After a much needed lie in we got up and enjoyed a Wada breakfast eventually getting out at around midday to see some of Guilin’s sights. We booked ourselves onto a boat tour to take us to Yangshou the following day, the tour costs were pretty pricey but we thought it would be a nice alternative to getting another bus. So with this booked we went out on the local buses to central Guilin and made our way to the scenic Solitary Beauty Peak based at the very centre of all the Karst peaks in Guilin and now with the University Campus set around it. It was quite a pleasant walk to this area through side streets and alleys, close to the Li River. Guilin is built in and around these peaks and the central peak is supposed to be this one with a small shrine and temple on top. The peaks aren’t very high but they are extremely steep, the more touristy ones have steps up (like this one), and they don’t take very long to climb but as they jut out of the ground so suddenly you will always get good views up there.

This one was a little busy with other tourists but we took our time around the campus and tried to avoid the tourist traps. On top of the peak are a few souvenir shops one of which occupied a girl who was sleeping over her stall. They will fall asleep anywhere over here!

After the peak we took in a few more sights around the city and went to a slightly more westernised local restaurant but did enjoy the food and it was nice and cosy in there too. We continued to walk along the river side towards Elephant mountain which looked like a nicer area to walk but we’d already paid for the entrance to the Beauty Peak and decided to save a few pennies by bypassing other peaks. The Elephant peak area does look really nice though and is perhaps a better value walk for your money.

We found our bus back to Wada and went back to the hostel to chill out. Later on we enjoyed a few drinks in the bar and then went to the local shopping mall for some food in Japanese form. We finished the evening off with a walk back to the hostel and got an early night ready for our early pick up the next morning.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We started early with a Japanese style breakfast provided by our Minshuku. It was much nicer than we were anticipating having been warned the night before. There was a traditional Hoba-miso from the area which is a miso sauce cooked on a leaf with a few shitake mushrooms and spring onions on it. You leave it to cook over a candle flame and then add it to the sticky rice, this was very pleasant. Accompanying was some cold grilled salmon, cooked squash, green tea and soup. Perhaps not your ideal breakfast start to the day but it was well worth trying and we left feeling pretty satisfied.

The temperature dropped significantly today and was somewhere around the 5 degrees mark, so with a brisk walk up to the famous morning markets we took in some of the local sights and stopped for a few photography opportunities of local trade. We were disappointed though as it all seems very contrived and set up for tourists. It is mostly Japanese tourists who come to the area along with lot’s of school trips. So off load the tour buses and suddenly the town becomes alive, but perhaps not in the way we had hoped. The word “Tacky-ama” comes to mind. It wasn’t all bad though as we did come across a nice cafe where we helped to translate some tour-guide info for a Japanese chap and then went on to Takayama Jinya.

This temple is beautifully restored and did hold our attention for an hour or so along with the school groups and fellow tourist makers. We managed to overlook this though and took in the historic details throughout. Following on from the temple we had the Takayama hilltops in our sights with a castle ruin at the top. It’s a good little hike up hill and along the way there are further shrines and monuments as well as an empty children’s playground which seemed to capture our photographic imaginations. From here we walked up to the top for a short look out across Takayama before heading back down towards the rooftops and a further path lined with temples. Takayama holds so much history that it’s difficult to forget where you are.

Back at our Minshuku we had a chance to relax and take a breather before heading out to meet Kim and Ivan. This time we chose a cosy little Japanese pub with one chef and many bar-top kitsch accessories such as a fridge that is also a TV, dvd player and playstation!! Along with this he provided us with books all about Japanese food, what he could do for us, explained that we would have to buy a beer whilst apologising all the while for his poor english!! The food was fantastic, fortunately we were able to share most of it as there was so much, Helen had the hoba-miso again this time though it was 4 times the size and had loads of mushrooms with it!! Dave had the local beef dish called Hida Beef which was very very good, melt in the mouth good. The chef gave the ladies a Kirin beer postcard and some goodbye bananas with “please come again” and “thank you” written on them. Priceless!

So with one more night left we prepared for the next step of our train journey to Kanazawa. We would meet Kim and Ivan for the same train the next morning at 11am. A good night was had by all.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)