Xiongxiu Hotel Emeishan

... de restaurant. Ils ont tous le meme menu, tous les meme prix. On a eu comme nouvelle compagnone pour la soiree une bresilienne qui avait l'air constament drogue mais qui etait finalement juste ben chill. On a aussi recu la visite d'une chinois voisin qui parlait pas un mot d'anglais, qui etait soul et qui nous lancait des cigarettes. Encore une fois, ca va ben dormir a soir! J'ai tellement sue que, une fois evaporee, la sueur a laisse des traces de mineraux.

... et peut-etre pour plusieurs jours. Woot! On a reussi a faire descendre le prix a quelque chose de convenable, meme si toujours un peu cher pour cette *****. La bouffe allait par contre rester hors de question.

Alors, here we are, at 1500m altitude, in a monastery, hearing the monks play the drums and ring the bell, closing the day with their holy practice, while we drink baijiu by the bottle, getting a little drunk, forgetting the hard day, exchanging stories ...

... Most of the temples have a dining room where one can order food or prepare his/her own food. There is always hot water available which I used to make tea, coffee or cook my freeze dried food. I could have stayed at this place for a while and just read my book only if there would have been some blue sky and sun. So the next morning I took it easy and left at 9am to finish the final leg of the hike. After about a half an hour, I came upon a group of monkeys. I ...

... and this was the icing on the cake. Took some more photos with
Chinese tourists before heading back down a bit to find somewhere to
get something to eat, a beer and enjoy the cigar we'd purchased in
the way up (our victory dance).



After this is was a race
to try and catch the train to Kunming. Both of us feeling a little
rough and sore we somehow got there and caught a sleeper train within
the hour, even got a compartment to ourselves, happy days.

Mount Emai is one of the holy mountains of China. The climb up is very steep from 500 metres to over 3000 metres. Fortunately steps have been carved into the rocks. So I hear you say "how hard can it be to climb a few stairs?"

The distance vertically is 2.5Km and the risers on the stairs are about 15 cm. Sadly sometimes the stairs go up and then they go down and then you go up again. It is very, very ...

Today we set off early. We set our alarms for 6am and had left by 7am. We didn't have to check in, so we needn't check out, and as no one was working on reception we slipped away unnoticed into the grey Chengdu morning. Despite being told that Chinese people get up early, the streets were deserted, and other than the Chengdu market which was a riot of hawking stall vendors, live seafood, hanging animal carcasses and dried fruits, commerce ...

... Friday evening through to Tuesday free. Setting off to Chengdu was so much easier then before. We now know where the proper bus station is and is actually Y5 cheaper then catching the infamous "Night Buses". We set off a little later then expected. We had to wait to say hello to "Tower Girl" who calls herself my sister because we are both miles away from our families. I only met her 2 weeks before at the tower when I was rather tipsy, and she then ...

... at a monkey forest area which was hilarious. B2 was prepared with a bamboo stick and A2 had the camera ready to use for photos and as a weapon if needed. There are 50 guards stationed throughout this area to help you fend off the monkeys, who come charging at you from all directions, wanting food. As long as you make eye contact and keep the stick between you and them, they leave you alone. B2 saved A2 from being ...

... butt. It was the most disgusting water I have seen ever. Then it was time for lunch! (Good thing we didn't eat before!) We had a really, really good chicken dish at the restaurant where we ate. After eating we did a little shopping at the stalls around where the bus parked (I got a bracelet), and then hit the bus to drive the rest of the way to Emei shan. We checked into our hotel which was nice and had a hot spring on location which you got free entrance to with your ...

... to be fair she had been complaining that her tummy hurt most of the afternoon! The taxi driver waited patiently until she finished and then took us on to Leshan via an ATM, he understood my Chinese!!! He kindly stopped right by the bus to Emei and we got on to the bus much to Niamh's dismay, who thought we could somehow get there by magic! We were prepared this time and Niamh threw up into a sick bag very discretly. At the bus ...