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Breakdowns, motorbikes and mosquitos

Unfortunately i had to be up at 6.30 to catch my bus to Guilin, and stupidly I had left my packing for the morning as well.  I caught a taxi back into town and the bus station and bought my ticket for about a tenner, which is a bit steep - but then again, I am heading to a very touristy area.  For some strange reason, I believed that the bus would only take four and a half hours to get there, but much to my disgust I realised it takes 7 hours.

After about 2 hours on the bus, we broke down at a petrol station - fucking great - we are in the middle of nowhere.  The bus couldnt be fixed and was making some pretty shitty noises, so another bus was driven all the way from BeiHai to pick us up.  It took a full two and a half hours for the bus to turn up and it was a horror, but at least it got us there in one piece (even though it took another five hours of Chinese music).  The worst thing was, I couldnt sleep because of the music, my Ipod was dead, I had no-one to talk to and I had finished all of the books I had on me.

When i arrived in Guilin, it was about 6 o'clock and i was tired, pissed off and had a splitting headache.  I just got off the bus and made a deal with the nearest motor taxi driver to take me to a hostel i had the address for.  This turned out to be quite good fun weaving about the streets on the back of a motorbike with my huge rucksack on - as the only previous time I had been on a motorbike was on Watties Harley Davidson when i was about 8!  The man who drove me was a tad strange (he was wearing a suit) and he took me to the Sheraton hotel - now, do I look like I can afford the Sheraton??  I think not....

I found my hostel which was just around the corner and headed out for some dinner in a resteraunt nearby.  The food was mediocre at best and was hugely overpriced as this area is full fo Chinese tourists.  On my way back from dinner, I was persuaded by a random bloke to visit his sisters tea shop even though i hate tea.  I stayed for about half an hour, talking to this bloke and a few other travellers who had been dragged in as well, before buying a small bag of tea and using the excuse of being tired.  I also got dragged into an art shop on the way back which had some really nice paintings, but they were well out of my budget.

When i got back to the room, I had been joined by a Chinese guy called Benny from Shanghai, an Aussie called Daz from Sydney and a Chinese girl who couldnt speak English.  I got talking to the two guys and we decided to get up at 6am the next day in the hope of getting into the parks around town for free.

That night, as soon as we turned out the lights, I got bitten to death by mosquitos and was itching all over (Ack would have loved this).  After about an hour, I couldnt take any more, so I went downstairs with Benny to get a mosquito coil to kill the little bastards.  The coil had the desired effect even though it stank and made it difficult to breathe, but at least i eventually got some sleep, even if it was at 2am.

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