ok, i'm back! I thought I'll post a summary for reference in case anyone wants to plan a trip there
my itinerary turned out like that:
1-may: sin-guangzhou (tiger) then fly to zhangjiajie (some china airline)
2-may: Zhangjiajie
3-may: Zhangjiajie + evening bus to Fenghuang
4-may: Fenghuang + bus to jishou then train to Sanjiangxian
5-may: Sanjiangxian to Longsheng (rice terraces)
6-May: Longji titian to guilin then straight to yangshou
7-May: yangshou
8-May: Yangshuo
9-May: fly Guilin to KL to Sin (air asia)
First day walking around guangzhou, mainly eating and checking out the shopping/trading opportunities, so not much pictures or sightseeing there (but good food.. burp!)
I got waylaid in Zhangjiajie when i landed late at night and ended up taking a tour package. BIG MISTAKE.. the tours are usually to the very touristy places and have lots of hidden cost. Be firm and dun join the tours. The only good thing out of that is that I managed to join their night trip out of Zhangjiajie to Fenghuang. Nice scenery at ZJJ but just too many tourist and too darn expensive. Overall a bit overrated
In Fenghuang, managed to stay at a homestay for S$10 a night. cheap and good. Fenghuang is a nice place to chill out and just walk around the old town sampling good food and taking pictures.
Journey to Longji Titian was a bit of a nightmare because we decided to save a day and travel through the most direct route (through the night). this consist of taxi to bus station, bus to jishou, taxi to train station, train to sanjiang, minibus to town, stay for the rest of the night, taxi to bus station, bus to longsheng followed by bus to ping'an.. you get the picture..... the train was on the 'wuzhuo' (free seating), which is overcrowded, dirty and noisy.. the real china experience! luckily longji more than made up for it with the fantastic rice terraces. Of all the places, this was the highlight of the trip. food is expensive there though.
Guilin is just another city.. was wet and misty when we arrived, so we decided to skip the city's main sights and head straight to yangshuo. We heard about the 'must do' lijiang cruise, but was advised to skip it and take a bamboo raft from xingping for a fraction of the cost instead. we did that and a day of cycling in yangshou. Overall, a very pleasant experience. One can idle away weeks and months in yangshuo without running out of activities. Xijie is very backpacker (i.e. noisy) though, so I decided to stay slightly off the main stretch. A super nice room for S$20 a night
alright, pictures to follow soon I hope!
