Moon Hill

I went up to Moon Hill myself while Danica opted out of hiking. She went for a massage and more shopping. The whole thing wasn't all that spectacular in my opinion. But the view down was nice in to the farm valley with the Guilin mountain in the background. On the trail I saw lots of beautiful butterflies of different shapes and colors. They are so beautiful. On Emei Shan I saw lots of butterflies and giant moths that are intricate in texture and color. At the Banyan Tree area, I saw beautiful red dragon flies, they were really delicate looking and the green ones were bigger. All these insects are cool to me because well, I don't get to see them often and when they show up it's like magic or locating a pot of gold, a nice brief surprise.

Wonder Women

There were ladies trying to sell us costume rental for 10 yuan each. I called for 5 yuan, and it was a deal. Danica was big and tall, and in China they make her get men's wear even the XXXXL does not fit her. She was convinced there is nothing in China that fits her. But this lady did have a costume that fitted her. We dressed up as tribal women. I wanted a cape and so did Danica. The costume fitting lady insisted that there was no cape that would fit Danica. I told the lady that short capes were fine that Danica did not mind. Danica thought it looked cool and I wanted to be wear it like an Asian Wonder Woman. Because we both insisted on having capes on we decided that for the fun of it we should at least strick poses like we were action figure heroes. It was fun.

Banyan Trees

Then we went to see very old Banyan trees, not as old as the ones in India but still really cool see. I learned that Banyan trees grow another truck out of the branch and then the trunk grows roots all to support the branch. What an interesting system. This model really makes a good corporation expansion example I think.

Black Pearl

I woke up after getting very little rest last night. One of the guys was packing for a long time late last night. Being in a room that consisted with mostly men, the snoring was immense. My ear plugs did little to block out the noises.

Danica got up too and vowed that she would not go shopping that day. After that we were ready to head out for breakfast on a street stand. During the meal, a grandma showed up with wreathed flowers and was selling for 5 yuan each. I went for 2 yuan and she agreed. I convinced Danica to get one. As for me, I went for two for my head. She looked really hippy like a flower child. She said I looked Hawaiian. We got photos of ourselves. Danica handed this flower selling grandma more money than the selling price because it of her age and she just wanted to give this old woman more money as she would have if it was her grandma.

We went to a local village area for tourist visit and checked out a bit of their culture etc... In this cultural visitor sight, there were performances and songs from this particular tribe. We got to see their costume and the kind of craft work they did.

This particular tribe is known for their dark tanned skin. The name that is given to the most beautiful female is, “Black Pearl”.

Agent Haggle Was My Other Identity

I checked into the hostel at 25 yuan a bed. There are better deals around but I really didn’t want to shop, I was tired and wanted to drop my bag off and have dinner. I ended up in a room of 10 with it’s own restroom shower. I discovered Danica was also in the room too.

After dropping off my bag I walked all over to check out shops and know the way around things. I had purple sweet potato and yellow corn. I also came across a vegetarian restaurant tea shop. I sat down happily and spent a 46 yuan for a meal. This was the most I spent on a meal so far. It has only been like 6 yuan for a meal which was under a dollar. I was really excited over the two vegetarian dishes I ordered but when it arrived on my table the excitement went away. I was severely disappointed. It looked better than it tasted. Well, I did like the atmosphere of the place as it was decorated beautifully in wood set for drinking tea.

I met a Polish girls who was staying at Lisa’s for 20 yuan a bed and had the whole room to herself. She invited me to switch out of the over crowded youth hostel. This same Polish girl I had met back in Guilin at the same youth hostel whose Lonely Planet book flew out of her hands while she was on a public bus in Guilin. She cried profusely and I saw her walking in tears while I was window shopping on the main strip in Guilin. I walked with her to look for her lonely planet book with her. She was devastated to go without her security blanket of the Lonely Planet guide. I told her I have traveling all over China without one and it has worked out for me and that in any case it is also accessible online. And if she really needed to have one in her hand, she could always buy another one at a bookstore. It really didn’t do much to comfort her at the moment. But today when I saw her again in Yangsho on West Street, she looked great without her Lonely Planet guide. She was no longer afraid

Danica talked me into going shopping with her and at this point I had already done the walking I wanted. She promised it would only be a sec. I don’t know why I believed her. It turned out to be a three hour ordeal. She wanted me to go with her to haggle prices for her. I was her personal haggling agent. I enjoy her company so I didn’t mind until she could not walk and kept wanting sit on the sidewalk. This reminded me of the time on Wulingyuan. Where she could no longer walk anymore and had to stay with us at Xiao Lao Shr’s. I told her early on that if she was going to drag me with her to shop then she better be able to walk all the way back. We ended up eating dumpling and taking a break off our feet.

Danica and I agreed to pair up for tomorrow’s day trips on one term which is no shopping together. And that if she wanted to shop she would do it on her own time. Otherwise I would take off without her on my own.

