More Good Blogs on Guilin

Last week has been quite fruitful for me. I found two excellent travel blogs, with the bloggers sharing their travel experience to Guilin/ Yangshuo/ Longsheng. They showed plenty of photographs, with good, useful descriptions. Both have travelled extensively, and I am going to add them to my blog list.

The first is from "Life Is Like That" (http://lifeislikethat.com/). I was a little surprise by the similarities between the blogger (who called himself jam) and myself. First, his blog has "life" at the beginning, mine at the end. Secondly, he is a Fuzhou from Sibu, so am I. Third, he went backpacking to Guilin this year, and I am going there backpacking next year. He went to Sichuan two years ago. I am planning to go there too (Jiuzhaigou, bamboo forest, food, etc.), now that Airasia is flying to Chengdu. He is proud to be a Fuzhou (writing about Fuzhou food), so am I (reading a lot on Fuzhou people, culture, food). I shall share with him on things Fuzhou if he is interested, including video on Fuzhou food, Foochow dictionaries, etc.

The second blogger is from "Jalan Jalan" (http://travel.nuraina.com/). The blogger is travelling the world. The photographs and descriptions of the Guilin-Yangshuo cruise, including the price and food served, is eye-opening for me. Now, I know what to expect.

I am going to plan my itinerary based around their experience.

Next Trip: Guilin, Yangshuo, Xingping

The beautiful karst landscape and the reflection of the hills and raftsmen on the calm river in Guilin have been etched in my mind since the day I saw those pictures on the wall calendars during my childhood. These beautiful scenes have stayed with me all these decades. In the many years that followed, more pictures of the beautiful landscape kept popping up in books, calendars, magazines, etc. that I came across.

Next year, I shall finally be a part of the landscape, to admire its beauty from within, with my own eyes. I shall no longer look at it as a picture, but looking at the real, living scene. I booked tickets to Guilin with Airasia yesterday, with the trip beginning from Sibu on 15 May 2010, for a total sum of RM331 for the round trip.

I have about nine months to plan my trip. From now and into the months ahead, I shall be looking for information on Guilin, Yangshuo and Xingping. This will be my first attempt at travelling alone as a backpacker. Information useful to a budget traveller is difficult to find. I am both excited and apprehensive about this whole idea of travelling alone as a backpacker. Just now, I was fortunate to find this site (http://jhling31.com/blog/index.php/guilin-day-1-10-aug-2009/), by a fellow Sarawakian, which provided some useful information. I hope that in the days to come, I shall come across more information to plan my Guilin/ Yangshuo trip.

If anyone of you wish to alleviate my worry, then join me on this trip.

Accommodation at New Cocohut Chalet

Location
New Cocohut is situated at one end of a very long beach, which stretched all the way from Teluk Keke (also written as Teluk KK). I considered the beach to be the second best, bettered only by Long Beach on Perhentian Kecil. Next to New Cocohut is D' Ayumni Chalet, followed by Sea Horse Cafe and Divers, Universal Divers and lastly, Tuna Bay Resort.









Rooms
The ground floor of the longhouse where we stayed (5 rooms) consisted of quad rooms, with two double beds in each room. There was only one 3-pin socket in each room, so bring along an extension cable/ sockets if you need to charge your batteries or electrical equipment at the same time. No bath towel was provided. Provided are soap and toilet tissue.





Restaurant
The meals were not overly spicy and were especially suitable for Western palate or those who were not used to spicy food.



















Safety
At New Cocohut Chalet where we stayed, all our belongings were intact. Nothing reported lost or stolen. The rooms were not made up by the chalet housekeeping team when you left the room on excursion/ snorkelling trips the following morning. New Cocohut did not provide safe deposit box at the reception counter. If you want to leave important/ valuable items at the reception counter, you have to take the risk of trusting the receptionists or leaving them in the rooms.

About Redang Island Beaches

Pasir Panjang Beach (Long Beach) is divided into Kecil (meaning small) and Besar (meaning big) beaches. The two beaches joined up at Tanjung Tengah. Kecil is on the South and Besar on the North. The Marine Park Centre is located on a smaller island, i.e. Pulau Pinang, not on Redang Island itself. Please click on the map above for an enlarged map to see the details.

Pasir Panjang Kecil Beach (Long Beach)
At the southern-most part was the Redang Reef Resort. Separated from it by a boardwalk was the More More Tea Inn.







More More Tea Inn was the shooting location for the 1999 Hong Kong Movie “Summer Holiday”, starring Richie Ren and Sammi Cheng.

The beach in front of Laguna Redang Island Resort was almost perfect. Like pimples, the dead corals littering it ruined its perfection. Those walking bare-footed on the beach have to be careful not to step on them.










Pasir Panjang Besar Beach (Long Beach)
Adjoining Pasir Panjang Kecil beach is Pasir Panjang Besar beach. The beach here looks wider, without any dead corals (at least at the location beside Tanjung Tengah). It was better suited for swimming.




Marine Park Centre Beach (Pulau Pinang)
The beach in front of the Marine Park Centre was full of dead corals. It was a pain walking here and swimming bare-footed.