TravelStream™ news feed for member yyztrvlr on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/yyztrvlr en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:36:08 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1249376275/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1249376275/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1249376275/tpod.html Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:36:08 -0500 Summer 2009

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Bangkok, Thailand

I ended up with 2 very beautiful and sunny days in Phuket. Apparently that was more then most had received so far that summer. Before I landed on Phuket it had rained for 4 consecutive days. On my final night I went back out with my 2 new friends and we did a wee bit of shopping and then once again ended up at Kiss bar for a night of inebriation. Actually by the time I made it over to Kiss I had no desire to do any drinking and the only ones who were inebriated were, well, every other patron.

I landed back at Bangkok without incident. The flight was not sold out and I was able to stretch out in the emergency row with a vacant seat behind me. I picked up a meter taxi outside of the airport and he very aptly delivered me to the hotel I booked in Phuket. As we drove towards the hotel along a very narrow and long alley off of Sukhumvit Road I had a feeling of dread over take me. And then my fears were realised. The Sawasdee Inn – Sukhumvit's all too familiar design and purple sign jogged my memory. In 2005 I had stayed one night in Pattaya with this chain and checked out early the next morning swearing I would never set foot inside another one of their hotels. However here I was being unloaded in front of their doors. I did not want to go in and when I did I could feel the anger fill me up. I had already paid for the room in Phuket and now I was regretting my decision. My check in was relatively smooth. I did get the feeling that my arrival had disturbed the girl at reception from some issue of significant importance. I was ushered to my room. It was on the ground floor behind reception. That was a quick walk. Inside the bed appeared to be the highlight (which I suppose is a good thing). There were no windows in the room which made it feel more prison like then vacation like. The bathroom was large. Very large in fact. The downside seemed to be that the door would not close. As a result the heat and humidity from outside found its devious way into the rest of the room causing the air conditioner to work over time and spew out volumes of water which naturally tumbled onto my unsuspecting back pack. I was not amused.

I had no intentions of spending any more time in the room then I had to. I scrambled together my day pack and hustled outside and down Sukhumvit Road to a restaurant which had been referred to me in Phuket. The place was called Cabbages and Condoms and it certainly lived up to its reputation. This is a restaurant with a social conscience. The food was amazing and the decor was inspiring and creative. Everything "trivial" was made of condoms. Lampshades – condoms. Flowers – condoms. Santa Claus – condoms. It couldn’t help but bring a smile to my face. Attached to the restaurant was a gift shop. I browsed inside to find assorted objects all promoting essentially one thing: safe sex bringing a stop to the spread of AIDS.

From my inspiring lunch I made a beeline on the Sky Train down to the Chao Prya River boat and over to Wat Pho for a massage at the Wat Pho Massage School. It took me a couple tries before I found the right side street with the air conditioned “campus”. But when I did ... heaven. I paid for an hour massage with herbs. What I received was an amazing massage by a petite Thai woman with the strength of Hercules in an air conditioned room with eucalyptus being pumped in. The massage was undeniably brilliant and I left feeling relaxed and ready to take on the world ... but not my hotel room.

It seemed to early to do dinner so I decided to walk down the road towards Silom where I had visions of maybe doing some shopping. About half way there I had a blow out. The sole of my sandal began to separate from the rest of the shoe. Now I was beginning to struggle on the uneven blocks of the Bangkok sidewalk. A distinct “flapping” and “slapping” sound began to reverberate from my poor abused sandal. About 30 minutes later the sole had now dislodged itself from about 60% of the sandal. I was tripping over everything and had serious doubts about my ability to continue my walk. I could jump on the Sky Train and return to the hotel where I could pick up my runners but that seemed silly. After all I hated the hotel room. Instead I decided to “sweat” it out and kept on walking. I was sure I would be able to make it to Silom and buy new sandals there.

It took me over an hour but I made it to the World Trade Center which happened to be a little closer then the Silom Sly Train station. I seemed to have timed it right. There was an outdoor wildlife photographic exhibition happening out front as well as some kind of out door market. I could also hear music coming from the market area so I slapped my way over there and found a Thai dance troupe dazzling the audience. What was really impressive with this troupe is that the oldest member of the group seemed to be about 10 years of age. I watched and filmed for awhile impressed with the strength and stamina of these young performers. Their efforts were not lost on the sparse audience. I went inside and began to look around for some sandals. I was having no luck and store employees seemed to have no interest in helping me. I gave up and soon discovered why I was of no interest – tonight in the World Trade Center; auditions were being held for ... Ibis Idol ’09! Yes, the Ibis hotel chain was sponsoring the Thai Equivalent of the American and/or Canadian Idol competitions. There was no way I was going to stick around for any of this.

I began to take some photographs of the outdoor photo exhibit when the inexcusable happened. My batteries died and I forgot to bring a freshly charged pair out with me. What a truly amateur thing to do. There went my entire plan of heading down to Patpong, the notorious Bangkok red light district, for some gaudy night time photographs. Dejected, I hoped on the Sky Train and headed down to Cabbages and Condoms for some supper. At the Sky Train stop I found Robinson’s Department Store and decided to give them a try for a new pair of sandals. One of the employees began to animatedly sell me some ties. I responded by smiling and lifting up my brutalized sandal. The sole dangled off limply like a dead fish. He laughed and sent me down one level where I was able to procure a new pair of sandals. Suddenly all was good with the world. I had new sandals, a fabulous massage, and two amazing meals at the socially active Cabbages & Condoms (tonight they were raising money for impoverished women in rural communities and featured live music from a local music school). I even felt as though I could now handle my depressing hotel room.