Price Haggling in China

I made it onto the dock and headed for the Youth Hostel. Along the way I saw North Face and other outdoor gear. I went into all of them to check out the prices and on which ones I wanted. I really only wanted to spend 50 yuan or 60 yuan. Shop keepers were calling prices out for 150 to 280 yuan for the same exact pack. I kept testing shop after shop to see how low can the shop keepers go and the lowest I was able find was 100 yuan. I knew the actual sale price that is possible is 80 yuan and this was the local price. How to go about getting this price? Well, I’ve had practice and I planned to use my practice of negotiation to end up paying 80 yuan and not 280 yuan.

In the last shop on West Street I went in to see the pack that I wanted hanging high up towards the ceiling and asked for the price, it was 240 yuan. I proceeded to walk out of the shop and was stopped by the keeper. The shop lady blocked me and said I shouldn’t walk out without checking out the pack personally. I said I could not afford to check out the pack because I could not afford the price. I told her that I was only set on paying 70 yuan for a pack and her pack did not fall into my price range so I didn’t want to waste her time and get disappointed myself of not being able to buy it. She started to tell me how no one on the street will go for that price etc… so I continued to move my feet out the door and reminded her that this was why I didn’t want to touch the bag. She stopped again and said, “100 yuan”. I kept moving forward and then she called out, “95 yuan”. I kept walking can she grabbed my arm and said, “what’s your top price?” I said, “OK, 80 yuan”. Sold!

I walked out of there with a North Face pack for 80 yuan. Back home it would cost a lot more than $11., which was about what I paid for. It was green like my internal pack and I didn’t mind the color because it matched. But no one seemed to like that color in the shop and recommend that I get a different cooler color. I asked for pink, that was my first choice of cool color.


Haggling in China, you have to be willing to let it go and walk out when the price is not right. But you also have to be willing to buy when the price is right after negotiation. It’s a part of the silent code of haggling honor to not make a fool of shop keeper. But you also have to silently know what the local price is in order to haggle. If you don’t, they know and they won’t negotiate with you because they know they will win and you will cave in at their price. It goes like this, if there are not price tags then it is usually fifty percent off and then another 20 yuan off after that. This is the local price.

Alien Caves on the Li JIang River Cruise

I was picked up at the hostel by the van that would drive me to the wharf. We were there with plenty of time to spare. We were dropped off in the waiting room that was also conveniently the jade and crystal showcase sales room. People could only wait there. How interesting it was all scheduled this way. In fact all the people waiting for their cruise had to wait in this big sales room.

I sat by the restroom where the only seat were available in the room. The entire place was made for standing, shopping, looking over the glass counters showcasing things you can buy. I didn’t mind sitting by the restroom because I just wanted to meditate a bit. The place was bouncing with energy in no particular order. It was too much for me. I put on my ear plugs and recited. It was amazing that I was able to make separation with all of it.

An hour later we got our cruise tickets. There was an option to get on a tour bus afterwards for 110 yuan to see Moon Hill and old Banyon Groves and then a bus ride back into Guilin all included. I decided to pass. I didn’t know how well I would do on the cruise and may need to just rest afterwards.

I got the window seat and was happy to sit by the window. I sat next to a couple from Hei Long Jiang. The woman knew I was a vegetarian when lunch came around and I only had plain rice and gourd with salt. She was self conscious about eating freshly killed seafood in front of me so she would turn her back to me while she ate. Then she insisted on trying to convince me that I was malnourished because I was a vegetarian. I asked her to take another good look at me and questioned why she thought I looked malnourished. She said picky eaters like me tend to be malnourished and fat. So she decided to call me “Pang Gu Nang” fat girl the rest of the cruise ride.

The cruise ride was amazing. I highly recommend anyone wanting to check out Guilin to not miss this cruise ride. All the best views are along this river and the best ones are not at the end where YangSho is where you can skip the cruise but take the bamboo raft for a cheaper price. This cruise only does one direction travel which is down river. Up river it does not take passengers.

We passed by a cave and legend has it that aliens once lived there. In fact stories of aliens in China are well known and documented. Only locals are granted access to the cave today.

Vegetarian Means Islamic?

I got up at 9:35am this morning and missed the boat cruises for the day. So I paid for a Li Jiang River Cruise for tomorrow that ends up in Yang Sho and because of the low water elevation this time of the year, the boat started lower in the river and traveled slow. My laundry also did not dry so I had to wait another day anyways.

I spent the day walking the streets checking out everything. I hung out with the workers at the youth hostel and attempted to shoot pool with them and watch Korean dramas in the TV room. Whenever I asked for vegetarian food, people here assumed I am Islamic. Very interesting, not Buddhist as assumed since being Asia people will just assume it is so. Or like back in California, vegetarian translates into “healthy”, people will often say, “oh, into healthy foods huh”. But here, Islamic, somehow, I’m not sure why this is the case. Maybe it is the only other group that has a dietary preference.

I met a young man named Tomishi from Tokyo who is in the field of animation. He enjoys his work and is taking two years off from the work force for his two year world travel tour. He is heading off to Vietnam and Thailand via border of China.

People here tell me the rice noodles here are world famous. I had them and came to the conclusion that Vietnamese rice noodles of the same type is done better in Vietnam. But I didn’t share this with anybody.. In fact the best ones are made by Yong at Berkeley Buddhist Monastery. Can’t even buy it, just gotta be there when she makes an offering of serving them.