Asia Trip: Day 139 - Shenzhen 深圳=> Guilin 桂林 (6/1/19)
Daily Highlights:
Slept in until 9:30am and talked to my Dad
Bought an apple and iced coffee for brekkie
Worked out at the playground again
Made friends with a bunch of kids and an eighty year old man
Practiced Chinese with the girl at the front desk of the hostel for a few hours
MADE IT TO THE TRAIN STATION
Waited for 45 mins
Got onto the train and conned my way in being on the bottom bunk
My phone randomly shut off out of nowhere
Probably the government watching me
Listening to old iPod music - ALL OLD LORD HURON
LORD HURON AND CHINA TRAIN RIDES = PURE BLISS :)
The guy across from me consistently looked at his phone for the entire twelve hour train ride
His eyes were constantly glued with a furrowed brow
Being on this train in China listening to Lord Huron is so wild. It brings back so many memories of studying abroad, living life, and carrying out my dreams.
It also serves as a point to see how much I’ve grown and changed in the past five years. I’m stoked to see what the next five years have in store. The start of this train ride started with a torrential down pour of rain. I was also the only foreigner in the entire train station and on the whole train. This FEELS like a real adventure.
I love the train rides because you get to see the countryside. You get a chance to see the extremely rural and undeveloped parts of China whiz by at 200 kph. I feel the travel more, I’m confined to the ground, not the air and feel the distance between the places.
Some of the fondest memories of my entire life have been spent on a train in China looking out the window watching the world swirling past me. You truly feel like you’re on the other side of the world; this feeling is so foreign and so special.
Asia Trip: Day 140 - Guilin 桂林 (6/2/19)
Daily Highlights:
Arrived at 5:30am, still dark outside, hungry, no data, with no hostel and no plan
Wandered around and tried looking for a McDonalds, but found a hole in the wall restaurant
They had no WiFi so I went to the travel agency next door
Booked a hostel and found out how to get there
Rode the public bus to the hostel - awesome
Walked throughout the local park in the AM to the hostel
So quiet, so peaceful, so many old people
Checked in and then checked out (slept until 1:00pm)
THE WOMAN AT THE FRONT DESK HELPED ME FIX MY WECHAT
I haven’t used it in four years, so I had to have someone verify me
Then part of that process was the person verifying me had to verify themselves
They had to add their credit card information, their DOB, and other extremely personal information
Met an American and chilled for the day
Climbed Laorenshan 老人山
AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL
Came back, got a few drinks, got a bunch of new music and passed out
Photo’s Above: scenes from wandering around downtown Guilin
Photos Above: scenes from hiking up laorenshan and seeing the entire city
Asia Trip: Day 141 - Guilin 桂林 (6/3/19)
Daily Highlights:
Slept in until 9:30am
Rented a bike and made my way to DaXu 大圩 (rode 40km on a pedal bike)
SO HARD, BUT SO MUCH FUN - v sore
I rode along the side of an eight lane super highway - brushing shoulders with dump trucks, eighteen wheelers, and other extremely large machines
Got to the ancient city and wandered
Met some v friendly and flirty older ladies
Met a lot of older people - bribed them for photos
Biking back to the city was a struggle - v tired and sore
Chilled and rested when I got back
Got food and desserts (snickers)
Watched inception with people at the hostel
Booked a trip to the rice terraces - will be SO COOL
