Two Pancakes and a Pizza

Tuesday 29 August

Today was a day of calories. It started with breakfast, when the China Café agreed to let us have banana pancakes instead of the usual greasy spoon fare. Not sure that the calorific content was that different, but it probably wasn’t a healthy start. They were scrummy.

We had the morning to ourselves again but not feeling too energetic, so decided to stroll around Yangshuo again one more time, taking some more piccys. I bought a jade flower necklace to remind me of our stay. It was another quiet morning. The sun was almost through the mist by the time we awoke – it was going to be another scorcher, and the humidity was very high.

We had intended to repack our cases and try and lighten the load, but the thought of it was enough to make us abandon the idea – we would just have to pay, if necessary, Juz had phoned us in the middle of the night again – she really must try and work out the time difference – so we sent a few emails and struggled down the stairs for the last time with our suitcases – well Colin did. I think they need to rethink the porterage system in the hotels in Yangshuo – there doesn’t seem to be an elevator in the whole town. As we were leaving we met another couple who had been deposited at the Magnolia with their suitcases, although they were actually staying at another hotel at the end of the street. A man on a bicycle with a wooden box on the back, came to collect their luggage, three suitcases and several pieces of hand luggage. The couple were amazed at the antiquated practices here, and trotted off after the bicycle to ensure their belongings arrived at the right place.

For lunch, we decided to share a pizza, cooked in a wood-burning oven – pizzas are on every menu here, it’s almost a national dish. The one I chose was called Autumn in Mexico, and had peppers, tomatoes, sweetcorn, cheese and minced beef as a topping – not sure how it got its name, except they give you Tabasco sauce to shake over the top. It was a bit like a Pizza Express style pizza and tasted very good, although full of yet more calories.

Jeremy arrived at the hotel early to collect us for the airport – I think he was concerned there wouldn’t be enough time at the airport to complete the questionnaire about his performance – he needn’t have worried, we gave him top marks – he did take us rafting and bought me that awful taro – but we did make a few suggestions for improvements to the hotel here – just basic things like if you provide a kettle and cups, some tea or coffee would be good.

The journey back to Guilin airport would take about an hour and a half. We traveled along some very long, very straight roads, but the mountains were always visitble, if not close by. In some areas the farming was obviously more prosperous than we had seen yesterday – some of the houses looked like plantation houses from the Caribbean, surrounded by lush vegetables, orchards growing oranges or even bonzi trees. Gradually the landscape flattened out, and all we could see was road, with very little traffic. After passing through a very modern town – new houses and shops, quite western in style – we suddenly left the freeway for an unmade bumpy road. It seemed as if the Council had run out of money to finish it. The road deteriorated and even became an unmade road, before we rejoined the main road to the airport once more – only trouble was we had to travel about five miles to find a gap to let us travel in the right direction. Still we made the airport in plenty of time.

In fact, at Guilin airport, most of the flights take place in the evening or nighttime. We had to wait for staff to come on duty to see us through at each point - emigration, passport control, booking in and security checks. Even the shops at the departure lounge were only just opening as we arrived. We had never seen an airport so empty – but it soon filled with several large tour groups, also going to Hong Kong, including one set from America, who held the queue up while we were getting on and they were trying to sort out their seats, and held the queue up when we were getting off because they couldn’t remember where they had put their ‘carry-on’ luggage – there was so much of it - we had nothing to worry about with our bags. The flight was uneventful , except that I got that sought-after seat by the emergency exit with all the leg room which one large American guy was trying to persuade the hostess to let him sit in - and the food on the plane was terrible – a dry roll and a drink.

I had heard that coming into land at Hong Kong was special – flying in low over the water to land on a specially built peninsula, before stepping on the brakes to stop in time – well it was exactly like that.

Getting out of the airport was quite a challenge. I suppose there were several flights all landing at the same time, and immigration was a flood of people queueing in orderly lines waiting to go through passport control. (Its hard to believe it was so efficient in Beijing – perhaps that was because most of the plane was filled with Chinese nationals).

Our itinerary stated that we should check in at gate B13 when we arrived – it turned out to be on the other side of the arrivals hall – but after a quick check they ushered us to a waiting Mercedes (large black and shiny, and verrrry comfortable leather seats), which sped us to our hotel – the L’Hotel Causeway Bay. It took about half an hour to reach our destination.

Hong Kong was so much larger than I had ever envisaged – I thought it was a small island with the settlement built around a small bay. But, in the dark anyway, it seemed huge. Almost every building is a skyscraper over 20 floors high, and there are just hundreds of them, and the bridges and tunnels seem to be as long as the buildings are high. There were lots of lights on the buildings, particularly in the city centre, but I didn’t think it was so pretty as Shanghai – perhaps because the area in Shanghai was more concentrated. It will be interesting to see it in daylight tomorrow.

We checked in and were taken to a room on the 21st floor – I think this is another first – I have never stayed so high up in a hotel. The room is quite spacious, nicely furnished with all the usual accoutrements – the beds are still hard, as they have been all over China –it’s a toss up which is softer, the floor or the bed – and everything seems to work. This will do us fine for the next few days. Unfortunately the swimming pool isn’t finished yet, but the gym works (no takers here I think)

As it was nearly 21.00 by the time we had booked in, so we decided, that as we haven’t a clue where we are and what’s around here, we would eat in the hotel. The restaurant is on the 1st floor, and we opted for the buffet. The food was delicious – I had a range of seafood and salads to start, followed by chicken and pork with different vegetables and rice. Then came the third calorific event of the day – yet another pancake (I don’t even like pancakes at home, I just make them for Nick and Colin) – this time with vanilla sauce with a splash of strawberry coulis. Yummy scrummmy again. I had a glass of red wine with my meal, as I haven’t had a lot of wine lately, but Colin stuck to Sprite.

We have to be up early again tomorrow – we have got out of the habit these last couple of days – as we have to be ready to go on the tour round the island by 08.15. The time is now midnight, so I will say goodnight and my mantra must be “tomorrow I must start my diet, or eat less, or just don’t eat!!”