Hello Guilin!

A trip originally designed to explore the Chinese countryside became an epic tri-country trip, allowing me to explore the karsts formations in Yangshou, cross the border to Vietnam by bus, play tag with the motorcycles of Hanoi and Saigon, and finally culminating in a Metallica concert in Singapore.

I bought this P800 (yes P800 round-trip ticket to Guangzhou in 2012 from Cebu Pacific), thinking this will my entry/exit to explore South China.

I did get to explore Guilin area and more! Got ripped off, stuck in a bus terminal in Nanning at 3am, walked for five hours amidst amazing scenery in countryside China. All in the spirit of adventure. Grateful to God for this epic adventure.

Day 1

This was a trip when I arrived in the airport just in time. Flight was at 715pm and arrived at the airport around 6pm. Phew!   

I flew over a big city before Guangzhou, too bad there are dark clouds covering this huge city but I think it is Hong Kong. It took a while before the plane landed, probably a congested runway. I know that Chinese can talk loud but I was still surprised when it got really noisy on the plane. Upon landing, the first thing I noticed is being parked beside an Egyptair 777, reminded me of the chaos in Cairo at that time. After immigration, I called my hotel, Guangsha Hotel, close to the airport. After twenty minutes, I got picked up by a non-air-conditioned van, which reminded me of the old shuttle vans servicing Ajuy-Iloilo. Also reminded me of the Shanghai airport van which made me sit on the space for behind the first row, the space allotted for luggage

I was the only passenger at first then we picked up a couple from the other terminal of Guangzhou. The hotel is value for money and location wise---only P1,800. The beds were clean and the toilet, my only bad observation is the carpet and the windows are quite old already. Otherwise, I had decent sleep. The airport shuttle left 530am, just in time for my morning flight to Guilin. I booked this trip, not knowing that I am following deluxe service from China Southern, I flew business class in a Chinese domestic flight, a first international na domestic flight.   Had priority check in and got to enjoy CS airport lounge. I even got my own special shuttle, while everybody else was crammed in the shuttle, I got the luxury of comfortable coach where I had it all to myself. I did not expect special service but then again, I paid P5,000 for a one-hour flight. But what was funny is that our shuttle ride to the plane was longer than my travel time from my hotel to the airport. But I have no complains with this deluxe China Southern service.  

To be continued.....