Trip to Guilin

My friend Andrew from London has just arrived for a week and we took a redeye flight from Beijing to Guilin last night.  We were met by a taxi driver at the airport at 1:30 am (nothing like seeing someone waiting for you with your name held high!) and drove for an hour to get to our hotel in Yangshuo, a small town about 70 km away from Guilin.  I'm glad that Andrew was there because it would be been slightly sketchy riding for an hour so late at night with a driver I didn't know...especially when we got off the main road and started bumping along a dirt road full of potholes and surrounded by dump trucks and old buildings!  Even though it was so late at night, however, we could see through the window the huge karst peaks which make this area so famous.  They were like sudden looming giants next to the car, making the trip seem even more surreal.  We arrived at the hotel at 3 am, were let in by a very nice guard who handed us a printout explaining that he didn't speak English and we would check in today, and then let us to our room.  It is super-cute with wood floors, a loft (minus the ladder, but hey), mosquito netting, and two very Chinese (i.e. very HARD) twin mattresses.  We collapsed and even Andrew fell right asleep despite being 8 hours behind due to jetlag!  Today we are hoping to go on a bike exploring trip in the area (if I can ever convince him to get up!!)