Following my morning at the Reed Flute Cave, I napped.  When I woke up later, I went outside and for the third time, tried to find the bus that goes to Fubo Hill.  I walked around in every direction from my hotel and all it got me was sweaty.  I kind of wanted to go back to my room and cry, but instead, I thought I might be near the Sun and Moon Pagodas.  I did have a map, but maps are useless to people who just cannot master reading them.

I walked for a bit and made the observation that there may very well be more scooters in China than in Naples.  The huge difference is that scooters in China are silent.  I mean REALLY silent.  So silent that at one point, I had the life scared out of me by a horn blaring at me.  I turned and the scooter was less than an inch from me and I never even heard it coming up.  I honestly thought at first that maybe for some reason, they were all turned off and just gliding.  Nope, dead silent motors.

Walking around got me a lot of “HELLO” yelling.  I cannot accurately describe how much of a thrill the Chinese got out of yelling “HELLO” at me.  It was always men.  Not once did a woman acknowledge me.  It must be a cultural thing.

Imagine my shock when after walking for a while down a street, I found what I was looking for.  ER-MEH-GERD!  SUN AND MOON PAGODAS!

Lake surrounding the pagodas:

Garden area outside the pagodas:

From here I walked around a bit more.  I have obviously never been here before in my life, but Guilin just encouraged me to keep walking and looking at everything.

Somewhere way past the pagodas, while walking along the Li River, I found my friend Jerry the tour guide who once again, tried to get me to hire him to show me around.

I kept walking along the Li River aimlessly.  I felt like I might accidentally stumble upon Fubo Hill, which would have pissed me off after my three failed attempts to find it.  So I made a left and walked that way instead.

I found a main street and walked down it and suddenly realized that despite never having been here before, I knew exactly where I was and that this street would take me back to my hotel.  Woo hoo!

I never once felt unsafe walking around unfamiliar streets.

Guilin is really beautiful and I could easily spend so much time just walking around and taking it all in.  If the rest of China is like this, then I owe it an apology for any preconceived notions I had about it.