It was amazing to get a full nights rest and start the day off with another delicious breakfast of an omelet and toast. We got all of our stuff together and checked out of the hostel around 10:30 and began making our way to the Reed Flute Cave. We managed to catch a bus that took us right there for only 1 yuan, which is about 16 cents. We walked up a hill for a while until we found the entrance and started our adventure through the cave. Unfortunately it was guided and we couldn’t understand anything and couldn’t even go ahead of the group because the guide turned the lights on as we went so we decided to just bring up the rear and take our time.
 |
| In front of Reed Flute Cave |
The cave was enormous with a ton of different viewing platforms of different scenes including one formation of a tiger that was very realistic and one of a stage curtain that was also really cool. There was one called “giant centipede being scared by a magic mirror” which I don’t think we really got but we used our imagination and made something of it. There was another side exhibit that included a 1000 year-old turtle that we got to touch!
 |
| Tiger bidding visitors goodbye |
 |
| 1000 year old turtle |
 |
| Curtains on a stage |
After getting a ton of pictures and getting through the rest of the cave we made our way down towards the bus stop and ended up just catching a really cheap cab ride to our next site, Elephant Trunk Hill. We got into the park and climbed what seemed like a million extremely steep stairs with all of our luggage until we made it to the top where we couldn’t find the view of the hill. After a few minutes we realized we were actually on top of the Hill, hence why we couldn’t see it. We headed back down to the bottom and briefly walked through a cave until we were right next to the hole in the mountain. Unfortunately, being right next to the hole isn’t really a good view either, so we made our way across this pedestrian bridge to the other side of the river where there was a perfect view from the beach. We got some group pictures only after being bombarded by a group of Chinese guys and girls who were insanely exciting to get pictures with us. After we took in the view we decided it was time to find some lunch.
 |
| On top of Elephant Trunk Hill |
 |
| Looking through the trunk |
 |
| Elephant Trunk Hill |
On our way back downtown we stopped and listened to a live band and got a good picture in front of a couple of pagodas. After that we headed along the river until we got back to the pedestrian street with all of the great food stands. Bryan and I split one of the omelets filled with rice and topped with ketchup that we had wanted the day before which turned out to be really good. We also went to Cheese Potato and got some delicious fried potatoes with corn and cucumbers covered in some unknown sauce that was great. After we were all stuffed we decided to head back to the hostel to hang out until we needed to make our way to the bus station. We stopped at the convenience store across the street and found some coffee packets that tasted like white hot chocolate that really hit the stop. We all bummed in the lobby catching up on journaling and whatnot and then caught a cab to the bus station.
 |
| Band performing |
The bus station was typical of any Chinese transportation location, so very crowded. We got on our bus without a problem but unfortunately were greeted by the unfortunate surprise that we did not get a sleeper bus like we thought we did so we had to just sit in seats for the 9 hour ride. It turned out really well though because we ended up being in the front row of a double-decker bus and had a little extra room and a great view out of the windshield. We all tried to stay awake for a little while and made it a little further than we wanted to because right when we were all falling asleep we stopped for a break and couldn’t be on the bus for a half hour. Once we got back on the bus we all slept for the last 2 or 3 hours of the ride and woke up as we pulled into Guangzhou around 3:30 am. We waited in line for a cab and after a little confusion on the drivers part made it to the train station by 5:00 for our 7:30 train. We found some empty seats and slept on benches until about 6:30. This was basically a continuous 2 days but I am going to go ahead and call this the end of one and the start of another.
No comments:
Post a Comment