He gathered us up and gave us some stern, yet helpful advice. No loose noodles, and don't run. Stay together. I helpfully added, "show no fear, they can sense it!" Leo still likes me despite my interjections.
We crossed without incident and turned left up the street. The restaurant he wanted to take us to was closed, so we found another one. He ordered up bowls of noodles, beer, and water for us. I think the restaurant owners were both surprised and quite happy to have around ten Americans descent upon their establishment.
Leo was right. It literally was a hole in the wall. An opening with five tables with stools, there was no front door. When it was time for the restaurant to close, they would bring down the metal gate for the night and lock up.
The meal was great -- it was noodles and some sort of other stuff, like meat and mushrooms. Then we could add stuff, spices, etc. I added a little of the chilis, which gave it a nice kick. Several locals came in for their dinner as well.
Great stuff.
After the group's safe return to the hotel, Carol, Andrew, and I got a cab, and headed three miles downtown.
When we got married, I had promised Carol the sun and the moon, and I finally delivered -- the Sun and the Moon Pagoda, on one of the lakes in center city Guilin.
Sun on the left, Moon pagoda
on the right. At least I surmise
that, as the sun is bigger and yellow,
and the moon is smaller and white.
(Not to scale of the ACTUAL
sun and moon, but we'll
overlook that issue.)
We walked around the lake, dodging Chinese tourists who were stopping for selfies and group photos. Andrew bought he and I each beers from a little shop, and he bought Carol a water. The total price was around four US dollars, and he griped (in an Andrew kind of way, which means it was pretty mellow and not at all negative) that he overpaid because it is a touristy area.
The beer was nice to stroll with, but even better was listening to Andrew expound on politics, every day life, and other topics about China. Certainly nearly everything we have done has been incredible, but among the elements of the trip Carol and I have enjoyed most is having a China hand be able to answer questions about regular Chinese life.
The Chinese love uplighting their
trees in parks, etc. This is a
pretty cool photo, with the sun
partially eclipsing the moon.
Boat tours of the lakes and rivers
are quite popular with the
Chinese tourists.
Eventually we grabbed a cab back to the hotel -- just whipping through the streets of a Chinese city at night is quite interesting. We like Guilin, and it seems Guilin likes us.
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