Happy Birthday to Me

Saturday 26 August

Well today’s the big day - the actual 60 – the real reason for coming to China - I have managed to stand on the Great Wall, and had lots of other great experiences in China with a crowd of really nice people. But my actual birthday didn’t exactly turn out as I had thought.

As mentioned in yesterday’s blog, we had to be up early – 05.15 and out of the hotel by 06.30 to catch a flight from Shanghai to Guilin – a few hundred miles north of Hong Kong I think – someone told us it was very pretty and relaxing. I had time to open my cards about 06.00, although it would only have been 23.00 in England (thanks to all of you who sent cards and messages to wish me Happy Birthday), but Colin wanted to make sure we had time, as the tour so far has been extremely hectic and time at a premium.

Dave and Lei got up early too, to see us off – very sweet of them – and with our cases, hand luggage and two picnic boxes as we were too early for breakky (nowhere near the Kempinski standard – just hard boiled egg, roll, banana and water) we were soon speeding off to the airport with a young university student as our guide. The airport was crowded – although not a Bank Holiday here as it is at home, it is the last Saturday to go away before schools go back and many people seemed to be taking the chance of a short break – or perhaps they were returning from a city break here in Shanghai? But the plane to Guilin wasn’t full, so we had plenty of room to spread ourselves.

The food on the plane was odd – for a start there were mint gum drops (which as I have a cold, rapidly changing to a cough, were very welcome), then there was hard peas with a batter-like coating, raisins and some squid slice – yellowy with little tentacles that looked like a centipedes feet – it said it contained sugar – but I didn’t try it. There was also a roll with a coconut filling inside (was it supposed to be a doughnut? – if so there was no sugar. Also another type of fairy cake – not me at all. Colin had pistachios, apple chips and gum drops with the roll and cake. There was water to drink. I don’t think I will recommend Shanghai Airlines for a award for airline food.

When we arrived in Guilin, our new guide, Jeremy (not at all like Jeremy Paxman! - rather a dumpy little Chinese man who speaks to us all the time over his shoulder) was at the gate to meet us. My lovely pink suitcase is now very dirty and has lots of black marks all over it – as well as several sets of numbers written on it –but it is still easy to recognize on the carousel!

Jeremy whisked us off to an awaiting people carrier (have I said it is just us on this part of the trip?) to take us directly to Longsheng – where the famous terraces of rice paddies are found. It was to be a two hour journey (we had already been two hours in the air), but we settled in the back with our bottles of water, and listened to Jeremy’s commentary on the way. We had one short stop for the rest room (actually not too bad even if it was Chinese style) and eventually arrived at the bottom of this “mountain” about 12.30. Jeremy got the pass and as we were in a small vehicle we were allowed to continue up the hill. The road twisted in sharp hairpin bends all the way up the hill – it reminded me of the chase in “The Italian Job” where the road is adjacent to the sheer side of the mountain, and it was very hairy when we met another vehicle coming down! I could see Colin was trying to avoid looking down.

We reached the parking place and Jeremy told us we would walk for about half an hour before we had lunch – he omitted to say - upwards. The path started quite gently (just to fool you), but the sun was out and it was Hot. As we continued to wind around the mountain the steps got steeper and seemed never-ending. There were some “sedan” chairs at the bottom, but Jeremy just waved them away – they weren’t like the ones at Temple Hill, they were more like loungers with poles either end for you to laze on while two little (and usually old) Chinese men carried you. But hey, I had conquered the Great Wall, so what’s a rice field! Little did I know. We continued upwards passing lots of local people selling their hand-made goods of bags, blankets and socks all knitted and embroidered in rich colours. There was also lots of silverware (I saw many dragon bracelets like the one I bought on Ebay for 45p + 19 pounds GBP postage!! It probably would have been even cheaper than19p here, but I couldn’t face asking, as they would have wanted me to buy a second one). Also on sale was local foodstuffs – red chillis are very popular here – heaps of them were strewn out on the steps of houses to dry in the sun, and when they were ready women sat by the pathway, chopping them finely and putting them into jars – they looked the same as the ones I bought in Sainsburys. They were also barbequing cobs of sweet corn – they looked nearly as black as Uncle Ray’s! But after they are cooked they put them through the milling machine and the black husks are separated from the flesh inside, which they then pack and keep to eat at a later date.

