Heading To Guilin
We are having a great time in HK. We went all over the city yesterday, from the shopping districts in Kowloon to the top of Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island. This city is very easy to navigate in, and the transportation here is superb. There is the best metro system I've ever seen, anywhere, right here in HK. We really had a great day walking around, and ended up along the shoreline when it became dark and all of the lights came on across the harbor. Quite fantastic.
Today, we've prepared to head inland to Guilin, to which we'll take an overnight sleeper bus from Shenzhen on the HK/China border. This city is supposedly beautiful, if perhaps a touristy destination. Still, when you're heading into mainland China for the first time, it doesn't hurt to end up somewhere that isn't so rough, that has a little bit of a backpacker's infrastructure. We'll spend some time in Guilin, and see some of the surrounding areas, such as Yangshuo and Longsheng.
We've even talked about heading down to Kunming, and perhaps even look for a visa to cross the border into Vietnam, just to say we've been there. Don't know if that will happen, though. We don't have enough time to really explore like that. We'll likely be back in HK by next Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest.
Speaking of HK, it is a place where one could explore for two weeks just on it's own. We rode the ferry across the harbor, which would also be great to do at night. We rode around HK Island on one of the little narrow double-decker trams. It's been a fun day, and we're already planning on a few things to do when we arrive back next week, like going to the top of Victoria's Peak at night to see all the city lights from above.
At any rate, we're very excited to be heading into the mainland. While HK is new and exciting, it is easy to deal with because English is used quite a lot. In Guilin and the smaller towns, it will be a different story. Nothing more exciting than a new kind of experience like that.
Until next time, be safe.
