Very few people in China speak or understand English
After arriving in Xingping, a small town in China’s Guangxi Province, I stopped at a couple of tourist shops and restaurants, asking people for directions to my hotel. Much to my dismay, I couldn’t find anybody who spoke or understood English – not even in the restaurants that had an English menu. This experience made me realize that the language barrier in China is more of a problem than in Thailand where a lot of people know a little bit of English, while in China, only a few people know some English!

Do not change your leftover Chinese currency (Yuan) at the airport; Change your monies at a bank before leaving the country
Arriving at the Guilin airport for my return trip to Thailand, I looked for a currency exchange booth to change back my leftover Yuan to US dollars. Much to my chagrin, I discovered that there wasn’t a currency exchange booth at this airport; however I was reassured by the person at the information booth that I wouldn’t have any problem changing my monies at the larger Guangzhou airport where I had a connecting flight

Arriving at the Guangzhou Airport, I finally found the currency exchange bureau. After telling the clerk, that I wanted to change about 250 Yuan (approximately $35USD) to US currency, she advised me that there was a 50 Yuan ($7USD) service fee. The service fee seemed very exorbitant; I wish I had known about it in advance. Shaking my head, I walked away from the booth, thinking I would find something of value at the airport to purchase. About 20 minutes later, I aborted this plan and returned to the exchange bureau to cash in all my Yuan for US Dollars, service fee be damned!

Female Taxi Drivers
There are many women in China who drive taxi. During my brief time there, I had at least 3 female drivers.

My wondrous journey to China started in the incredibly beautiful city of Guilin in Guangxi Province. From Guilin, I continued by bus to Xingping, a small historic town located about 60 kilometers south of Guilin. Situated on the Li River, the ancient town of Xingping - settled in 265AD - oozes with ambiance and authenticity.

Traveling by bus to Xingping from Guilin, you’ll have to change buses in Yangshuo which is further south. The bus trip takes about 2 hours.

Spectacular Karst Mountains and lush greenery dominate the landscape of the Li River Valley. The Karst landscape is most outstanding between Yangdi Village south to Yangshuo; Xingping is located in the middle of this stretch.

Xingping is considerably less developed and more serene than the more popular and touristy Yangshuo. Walking Street, the lively tourist district of Yangshuo, is brimming with trendy nightclubs, bars, boutiques and restaurants - there is even a KFC and McDonald’s. Some say that Xingping is what Yangshuo used to be like 20 years ago.

If you’re a tourist, there are number of inexpensive guesthouses and hostels in Old Town. A better option is to stay in one of small hotels/guesthouses in Dahebei Village which is located on the other side of the Li River. In order to get to the village, you have to cross the river by ferry. The journey takes less than 5 minutes and the cost is nominal.

There seems to be a real construction boom in Dahebei Village as new condos and small hotels are popping up. According to Shirly, the amiable owner of Our Inn, many wealthy Chinese people - primarily from Guilin - are building family vacation homes in the village. Times are a changing in Xingping…

FYI - Unless you understand some Mandarin, communications can be very difficult as only a handful of people in Xingping speak English

Traveling for the first time to CHINA, I really didn’t know what to expect. Prior to this initial visit, I had traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia (including 10 trips to Thailand) and sampled a variety of cultures, all of which have been influenced by the mother culture of the region - China.

As my first trip China was for only 8 nights, I decided to limit myself to one region. After some extensive research, I settled on Guilin, a medium sized city reputed to have some of the most outstanding scenery in China. Located in Guangxi Province, Guilin is an established tourist destination in southern China, but it remains somewhat under the radar – most of the tourists that you’ll encounter are Chinese nationals not westerners.

Situated on the banks of the Li River, Guilin is a very pleasant and modern city with lots of greenery and parks, and despite the fact Guilin has a population of over 500,000 inhabitants, it has the feeling of being a small city. What impressed me the most was the overall cleanliness of the city.

