Guilin Trip Day 3: VIP...

Day 3 was not as jammed-packed as Day 2 as we spent most of our time in the bus for our journey to the Li River Jetty for our 3 hour cruise on the Li River and the journey back to Guilin City. Again, this post will consist mostly of pictures... Enjoy!

 It was only on the next day that we discovered that our accommodation at the Sovereign Hotel had been at the VIP building... Aisehmen... Lol...

On the way to the Li River Jetty... 

The locals of Yangshuo are mostly farmers...

Finally arrived at the jetty.. 

 The view...

 There were so many people on the deck to take pictures, so I had to be content with the duck tail and some dude's nose that inter-framed here.. Lol... 

Simply breath-taking...

You can rent the hat and a pair of ducks for 2RMB (RM1) and take a photo to look like a local. Each laminated photo costs RMB10 (RM5)..

 Stone cliffs...

Trying to disguise the fact that I was freeeeeeezziiiinnngggg.... 

Peace... 

Hihihi... 

Smile....

 The water was an emerald green color..

A man and a woman doing their washing in the ice-cold water with their bare hands.. 

A covered bamboo rafter... It left me wondering if it was enough to protect them from the wind..

Mode of transportation.. 

Lone house on the river bank.. 

Going back to Guilin City... A field of sugar canes... 

Some of the villages we passed along the way.. 

Notice that we're driving on the RIGHT side of the road instead of the left side? That's because the driver's seated on the left side of the bus. Yup, it's reverse to how it is in Malaysia..

We arrived in Gulin city at about noon and after lunch we were brought to have a free foot massage at a place near the Dr. Tea tea house...  

See the wooden pails covered with plastic? They're half-filled with hot water with a packet of powdered herbs and we were to soak our feet in them before being massaged.

After the foot soak, around 20 young masseuse came into the room and gave us our foot massages. I was fortunate enough to get a guy who did a thorough job of massaging both my feet without making me feel any discomfort.

Some of my friends had he misfortune of getting a masseuse who puts out the barest minimal effort and a hand full even asked for tips!

The packet of Tibetian herbs in my wooden pail. 

 Okay, so I'd like to share with you guys the pros and cons of going on a guided tour especially in China. The good thing is, you don't have to worry about how to go from one place to another or whether you will be able to see all the places of interest in a particular place or city.

The downside is, and I'm talking from personal experience and the experience of my tour group members who have gone to Beijing on a guided tour as well aside from this one, is that the guide will bring you to places  where you will be given demonstrations of products. Later then the promoters will try hard to convince you to buy.

Don't get what I mean? Okay, for example the day at the tea house. After the tea trying/testing/tasting/whatever session, we were told of the 'offers' on the products if any of us are interested in buying. Woe betide you if you ask further about the product just out of curiosity and with no intention to buy. The promoters can be very forceful which annoys me a lot.

Same goes for the foot massage thingy. Before the session started a speaker told us about the properties of Tibetian herbs and what each of their products are good for. They even went to the extent of bringing in two Chinese medicine practicing doctors (otherwise known as sinsang) to check our health through looking at our palm.

Some of the things that they said was true and some were further than Jupiter from the Earth. A Muslim Kelantanese friend of mine was told that he had mental illness from consuming too much pork! We thought that it was the most hilarious thing ever.

After that session ended we were ushered to another room where we were to listen to a presentation about a kitchen knife. I really disliked this practice of theirs because I felt cornered and pressured to buy the products.

The biggest downside to all this aside from annoyance and wasting time is that it seemed that the products bought from these vendors don't seem to work as well as it did during the demonstration. According to my friends who went to Beijing, the places that they were brought to there sold the same thing as the ones promoted to us in Guilin.

They had bought the products there because it had worked so well on them during the demo but when they tried the ones they purchased, it didn't have any effect at all. Meaning the products sold are of different quality than the one used during the demo.

So there you have it, the day 3 of my vacay. Hope you all enjoyed it and that this came in helpful to you guys. Until the next post, cheers!