its the fifth day of my travels, so i thought i'd try to jot down some of my thoughts so far, to avoid having those massive laundry list entries like i did last time i traveled. i keep thinking it'll be easier to update more often since i'm travelling alone, but something always gets in the way. or whatever, i'm lazy. anyway, the first city i visited was guilin. it was pretty, though as with all chinese tourist sights, overdeveloped and overcrowded. i was pissed at having to spend 50 kuai (six dollars) to climb to the top of one of the city's famed hills, especially because the view it yielded was simply on the unatractive city of guilin, and because the lonely planet said it would only be 15 kuai! i'm trying to stick to international youth hostels as much as i can on this trip, because i've found that their cleanliness is unmatched by other hostels or cheap hotels. guilin flowers international youth hostel, my first stop, was very nice and i would recommend it to travellers. i was especially happy that the beds were really comfortable, as the international youth hostel i stayed in in qingdao had rock hard mattresses.
my second morning in guilin, i went to see the reed flute cave, which had crazy cool stalactites and stalagmites, though the chinese did cheesify it by adding neon lights. i was also disappointed that i had to go on a chinese tour, not being allowed to wander the cave by myself. listening to the tour, i was sad to hear that it consisted of the tour guide pointing to different formations and saying, "look- broccoli! look- a snowman!" even though i wouldn't have understood it, i wish they could have explained more of the science of it, as having just watched planet earth "caves", i've realized that caves are some cool shit. if not that, i also would have hoped they could talk about the history of the caves. for instance, my lonely planet said that during WWII, more than 1,000 people were kept in the cave, which was used as a bomb shelter. we were right behind an english tour group, which i think had been privately hired, and i heard a tantalizing bit about how they had enough food inside to live for a month without leaving. oh well, i guess i'll read up on it sometime.
from there, it was on to the backpacker town of yangshuo, which reminds me of dali. i like the feel of backpacker towns, the western food offerings, and the shops with really nice souvenirs. i know i should prefer a more authentic experience, but i haven't made it to a tiny farming town, and anywhere where there are more chinese people always looks like the same overdeveloped mess full of grocery stores, like guilin. plus the nature in yangshuo is unbelievable. oh, and on the bus ride over, i was looking out the window enjoying the scenery, when i noticed the guy sitting behind me had opened my bag and was trying to steal stuff. luckily i caught him before he got anything. it was weird though, i didn't really know what i should do about it once i'd caught him. nothing was missing, so i couldn't make him give anything back. i didn't know if it was the chinese way to shout that there was a thief on the bus. so i just gave him a dirty look. i shoulda punched him in the face.
my youth hostel in yangshuo is okay, clean and nice and everything, but there's one major problem- the mattresses are essentially just wood. i stole some blankets from the other beds to sleep on, but it didn't help that much. it's too bad, because otherwise i would have given it my full recommendation. also while here, i met an english guy the same age as me, who has been travelling around south america and asia. it was nice to have some companionship, especially because he showed me the path to bike along the yulong river, which was incredibly beautiful but where i know i would have gotten hopelessly lost. plus its nice to have someone to complain to when you're getting tired. hopefully i'll keep meeting nice people along my trip, because it is much more fun traveling when you've got someone to enjoy things with.