The landscape surrounding Guilin is dominated by spectacular Karst mountains – the karst formations become even more prominent as you proceed south along the Li River through Yangshou County.

The heart of Guilin is the hauntingly beautiful Ronghu Lake and Gardens, a popular area for joggers and walkers. In the morning, a large group of people – mostly ladies - congregate here to practice their Tai Chi. I was fortunate to have stayed at Jing Guan Ming Lou, a small boutique hotel located directly across the street from the lake.

Although I was there for only a very short time, Guilin ranks as one of the most beautiful cities in the world that I have been to.

Coming up: Xingping – An ancient town situated along the banks of the Li River

Just this past November, I revisited Malee’s, one of my favorite lodges in Thailand. Located in the small town of Chiang Dao – just 50 miles north of Chiang Mai – Malee’s is a popular choice with birdwatchers and nature lovers. I have known the delightful owner, Khun Malee K. since 2004 and I can vouch for her gracious Thai hospitality and excellent people skills.

After an absence of almost two years, I was so astounded at all the renovations and changes that I hardly recognized the place. First and foremost, a beautiful new restaurant - and attached reception area - replaced the parking lot at the front of the property. Just off the restaurant is a special entertainment room equipped with a large flat screen TV and DVD player, where guests can watch their favorite movies at night.

The older bungalows which formerly had the traditional Thai toilets - complete with water bucket - now have new Western style flush toilets. A definitely improvement! In addition, a small circular dipping pool was also installed, where guests can now cool themselves during the hot summer days.

You can say goodbye to Jennie “aka the Little Dictator”, the aristocratic Lhasa Apso who acted as if she owned the place and made life miserable for the amiable Son, the senior dog at Malee’s. Poor Jennie became roadkill while chasing Son across the highway; I guess her bad karma finally caught up with her. Replacing Jennie are two very adorable puppies - a definite upgrade over “the lil dictator.”

In late July, Malee and her longtime boyfriend from Switzerland (and father of her son Peter) got married. A lavish wedding party for the newlyweds was held at the resort on November 5 with many friends and family in attendance. Truly a very momentous day at Malee’s Nature Lovers Bungalows. Too bad I missed it! All the best to Malee, Kurt and Peter.

Speaking of dogs, I had a real epiphany (light bulb moment), while vacationing in Koh Libong, a small tropical island in Southern Thailand. Most of the people who live on this island are Malay Muslim; outside of the three small Muslim fishing villages, the island is relatively unpopulated.

While visiting two of the villages closest to my hotel, I found it be somewhat peculiar that I did not encounter any dogs. Cats on the other hand were a dime a dozen - it seemed that almost every household in the village had at least one or two.

Later on, I discovered there were five relatively mangy dogs that were kept as “pets” at the neighboring Libong Beach resort. I stayed at Le Dugong Beach Resort. Outside of these five dogs, I believe there was not a single other dog on the island.

Reflecting on the absence of dogs on Koh Libong, I thought about my prior trips to Malaysia – a Muslim nation state in Southeast Asia - and to a number of islands in Southern Thailand which were predominantly Muslim. Strangely, I recall not seeing any dogs on these excursions as well.
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Ah hah, I said to myself, there must be some taboo about dogs in Muslim Culture. Sure enough - after doing some research online, I discovered that in Islam, dogs are considered unclean and unhygienic, and it is forbidden to keep them as pets. Cats - on the other hand - are welcomed as pets in Muslim Culture.

Admittedly, I am very fond of dogs - while I may not agree with this particular attitude towards dogs, as a traveler and an open minded person, I have learned to respect cultural differences.

By the way, the management and owner of Dugong Beach resort are Buddhists and are not part of the indigenous Malay population of Southern Thailand

After going on the Dugong spotting tour in Koh Libong, I had an opportunity to talk to one of the tour guides from Trang who had reasonable facility with English. When I told him that we had sighted four individual dugongs, he said that we were very lucky as from his experience, only 10% of such tours are successful in seeing a dugong. When I asked about the social behavior of the dugongs, he told me that dugongs usually travel in a herd of up to 8 individuals.

