September 28, 2024
My fellow residents are celebrating final days in Belfast!
I am having a little case of FOMO since I found out the residents in Belfast already, are doing a bicycle beer cruises Sunday afternoon. They are making up signs to say " the boat people are finally leaving" and "bye, bye Belfast" and will pedal throughout the city with a photo stop at City Hall! Over 40 of them are committed so far. I also saw them partying Thursday, the start of Octoberfest with the locals. Love this Irish tradition with the song "don't rock the boat baby" !
Guilin is such a pretty little town; tons of tourist seem to know it too! I really enjoyed walking around it at night! I went for a stroll, along the river, to just soak it all in. I grabbed some street food, kung pow chicken and rice for dinner, that I had back in the quiet of my hotel room and had an early night.
The Guilin area of southern China is known to have some of the most stunning karst rock formations. We took a bamboo cruise boat with a tiny electric motor, from the villages of Yangdi to Xingping this morning. The rafts are limited to 4 guest each - so I road with a Chinese family, there on vacation from the Beijing area, who was very sweet. Mom and Dad spoke no english, but their son, who is in his final year of college study environmental science, was able to converse and intrepret what the driver said to me the whole ride, about one hour.
Guilin, China is just a 3 hour,18 minute high speed train ride from Hong Kong . It is a charming city known for its dramatic landscape of limestone karst hills. In the center of town are 2 lakes, Shanhu ( cedar) and Ronghu ( banyan) that remain from a medieval era moat, that once surrounded the city. The twin pagodas, the Sun and the Moon , sit on the the shore of the Shanhu and light up the sky at night.