Greetings from Guilin
Dear Kitty,
My fears so far have been completely without reason - it's amazing over here. I'm actually in Guilin at the moment, and still in my pajamas. We arrived on Friday - well, in Hong Kong - and spent three days shopping, sightseeing and just absorbing the atmosphere - if not the pollution. We've had one magical evening where we took a boat to a restaurant and we lay on the top of it, gazing at the moon, for a good half hour. It was cold, but really nice to be with two good friends and just laughing at stupid things. Another (literal) high was when Charly and I bought Pocky and Coke and sat on our beds, playing cards and just generally being hyper.
So, now we're in Guilin, and we got here at ten to seven this morning. We spent the night on a 'sleeper train', which is a train with triple bunks. Last night we just played cards and ludo, and chatted and read, and then slept when all the lights went out. It's seemed like a wonderful, mad dream, and I can't believe how wonderul it's been. It's now half past twelve in the afternoon, and we spent most of this morning sitting in a Chinese Tea House, eating melon and playing silly games. In retrospect, quite a lot of this trip has been spent playing silly games.
The hostel we're staying in is called the 'Dozycat Hostel' and there are cats everywhere - there's one on the mousemat here (oh, the irony). There are cats all over our bedroom walls, and it's got some amazing decor - the people who run the hostel have left board markers in various places and people have written on the walls in their languages, or in stunted English, or drawn pictures, and it looks really really good (surprisingly). Guilin itself, however, has places that are exactly how I've always inagined China to be. This morning, we went to a river-reservoire-lake-thing and saw people dancing, and exercising, and swimming, and we even had a Tai-C'hi lesson! It's all totally different here, and I love it.
We go back to HK this weekend, and I'm looking forward to it a lot. Mainland China, from what I've seen, is still nice - but Hong Kong is the place I love most. We're going swimming in the sea on Sunday - Easter - and hopefully it'll be warm. They have these really big shark nets around certain places so you can swim in safety, and I've got to meet up with a lot of friends...
Oh, Kitty, so much to do. I don't want this trip to end. But there's a whole week 'til it does, and it's going to be AMAZING.
I'd better go - my turn for the shower.
Until next time.
Yours,
Francesca
My fears so far have been completely without reason - it's amazing over here. I'm actually in Guilin at the moment, and still in my pajamas. We arrived on Friday - well, in Hong Kong - and spent three days shopping, sightseeing and just absorbing the atmosphere - if not the pollution. We've had one magical evening where we took a boat to a restaurant and we lay on the top of it, gazing at the moon, for a good half hour. It was cold, but really nice to be with two good friends and just laughing at stupid things. Another (literal) high was when Charly and I bought Pocky and Coke and sat on our beds, playing cards and just generally being hyper.
So, now we're in Guilin, and we got here at ten to seven this morning. We spent the night on a 'sleeper train', which is a train with triple bunks. Last night we just played cards and ludo, and chatted and read, and then slept when all the lights went out. It's seemed like a wonderful, mad dream, and I can't believe how wonderul it's been. It's now half past twelve in the afternoon, and we spent most of this morning sitting in a Chinese Tea House, eating melon and playing silly games. In retrospect, quite a lot of this trip has been spent playing silly games.
The hostel we're staying in is called the 'Dozycat Hostel' and there are cats everywhere - there's one on the mousemat here (oh, the irony). There are cats all over our bedroom walls, and it's got some amazing decor - the people who run the hostel have left board markers in various places and people have written on the walls in their languages, or in stunted English, or drawn pictures, and it looks really really good (surprisingly). Guilin itself, however, has places that are exactly how I've always inagined China to be. This morning, we went to a river-reservoire-lake-thing and saw people dancing, and exercising, and swimming, and we even had a Tai-C'hi lesson! It's all totally different here, and I love it.
We go back to HK this weekend, and I'm looking forward to it a lot. Mainland China, from what I've seen, is still nice - but Hong Kong is the place I love most. We're going swimming in the sea on Sunday - Easter - and hopefully it'll be warm. They have these really big shark nets around certain places so you can swim in safety, and I've got to meet up with a lot of friends...
Oh, Kitty, so much to do. I don't want this trip to end. But there's a whole week 'til it does, and it's going to be AMAZING.
I'd better go - my turn for the shower.
Until next time.
Yours,
Francesca
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