Jingjiang Palace 靖江王府, Guilin, China

Jingjiang Palace/Castle and Mausoleum was our first morning stop. This is one of the optional tour.This palace belonged to King Jingjiang (one of the brother of Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, hence "King"). During the 257 years from the building of the palace to the end of Ming Dynasty, 14 kings from 12 generations lived here.

Jingjiang Palace
Rated AAAA by the official tourism authority
according to the plaque (in the photo's foreground)

 One of the buildings in this palace complex that I didn't expect to find here was the Imperial Examination House (Gongyuan 贡院). I'm somewhat surprise because Guangxi is essential a political backwater (it's as far away from Beijing as it can get).

Here lies one of the great Chinese invention. While the ancient Greek invented Democracy, Chinese came up with Meritocracy, which is embodied by the Imperial Exam for Civil Service. This Civil Service Exam created a level playing field, allowing the son of even a lowly blacksmith or farmer the opportunity to advance to the highest rank in the land: military general or chief minister of the imperial court (except for the top job). This idea originated by Confucius (circa 500 BC), and put into practice in the Sui Dynasty in 605 DC (existed a few centuries earlier in lesser forms). This is the 7th century Chinese version of the modern day Equal Job Opportunity Movement.

Confucianism empathises hierarchical relationship and harmony (vertical power structure) while Democracy favours individual rights and expressions, competition and conflict (horizontal power structure), democracy wouldn't take off in China as long as Confucianism thrives. This is why the East never meets the West, or would they? I hope I see the day when they have a rendezvous in my lifetime. I hope so because I just want to live to 300 years old. Actually many societies of former British colonies like HK and Singapore already shows such marriage of the East and West, and gives birth to many interesting hybrid, colourful forms of government. Even China herself is changing. She's changing from a Mao suit into a business power suit lately. If you ask me (I know you won't, so I just ask you to ask me), I prefer her in an alluring qipao. Now has many suits and dresses in her humongous closet (plus a few dusty, spiderweb covered skeletons). The business suits may not look as fetching as qipao or as together as the Mao suit, but it puts 3 square meals on the table for all her kids. Get real, Mao suits don't work on China, or anyone else. You simply can't knock a decent power suit, can you? Call me company man, I like the suit.

Claustrophobic needs not apply

Ok, back from the tangent. The tour guide put our tour group members into the individual Examination Cubicle (see photo); they even handed us with Examination Papers. On the side of fold-up Examination Table (it opens like those in a beer bar counter) is the calligraphy brush and ink plots. The Imperial Exam Papers contains many questions that tested the scholar of his general knowledge. In our mock paper, it contained general trivia regarding Guilin and our tour.

In the ancient time, for the three day grueling exercise, this cubicle will be your examination room, dining room, bed room, and toilet. Yep, they provided the scholars the chamberpots for their not so literary, but substantial outputs. That's why there's an oil lamp in the niche of the back wall so the scholars wouldn't step into the chamberpots at night. Or allowed them to burn the mid-night oil, literally, to the original meaning of the expression.

This is the first time I hold a calligraphy brush in more than 30 years, with trembling hands, I thought I scribbled as much as I can on the papers and take it home as souvenir. I should enjoy looking back my calligraphic doodles that only I can read (much worse than the doctors'). Half way through my papers, the Imperial Examiner Clerk snatched it away as he yelled "Brushes down! Brushes down!"
As it turned out, they took the Imperial Exam Papers of the whole tour group (25 people) for assessment. They graded my papers with the highest mark and therefore passed this exam. I guess while others are busily posing for photos, I was busy writing. What's new?

All dressed up and going places in the Ming government...
and showing off the credential papers

They dressed me up in an official uniform of a newly appointed bureaucrat - a Mandarin of the Imperial Ming Dynasty. As Guilin and this area is a county-level district, I was officiated the rank of licentiate (xiucai 秀才 - loosely translated as "Budding Talent") in passing this exam - the lowest rank of the scholar-official. This instant-noodle-time public fame might just make the trip worthwhile. I kid. The photo ops just put meaning into my pathetic life. I jest. About the meaning, not the pathetic comment. That remains true as gold.