Doing some further investigation on my own, I learned that the dugong herd typically consists of females and their calves; the males - for the most part - are solitary, only getting together with the females to mate. Furthermore, during the day the dugongs stay (resting quietly) in the deep sea coming to the shallow coastal areas, inlets and mangroves at night to feed eat on sea grass.

That could explain, why there are so few dugong sightings on these day tours as the herds are active mostly at night. I surmise that the individuals that we saw were solitary males patrolling their territory, but who I am to know!

As sort of a gag, I produced an impromptu video where I am seen swimming in the open seas impersonating a female dugong, in the hope of attracting a male dugong. Bret, the young and affable Canadian, provided the humorous narration

Bangkok is known for it’s numerous shopping malls – from the relatively pedestrian MBK to the rather gaudy Siam Paragon and the Emporium. K-Village, a boutique shopping mall which opened up in late 2009, represents a new breed of shopping centers in Bangkok. Built on only two levels, the new K-Village with over 100 shops is fairly intimate and easy to navigate unlike the larger multilevel shopping complexes that dominate Bangkok.

My take? Located on Sukhumvit Soi 26 near Rama IV, K-Village was a convenient 5-minute walk from my hotel in Bangkok. I was quite impressed by the intimate ambiance, the wonderful Gourmet Market and the many trendy Asian restaurants - Taiwanese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean and Thai et all. In addition, K Village has two very attractive coffee shops, not named Starbucks.

The Gourmet Market, the centerpiece of K-Village, had an excellent selection of hydroponically grown vegetables, fresh fruits as well as an upscale deli and a special department that featured Japanese goods. Prices for some items were only slightly higher than the considerably more pedestrian Villa Market located on Sukhumvit Soi 33.

Surveying some of the restaurant menus, the average price for entrees were on the high side for most Thai people @ 120 baht ($4USD) per plate but relatively affordable for the tourist crowd.

With its fashionable and upscale shops and restaurants as well specialty desert and gelato cafes, K-Village clearly caters to the upwardly mobile, and high society crowd (HISO). Taking a look around me, many Thai ladies and gals were strolling around K-Village scantily dressed in their hot designer pants, short shorts, flimsy blouses and high heels, trying so hard to look sexy; funny thing, the Thai men didn’t pay them any attention. Oh well…

Located on the first floor, Watercress, a natural foods restaurant with a good variety of tasty vegetarian Thai dishes, has since become one my favorite places to eat. During my 10 nights in Bangkok, I ended up eating at Watercress on five different occasions

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One of the more popular activities for visitors to Koh Libong, a relatively obscure island destination in southern Thailand, is a Dugong spotting tour. There are a reported 70-80 dugongs that live in the shallow waters and mangroves off the southeastern coast of this small island.

Commonly refered to as a sea cow because it’s diet consists primarily of sea grass, the dugong is a relatively large sea mammal and is related to the manatee. Since the early 20th century, the dugong populations in the wild have been in severe decline and they are now considered a rare or endangered species.

The Dugong spotting tour consists of going out to sea early in the morning by motorized longtail boat to a location where the dugongs have been observed before, and sitting there quietly in the hope that one will show up. If there is a dugong in the area, the creature will periodically come up for air - albeit for less than a second - before it submerges in the water. When the Dugong appears, the boatman will point and say Dugong – then before you can say boo, the creature is gone.

While I was in Koh Libong, I went on the Dugong tour with a Canadian couple - Bret and Annabell - apparently there were four individual sightings, however I was only able to observe only two as I was busy shooting the breeze with Bret. I distinctly remember the last sighting - one large dugong came up for air, then rolled over displaying a cream colored belly. That was quite impressive – but it lasted for no more than two seconds at the most.

