Monday, July 18, 2016
Tour day 11 of 15: a travel day. Guilin with Vincent, then Shanghai with Tony. Breakfast buffet at Sheraton Guilin. We took a Li River cruise from Mopan Shan wharf to Yang Shuo county. Highlights aside from the water-sculpted mountain landscapes include comerant fishermen, water buffalo, and tree terraces (pomelo, kumquat, tea, mandarin orange). We walked through and explored Xijie pedestrian street in Yangshuo. The others stopped for cold refreshments at KFC while Dad waited in a nearby air-conditioned hotel lobby. The bus picked us up after a short walk to meet it in a bus-accessible area. We rode in the bus to visit the 300-year-old home of Mr. Pan, then on the return to Guilin a brief stop at Dashi Zhai bridge in Xiatang Village to photograph a picturesque setting of visitors rafting down the Yulong River, then on to the airport. Dinner at a restaurant in the airport. Highlights include beer fish (be careful of the small bones) and egg drop and tomato soup. We passed through security check. China Eastern flight 9370 from Guilin (KWL) to Shanghai Pu Dong (PVG). Our flight was delayed about 40 minutes due to weather. While waiting, some of us walked the length of the airport terminal, Jeremy in search of a hamburger, and me in search of respite from the multiple, wordy, and nearly identical announcements that notified people of the many flights that were delayed due to weather. Some of us then purchased snacks at Each Burger: chocolate soft-serve ice cream in a rather stale paper cone, French fries. Jeremy and I continued watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom on my iPad Pro (but in English), picking up from where we left off last night (following the bug tunnel and trap). Weather before leaving Guilin was 93 degrees Fahrenheit, very humid, and scattered clouds. Snack served during the flight: a slightly sweet, mostly-sesame-seed-covered bun filled with vanilla custard; water. The bun was served in a cellophane package that was pumped full of air and resembled a pillow. (For a few seconds several of us laughingly pretended to use it as a head pillow.) The snack box also contained a Nestle chocolate wafer candy and some butter biscuits. Kiana additionally received a special order of three tiny slices of garlic bread due to her allergies. Our Shanghai guide Tony and our driver (I didn't get his name) met us at the airport. We boarded the bus at 12:12 am and drove 54 minutes to arrive at the InterContinental Shanghai at 1:06 am. To bed. Number of steps walked = 11,865. The InterContinental Shanghai had the best wifi of all the hotels on our trip—5 Mbps up and down—and the best toilet: Toto, fully automatic with a motion sensor to automatically open the lid. Controls exist to open and close both the lid and the seat by touching only the controls.