Bowed at the altar of the teacher / originator of
the civil exam Confucius 孔子
as part of the ceremony (no tossing of mortarboards)

Cruise Boat to Hotel, Two-River Four-Lake Cruise, Guilin, China

7 Star Hotel + 2 Rivers & 4 Lakes

Our carrier was Hong Kong Airline and we arrived Guilin ("Osmanthus Forest" 桂林) about 2PM. We joined Wing On travel agent for this trip.

 A cruise boat (not ship) took us to our hotel. I can't remember if the photo is the actual boat we were on, or something like it.

The riverboat

 

Cruise Boat to Our Hotel

Instead of the usual road transportation in tourist coaches, We boarded a cruise on Li River (Lijiang. 'Jiang' is 'river' in Chinese) heading for our hotel. This is a nice touch, offering a very different perspective, pointing at the motorists on the road, "Those poor suckers stuck on the road! " and laughed. No, i'm not gloating. I'm sympathizing. 

There were many genuine sights where locals carrying on their daily lives, totally oblivious to our presence.

Here's a quentissential fisherman wither his working partners cormmorant. This wasn't done for the benefits of the tourists (although that would be arranged for our benefits in the trip).

Fisherman with cormorants

Angler, unconventional DIY fishing
without  the help of cormorant.
How sad! How brave!

Too many anglers spoil the sport ?

Sydney time, takes me right back home.
But why Sydney?

After an hour of sailing and passing a local beach, we were graced by the city's most famous landmark - the Elephant (Trunk) Hill, which looks like an elephant (with a Mohawk) dipping its snout into the Lijiang. Not a great leap of the imagination, especially if you're a hair stylist.

Elephant Hill

The water level on this part of the Li River was quite shallow, I could spot the beautiful pebbled riverbed quite well. Most locals sail on this Li River on bamboo rafts with bamboo poles, which propels the raft by pushing it against the river bed than using like an oar to push it against the water.

 

Raftsman pushing his raft

Guilin is often covered in mist, but the view in the river bottom is clear. This shallowness produced the most cliché image of the Li River of Guilin - the fisherman on the bamboo raft with or without a file of soldiers of cormorants.

The tour guide told us that during low tide, he has to ask the tour group to get off the boat on shallow section of the river to walk along the river bank in order to lift the boat, and return to the boat in deeper section of the river. It didn't happen today.

The Elephant (Trunk) Hill is a major tourist attraction of the Guilin city where you can get there and walk around and through the cave and touch the elephant trunk and take cliche picture of you inside the hole. Unfortunately, it wasn't on our itinerary, and we could only contend to watch it afar from the river. Our hotel turned out to be less 10 minutes by boat after The Elephant (Trunk) Hill and 5 minutes from the Liberation Bridge, which spans the Li River in the city centre.

Seven Star Hotel

The hotel locates in Qixing ("Seven Stars") district in Guilin city (actually county) and was 5-star by Guilin standard. It would probably only be rated a 3.5 or 4 (i'm in a generous mood) stars by international standard.

Two-Rivers Four-Lakes Cruise

After dinner, we went on the famous Two-Rivers Four-Lakes Cruise. It would be more enjoyable if it was not so hot and humid. I packed only early autumn clothes, not a pair of shorts in sight. What was I thinking? Why not pack a couple of shorts? Not that it will break my bag or back. HK was more hot and humid than Singapore, and Guilin is more so than HK. It was unexpected (for me). As soon as the cruise was over, I went for shopping for a pair of shorts. The hot spells must come rather sudden, the locals was walking topless in pants while holding their shirts. That was a sight not mentioned in the brochure. I may have bought a pair of shades for that purpose.

Live performance in a theatre by the lake

Pagoda by the lake

Silver Cave, Guilin, China

We headed for the Yinzi or Silver Cave in the afternoon, passing through the amazing scenery of Yangshuo. The satellite picture shows 20,000 limestone peaks in the Guilin/Yangshuo area. With so many limestone peaks, it's not hard to imagine the number of limestone caves exist. The Silver Cave is one of the popular one.