It’s too bad these guides do not know more than just a few words of English so they could share their knowledge about the natural history of these unique creatures. Because of the lack of commentary, the tour is sort of a waste of time (and money) unless you’re your sole purpose was to have an opportunity to get a brief glimpse of this rare sea mammal. Remember there is no guarantee that you will even see this elusive creature.

For the 3rd consecutive year, I traveled to the city of Nan in Northern Thailand. Perhaps the biggest change in this very pleasant city has been the proliferation of coffee shops.

When I first visited Nan in November 2008 and there were only 3-4 coffee shops in the city center - now there are at least 15. This is an indicator of the increasing number of tourists visiting Nan - mostly Thais from Bangkok.

One of the newer (and best) coffee shops to open up in the last two years is Khao Tha Lu Chumporn Coffee with two outlets - one in the heart of the city and another one on the road leading out of town. I had the opportunity to get to know Paula (Walaiporn Suriyos) the owner of the downtown shop.

Originally Paula is from Surat Thani Province in Southern Thailand. Her family moved to Bangkok in 1972, where Paula received a degree in liberal arts and masters in Education Administration from a major University. Shortly after graduation, she worked as a volunteer in Nan in 1983, where she taught Mien hilltribe students and developed some fluency with their language as well.

After meeting her husband in Nan, Paula started a family and began her teaching full time at the nearby Baan Numkrokmai Middle School - her students are 12-15 years old. A very congenial lady who enjoys dealing with the public and a self-professed coffee lover, she opened up the coffee shop only two years ago after her friend from Chumpon indoctrinated her into the coffee business.

Her friend has connections with a big lowland coffee plantation in Chumpon Province and orders the premium Robusta coffee beans for her - the process of making the ground coffee is in Bangkok. Robusta coffee is different than the highland Arabica coffee from Northern Thailand - both brews are featured at her shop. A family business, her daughter-in-law works at the shop almost every day while Paula is teaching at school.
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In my opinion, the coffee from Thailand - both the Robusta and Arabica grades - are far better than the coffee offered at Starbucks and Black Canyon, the two largest coffee retailers in Thailand. A cup of coffee at any of the coffee shops in NAN is about ½ the price of cup at a Starbucks store.

Shirly Li, the young and remarkable proprietor of Our Inn located in historic Xingping - has had quite a life story.

Born and raised in China’s Guangxi Province, she graduated with a degree in Foreign Trade at Geosciences University in Wuhan. During her years at the University, she became fairly proficient in English. After graduation„ she propelled herself into the tourism industry when she started working for a Chinese Travel Company based in Shanghai. The company specializes in tours for oversea student groups (teenagers) - mostly from the United Kingdom, Korea and Africa. Shirly was groomed as a tour leader/coordinator, and with her new job, Shirly traveled all over China

She worked for 5 years for the travel company, and during his time period she made many visits to Yangshou County– including Xingping - and Guilin in Guangxi Province. On one of her many excursions to Yangshou, she met Afu, her future husband and a man of many talents.

Shortly thereafter, Afu and Shirly were married and in early 2009, Shirly and Afu decided to buy a somewhat rundown guesthouse located on the banks of the Li River in the historic town of Xingping.

They closed the guesthouse, and after extensive renovation and the constriction of a proper restaurant, they had their grand reopening 6 months later in October 2009.

As a travel professional, I must admit that, Shirly and Afu have done a quite a remarkable job and have turned Our Inn to a first class guesthouse/hostel. Although nothing fancy, the rooms are configured like proper hotel rooms with flashes of color and simple decorations.

More importantly, Shirly, drawing on her experience as Tour leader, really excels in her people skills - she’s very personable, her facility with English is very good and she knows the area very well. Together with her husband and Lammie, her pet Golden Retriever, Our Inn exudes warmth, personality and ambiance.

During my four nights stay there in December 2010, Shirly took some time out from her busy schedule and hiked with me to the famous lookout point overlooking the Li River and the spectacular Karst mountains. Shirly didn’t think I could complete the hike with my bad leg, but I proved her wrong. What a remarkable lady and a real sweetie!