked like a tuk-tuk for a price that Erin considered far too high, but we had few options. We were accustomed to being overcharged because we are westerners, and it was starting to rain harder than the standard drizzle. We felt as though we had imposed upon Erin all that we should, so we hugged her, thanked her, and climbed into the little tuk-tuk.

We arrived at the Ming Palace International Hostel without a reservation and were delighted to find that all of the employees spoke some English. They advised that they had no double rooms available, but could put us, and only us, into a 6 person dorm room that had an en suite bathroom. The only problem...........it was on the 5th floor. Tomorrow we could move to a double room. We agreed and paid the $6.00 USD for the 2 of us to stay in the dorm.

Jason- Follow me to the room. (to Gina) I take your bag?

G- No, I can carry mine, please carry hers. She'll have enough trouble just climbing to the 5th floor without her bag.

P- Jason, do you have elevators in China?

Jason – Yes, some, but not so many.

P- Great.

Jason – Where you from?

G- America.

Jason – Oh, yes? I never meet Americans before.

P- Well now you have.

Jason – You sisters?

G- Yes.

P- Do we look alike?

Jason – Yes, I think so.

G- (under her breath to Phyl) All us westerners look alike.

P- Let's close these windows, Jason, it's cold outside.

Jason – I put on heater for you. Press this button to make it hotter. Sorry we only have this room. Tomorrow we move you.

P- What floor is that room on?

Jason- Floor number 2.

P- Good.

We put the little heater on high and hoped that the room would be warm when we returned from dinner.  Downstair we asked Jason to recommend a nearby restaurant where we could get some soup.

Jason – I finish work soon. If you wait a little time I will take you to a restaurant.

G- That sounds great. Thank you.

P- (under her breath to me) We'll just sit here in the freezing lobby and wait.

G- It is rainy and cold outside and they have the door and all of the windows open. WTF?

P- There's a heater in the corner, why don't they turn it on? They're cold too because they're all wearing their coats.

G- I can't figure this out. It makes no sense.

As we walked with Jason the 4-5 blocks to a restaurant we talked about the newly opened hostel and his job as the tour organizer. He knew about TripAdvisor and asked us to write about them if we were happy with our stay. Jason was in his early 20's and was eager to promote his new employer's business. He also gave us a little history on Guilin which dates back to 200 B.C., is known throughout China for its incredible karst landscape (like Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, but on land instead of water) and is very popular with Chinese tourists.  We walked through one of the very thick walls that surrounded the old city, and emerged onto a brightly lit street lined with restaurants.

Jason led us into a place which, of course, had all the doors and windows open and patrons eating dinner while wearing coats. As we entered, every head turned and every eyeball in the place was on us.

G- Apparently we are tonight's entertainment.

Jason – Many people have not seen westerners.

Jason helped us order a pot of hot tea, soup, and fried rice. He told us it should cost 22 yuan (about $7.00) and he went home. After about 10 minutes the people tired of staring at us and went back to their discussions. We were determined to warm ourselves with hot liquids. It was a good plan, but it was so cold in the restaurant that the tea in the pot quickly cooled.

P- I wish I could have sugar in my tea. Plain tea doesn't do it for me.

G- I'd like sugar and a little milk, but good luck getting that. Just be glad it's warm. The rice is pretty good.

P- It's ok. The soup is way too fishy. I've had enough of this.

G- It's just not very flavorful is it?

P- No, it's boring as shit. Nothing like Americanized Chinese food.

G- We really need to carry Tony Chachere's when we travel.



doors wide open

Our hands were cold as ice, the food was blah, and we never warmed up so we quickly paid the bill and walked back to the hostel.

G- This is why we're losing weight, Gladys. Just by climbing up the 5 flights of stairs to our room we have burned off the 200 calories we consumed at dinner.

P- Great! I'm sure I'll wake up hungry before the night is over.

G- Well, the room is a little warmer than it use to be, but it's still cold in here.

P- Are you gonna take a shower?

G- I want to but I don't want to take off my clothes. Whah! The bathroom is freezing. Whah!

P- Stop whining, Agnes. I'll take a shower first and heat up the bathroom for you.

G- Ok (still whining) This bottom bunk looks more like a double bed than a single. Let's just sleep in this bed and we can stack the comforters on top of each other. Maybe then I'll be warm enough to sleep.

P- Sounds good.

It was still freezing in the bathroom when I showered, but at least the water was hot.  Luckily, we had an electric teapot in the room so we drank hot tea before snuggling under the double layer of comforters for, what turned out to be, a good night's sleep.



tiny toilet paper rolls