We were on a boat like this that takes us to the cave

If there's an example of "It's not the destination, it's the journey that matters", this little trip to get to Silver Cave is such example.

One of the breathtaking scene we saw while we're on
our way to the Silver Cave

Mooo idyllic scenery

The overcast misty atmosphere does lend it to resemble the black and
white Chinese ink calligraphy that associates so much with Guilin

The first cave I visited was a cave in Sydney (near Wollongong city) back when I was in the later stage of growing taller, and more pimply. The visit didn't leave me with a good impression. First (bad) impression lasts and it lasted for a few decades. Nothing wrong with that cave, I guess caving is just not my cup of tea. Needless to say, my reaction of going to visit another cave is somewhere between lukewarm and tepid (I don't care for lukewarm tea or beer for that matter).

Don't know if it was the low expectation, the Silver Cave wowed me all the way with its myriad of limestone formations, one feature outdid another, and its size is far exceeded that of my first cave (as far as I can remember. And we tend to remember things much larger and fancier than they actually are when we are small). 

Is this upside down? I don't think so...
Looks quite puzzling for a newbie like me...

Just when I thought nothing could top what I had seen so far as we came to near the end of the cave, something quite unexpected appeared. A group of soaring limestone columns and formations around a bend were as good as anything I have seen so far, but what makes this spot so unexpected and unique was a pool of water in front of this formation. The pool of water isn't very large (small than an Olympic swimming pool), and is only few inches deep. It's the perfect mirror reflection of limestone formations above it that is really bumped it up a notch to a new league of uniqueness.

As I looked down into the pool of water, the plunging depth of limestone structures is reflected as deep as its soaring height, its ceiling becomes its floor. The illusion is so complete that I felt woozy from vertigo - the same deal I get when looking down onto a street from, say, a 15 storey window. I instinctually stepped back from the water edge, fearing that I may plummet into a pool of a few inches of water. The whole effect is eerily magical. Surreal. Actually quite frightening. Judging from other awe-struck looking, jaw-dropped tourists passing through here, I knew I didn't mistaken vertigo for awe-inspiring. Maybe we all do.

Awesome

This photo could hardly justify with what I depicted above. It does a good job in serving as an example to budding photographers of how one can fail miserably to capture the grandeur of the scenery. The cave limits how far I can stand away to take in the whole thing. A fish lens would do a better job (with a nice distortion). Also in order to capture both the limestone formations and the water reflection, a portrait (or vertical) orientation is called for, but it also ensures that it will lose out on the width/breadth of this thing. Even with the vertical format, I managed to only take in about 2/3 of the view above water, and less than 1/5 of the mirror reflection. In any event, no technology allows you to encapsulate the haunting quality of this place. In the words of the youth, real kewl...(don't forget to nod while swaying your bod when you say that, for max effect).

After dinner in our hotel in Yangshuo, we made our way to West Street. This street is also known as "Yangshuo's Lan Kwai Fong". LKF (Lan Kwai Fong) has became synonymous with in Central Hong Kong that has a concentration of trendy, westernised types of cafe, beer bars, and restaurants that draws Western customers, tourists and expats alike. 





One of the local speciality is the beer fish, and it isn't hard to find in Yangshuo and even easier in West Street. We didn't get to try as all our meals are provided. You can also hire a bike here to watch the drop dead gorgeous scenery, and judging from what drove past me, tandem bikes are quite popular.

Sanctuary of Truth (Prasat Satchantham), Pattaya, Thailand

Sanctuary of Truth

If you expect that this is a place with a history, you'll be disappointed. It couldn't have a history as it hadn't even completed. It had been building since the 1980s, and work was still being carried out when we were there (in 2009). By the look of it, it will at least take another decade to finish it (the guide suggested 2025). I guess our tickets would help to build it.

Without reading too much on it (I like surprise), I imagine it was similar to Wat Phra Yai that I visited 3 months ago (you can read my article here). It turned out they have nothing in common, and had to say it's a pleasant surprise.

