Guilin Diary 17th October 2010!

Maybe this is going to be a bit confusing in the end, as it goes back and forth in time, but take it as some kind of an experimental way of storytelling. This is the first entrance in my "CHINA NOTEBOOK" Diary, and will take you back to the very first day in Guilin.
I am aware that in the YouTube advert down below, they spell Guilin with two l's, but that is wrong, so do not believe everything you read online, not even my posts!

But now to the Diary.

45 minutes Taxi ride from Airport to our hotel in Town: 100 Yuan. (Chinese currency = 10 is like 1 Euro more or less)

The little hotel we'd chosen was actually pretty nice and one of the bit ARTY kind and it was called "Museum" something something, and was placed just at the big lake in the center of town.
We got a Japanese style bed room and a Chinese Antique Style one. Then the problem was to sort out who should sleep where and in which one.
Not that I should sleep with Ricky or Catriona with Mum or such sort of thing, no it was about who had to crawl down and sleep on a Futon style madras on the floor -Japanese Style- and who should feel like a Chinese emperor in the huge Chinese Antique Style room. That room was big and spacious, with a huge tea ceremony table and a large wooden double bed.
It was really nice that bedroom, but common sense said, that the youngest couple should have the pleasure of sleeping on the floor in the Japanese bedroom. Not that this wasn't nice; it really was, with a little podium and sliding rice paper doors where the futon bed was placed.
So Cat & myself could close this rice paper door to the Japanese style bedroom for one night, while Mum & Ricky slept like two ancient emperors in the antique room just down the hall. The hotel reminded me of one of the better experiences in 2009, when we were on our first bigger China travels, and it was the Culture and Art hotel in Qingdao, a Hotel and a city I can only recommend for anyone who would like to visit China and the former German colony up north at the Yellow Sea.
This was the view I could enjoy when I got up in the morning and went up to the rooftop of our little Arty Guilin hotel in the early morning. The picture on top is from the same lake, but taken in the evenng before, as we took a walk all arounf the lake in the center of the town.
The picture in the middle is from the staircase of the Arty Hotel. Unforntunately I wasn't clever enough to take photos in the two rooms.