Guilin.

The cross province bus trip from Daoxian to Guilin takes the traveler through amazing mountainous scenery that varies from the wide, lush ranges of Hunan province to the breath taking, gravity-defying karsts of Guangxi. It is said that the unique mountains of Guilin County were formed when the God of the Sky and the Dragon Lord of the Land fought for possession of the land. The Sky God resolved the issues by hurling giant rocks from the sky to rain down upon the dragon. These rocks now exist as the peaks and points of Guilin. Passing through numerous nameless, cut-and-paste villages, it was two hours into the four hour journey when I realized the little rubbish bags on the bus had the printed slogan ‘This may be used for waste or airsickness’. Despite this claim, the bus failed to take off and we arrived in Guilin on time to the mandatory push, shove and anxious call of the throng of scalpers looking to entice travelers into residence at their guest houses or ‘pretty hotels’. We relented and struck luck when we managed to haggle a basic room in a hotel just off the main drag down from 60Y to 40Y. Two beds, TV, thermos of hot, (hopefully) clean water and a communal bathroom presented to us by a little old lady who muttered about us in angry country dialect the whole time. Arriving at dinner time, we put our newly devised ‘Backpacker Slumming Experiment’ to action, christening it by eating at an 8Y All-You-Can-Eat little number. Our plan was to spend as little money as possible each day, getting by on two meals and walking wherever possible. We quickly proved to be first-class tight-arses by inconspicuously walking out of the restaurant with our hands and bags stuffed full of bread rolls. The amazing peaks of Guilin bid us peaceful sleep until the neighbors decided to have a merry hallway get together that turned into a ten minute argument, before realizing they were on the wrong floor and taking their grievances elsewhere.

Despite this claim, the bus failed to take off...