Construction work being carried out

Apart from being something that built for the tourists, it's hard to classify as a temple or a museum or simply a work of art. I say it's a bit of all three.

Considering Thailand is the Land of the Wats, tourists easily mistaken to think that any touristy place in Thailand is going to be temple.

The Thai name for Sanctuary of Truth is Prasat Satchantham (you might see other way of writing its name. Commonly Prasat Sut Ja-Tum. This is a typical problem with transliteration). The name 'Prasat' is translated as 'Castle', not 'temple'. One shouldn't expect it to be a wat.

Instead of "Sanctuary of Truth", maybe it should be opted for the literal translation of "Castle of Philosophy", which sounds like something coming out of Harry Potter or Lord of the Ring.

Whatever it is, it's a showcase of the masterful craftsmanship of its carpenters, for the whole place is built out of wood. This is quite unique in Thailand. I have traversed the length of Thailand from Phuket in the south to Changmai in the north, I had yet seen anything like this. The organic nature of wood making this structure much more "spiritual". I was told that no nails or glue were used to put the pieces together (this is similar to most Chinese (indeed East Asian) ancient architectures. Only dovetailing and other established traditional interlocking structures that evolved over many centuries).

Strong pyramidal shape. It rises an impressive 105 metres

For those who's dead set on only looking at historical buildings, this would be a let down. For those who don't mind just admiring the skills and the stunning visual impact the building has on its observer, and enjoy looking at the numerous exquisitely carved wooden sculptures, and reliefs, it's a feast for the eyes. This wowed me as it's so unexpected such project exist in Pattaya, given some of its culturally tarnish image.

Like Angkor Wat where it has many stories of Buddha are part of the structure of the building. Speaking of Angkor Wat, I don't believe the similarities between the two are coincidental. This structure has a strong influence of Khmer architecture. Like the strong pyramidal shape of the whole building (which in turn originated in Hindu architecture).

There's the four-head "reliefs" that reminiscent of the similar architecture in Angkor Thom. You can read my travel diary to Siem Reap here.

Four faces in Sanctuary of Truth

Four giant stone faces of Avalokiteshvara, Angkor Thom, Cambodia

While it has strong influence from the the Khmer architecture. It actually has 4 gopuras, each represents the religious representations of Thai, Cambodia, Hindu and Chinese.


Yes, it's a place that one would describe as a tourist trap with the many touristy sideshows. I don't mind at all. Seeing this building worth my whole trip. Some of us may enjoy the sideshows, especially for the kiddies.

Animal rides

There's the buggy ride as well as elephant ride.

Dolphin Show

This show is definitely came out of the left field. Of course, a zoologist ignoramus like myself would expect a bottlenose dolphin sprung out of water. It turned out to be nothing I have seen before. And what's more it performed in a river. Since this place is so close to the ocean, the water would be estuarine (a mix of sea and fresh water).

Thai Traditional Dance

The Traditional Thai dance, which was included in the ticket was nice enough until a couple of machete wielding guys starred to go at each other. Like the dolphin show, this part of the Thai martial art didn't fit in too well with the place. I left before the performance ended. The machete seemed too much of a close shave to me (I use electric shaver).

Buddhist Lent Street Parade, Pattaya, Thailand

It was 3rd July. As I'm not a Yank, so I didn't take any note of it (as the eve of the American Independence Day). In Thailand, 3 July is an important day for Thai people (at least for this year. The day will be different every year as this day isn't based on the Gregorian calendar). I didn't realise that until I saw a colourful street parade appeared on Beach Road at about 5 pm. The busy traffic was halted, and the parade moved westwards towards Walking Street not far from where I stood, which was opposite the beach.

Of course, the passing colourful floats didn't tell me much. If anything, I was puzzled by what the parade was all about until I saw a pupil holding the sign that explained it all.

Very informative for farange like me

The parade consisted of city workers, school kids, residents and it was quite a long parade. The different floats were judged in term of its representation.

This candle float won the first prize

The Lent marks the 3-months period where monks go back to their own temples to meditate and to do study. Worshippers would present gift to the monks - candles and whatnots - as a way to earn merit.

This was a nice pleasant surprise.