July 22, 2009 – Day 209 – Guilin, China

There is something inherently wrong with a place that refuses to serve a person after they have already made one order. And especially when that person being refused service is me.

Fishing in the river

We walked miles from our hostel until we finally came across a cleanish looking restaurant that wasn’t washing its dishes on the ground out front (not kidding about this). When the “waitress” finally brought out some of our order, we waited another almost 15 minutes before getting the girl’s attention and trying to ask across two languages where the hell was Lin’s food? Apparently, the waitress only wanted to serve one plate and that was to Saben. When we tried to order another plate for Lin, the waitress would not take the order and then just shook her head saying “no, no” before walking off. But why “no, no”?! Lin is starving and we haven’t had a meal in over 24 hours and all we want is a big pile of rice!

But “no, no” was the end of it. Lin didn’t get any food from that waitress or the other one. So she starved death and died right there on the sidewalk in Guilin, China. THE END

Well, not exactly. Saben shared his food and we made a quick stop at a snak stand to fill our stomachs. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Guilin and marveling at the amazingly cheap prices of everything! There are touts galore for everything from wilting flowers, to boat rides to massages. People spit giant loogies (er, excess phlegm if you prefer) on every square inch of the sidewalk after making sounds that sound like they might have coughed up some part of their entrails. People yell when they really mean to talk; it’s hot and humid; it’s hazy with smog and heat; restaurants don’t have standards of cleanliness and toddlers wear pants with the crotch cut out so they can pee in the grates in the street. This is China.

Catching snails (snailing?) in the river

What a world apart from anything we’ve ever experienced. Now it’s becoming more clear why so many people we have met so strongly recommended getting on a tour for seeing China. It’s very confusing, disorienting, and utterly foreign to us “westerners.” But really, the place isn’t foreign, we are. And people stare so hard at us, you would think we were either celebrities or 3 headed monsters strolling down the mucus covered sidewalk. Somedays it’s amusing. Somedays it’s powerfully frustrating. And how strange to think that this place has been living and breathing and buzzing and sweating all these years while I, thousands of miles away, have never even imagined such a place existing at the same time as myself. China was just a word, a feeble thought. Now it’s concrete, a fact, and it’s right in my face. I feel shocked and disoriented but I am not afraid or threatened and I am glad we did not join a tour as so many others have encouraged or suggested. It just takes a couple of days to get lined out in a new place.