The women here never have their hair cut, and wear round knitted Russian style hats to keep it all from view. They then ask you to pay anything from 1 yuan to 50 yuan for them to show you their hair. Some girls were also dressed in traditional costumes and looked very pretty – but again you had to pay to photograph them. Colin and Jeremy were ahead of me urging me to keep up, so I didn’t actually have time to stop and find out more. The people here exist on very little – some have meat to eat, but the rest exist on the rice and vegetables that they grow. Tourism is now beginning to bring big changes to this area - as has happened over most of the rest of China – and lots of the young girls are leaving for the big cities, hoping to find rich husbands from the west. The rest of the community are trying to earn as much as possible from this new enterprise.

One enterprise is the hotels and lodges that are rapidly springing up to cater for tourists. Many backpackers and hikers come here to stay for a few days. They are out in the fresh air and the walking is really good, if you don’t mind a few hills! Jeremy thought that the Government should soon step in and regulate the number of hostels and lodges allowed to be built or the natural charm and culture of the area would be lost – he’s probably right – but everyone wants a piece of the cake from the Government officials to the workers in the fields.

Our aim was to reach one of these lodges for lunch – ours was the highest one of course. It was a wooden structure built into the side of the mountain. The ground floor was a large restaurant where tour groups as well as guests, eat their lunch and presumably other meals.. We had a thin chicken and greens soup, followed by spicy chicken, beef with potatoes, bamboo shoots with chilli, and rice. Bananas for afters, all washed down with some Sprite. It was too hot to drink beer – we had to make it all the way down again.

We spent about an hour here, admiring the views, munching and cooling down. When Jeremy collected us, he pointed out a single tree high up at the top of the mountain, and said that is where we were going!! Not down? No – definitely up! I know it’s supposed to be good to walk after lunch, but this was silly – uphill in the heat. But I plodded after the two men round and round, but always up, and eventually I crested the top. The views were phenomenal – terraces of rice paddies round the sides of mountains, as far as the eye could see. There were a few people working in the fields, but mostly the farmers are now waiting for the rice to ripen.(They are busy building, rebuilding and repairing their homes and tools.) The vista was a brilliant green that made the hills look like lush Devon vertical fields. It had definitely been worth the effort of climbing. We took lots of piccys as we caught our breath, and bought some postcards that they stamped with a ‘chop’ to show we had reached the top. After about half an hour we started our trek down again, not stopping on the way this time. Several ‘sedans’ passed us – a tricky manoevre as there’s really only space on each step for one person, but going down was far easier than going up.

Once back in the van, we had another two hour journey to Guilin and the hotel. Black clouds could be seen as we were leaving the hills, and just as we arrived at the hotel it started to rain, The hotel, another 4* was a great improvement on the Best Western, but we were both utterly exhausted. Our room was all dark mahogany with a huge round golden dragon shield over our bed. We could see an outdoor swimming pool from our window as well as a lake with lots of lights in the surrounding trees – it looked very pretty. We sorted ourselves out and went to find the bar. We found a very light ‘Western’ restaurant where a waitress pointed to a black hole in the wall – it turned out to be the bar – only lit by a TV showing a Chinese film. They lit a candle for our table and made us some very good cocktails – if they can do it here, why not in Shanghai?

The problem came when we went looking for food. By now it was thundering and lightning outside and the rain pouring heavily – not the time to venture out. We found two Chinese restaurants in the hotel – but both were being used by tour groups and we didn’t seem to be invited to the party. So back to the Western Restaurant, which was like a large gallery looking down into the Lobby on the floor below. We were the only people there!, although there were several staff around, but by this time (about 19.30 they had starated laying up for breakfast). Anyway a nice young man bought us the menus and we chose our food – Caesar salad and steak for me, minestrone soup and lamb for Colin – both with chips of course. It was a bit different to the night before, but edible.

When we got back to the room, there were more texts and voicemails for my birthday, which was lovely. I suppose I must now accept I am old enough for a bus pass. By now we were both so tired (that sounds like oldies, doesn’t it) and my cold was worsening, we flopped into bed and slept soundly, until being awoken by . . . . .