I packed up relatively early and had the hotel secure my back pack for me until I headed off to the airport. I made my way down to the Silom station where I was able to get directions to the Red Cross Snake Farm. Lesley and I had made a visit here way back in 2001 and I was impressed with how much work they had done on the exhibits there. There is a great series of educational displays both static and dynamic. As well the live snake displays had all been upgraded. In the middle of all the displays they had constructed an auditorium where the centre put on demonstrations on how snakes were milked for their venom which was then used to make anti-venom. Later in the afternoon they were to have an interactive show involving some of the more famous residents including a Burmese python and a King Cobra. I really wanted to stay for that unfortunately I never would make it to the airport in time for my flight at that point. Especially considering classic Bangkok traffic. Instead I headed back to Silom and roamed around the assortment of malls that surrounded the Sky Train stop before I returned for a final meal at Cabbages and Condoms.

I left for the airport about 30 minutes before I had planned. Traffic was already beginning to slow along Sukhumvit Road. I was glad I did as it took almost exactly and extra 30 minutes to get to the airport. My check in was quick after I abandoned the useless self check in kiosk and the clerk informed me that the flight had been delayed. I checked out the board – it was now scheduled to leave 20 minutes later. That didn’t seem too bad.

I delayed entering through security for a bit and then slowly walked from one end of the terminal to the other. I timed myself – I had dragged it out for 30 minutes. Not too bad. I checked the board. Yes my flight was still delayed. Huh? Now it was delayed 90 minutes. Oh crap. Then I noticed that every Air Asia International flight was delayed. Another reason to avoid that pitiful excuse of an airline. I’m surprised they hadn’t started charging passengers for the air they breath. I found myself a Starbucks and began to pass the time with a green tea latte and a slice of blueberry cheese cake. I stayed there for as long as I could. I was bored and put Neil away then thought about another stroll. It seemed the only possible conclusion so off I went, until I found a massage studio in the airport. I still had 90 minutes to go and so a 45 minute massage was in store for me.

The plane touched down in Shenzhen, China around 00:30. I was exhausted and still had customs and health screening to go through. The health screening was easy. I just walked through a large temperature scanner and handed in my declaration card. I wondered how many people lied on these cards? I know I did. I did not have H1N1 and I wasn’t going to admit to having any of their lengthy list of symptoms to declare, of which I did have one – or had one before Mr. Pink came to the rescue. I had no desire to be quarantined because I might have eaten something I shouldn’t have had a week ago.

I was one of the last people through immigration and after a brief scare (I was sent over to an area called “further examination”) I was through customs to be greeted by my friend Steve on the other side. Welcome to China.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1252258543/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1252258543/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1252258543/tpod.html Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:32:10 -0400 Summer 2009

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Hong Kong, China

It was a very easy commute from Guangzhou to Shenzhen where Luke and I met up with my friend Steve. We headed out into this special economic zone in search of the bargains this place is infamous for. Shenzhen is the king of knock offs and virtually every brand under the sun can be found - it's just not what it appears to be. I was able to pick up some football jerseys (Manchester United and Munchen Bayern) while Luke was being stalked by a dodgy I-phone pusher complete with the trench coat.

From the sea of clothes we moved onto an airport hanger sized mall dedicated to cell phones and assorted other electronics which made the mall in Guangzhou look juvenile. It was all a little overwhelming and after you threw in the enthusiastic tide of shoppers ebbing in and out, it was all more then a mere mortal could take. We abandoned our shopping extravaganza for some street meat and then Luke & I parted with Steve to head to our final destination of Hong Kong.

For a city of such historical economic wealth and trend setting I couldn't but wonder why it took us 3 changes on the Metro to get to our hotel in downtown Hong Kong. Perhaps it was all established to discourage the ravenous bargain hunters from leaving Hong Kong for the greener pastures of Shenzhen. Our hotel was right downtown only a stone's throw away from the shops at Causeway Bay and our room was on the 23rd floor. Only in Hong Kong could your hotel room be so highly elevated and feel like you're still on the 2nd floor. We arrived late in the day and there really wasn't much time available for sight seeing. Fortunately we both had been here before and there wasn't any pressing need to absorb as much of the Hong Kong sights as we could.

Instead what we craved was food. You would have thought that this would have been an easy task but we ran up against a myriad of obstacles: people. The restaurants were either jammed packed and had waiting lines beyond our hunger threshold or we couldn't figure out how to by pass the crowds in the malls to get to the restaurants. As such we were destined to wander aimlessly (almost aimlessly) through the streets of Hong Kong in search of sustenance. It was truly a sad state of affairs when we spied a food court sign for the usual suspects of Western fast food: KFC, McDonald's', Burger King, Taco Bell. We seemed to be in the hunger space of accepting even this processed fare. Fortunately we discovered on the corner a Korean BBQ restaurant. Suddenly fond memories of cold winter nights in Toronto came flooding back. Korean BBQ seemed to be our place of choice for a meal after the gym back home and on those frigid February nights it became a place of comfort.

There were many similarities between the Korean BBQ we had found and the ones at home including the "cook it yourself" approach. This Korean BBQ was over the top. It was a buffet style approach with everything under the sun available: from sushi & sashimi to chicken & beef & cuttlefish. It was by far the best meal we had had in China and we both left feeling stuffed and ready to slip into a food coma.

Instead of slipping into a coma we decided to do something touristy and headed over to the Peak Tram for a ride up to the top of the Peak. The skyline of Hong Kong had changed little since my last visit but I had never seen it from this vantage point at night before. We enjoyed the refreshing night air and watched the lights twinkle below us; all the while trying to both ignore and embrace the fact that we would be back on planes tomorrow for the long flights to Toronto and San Francisco.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1252241113/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1252241113/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1252241113/tpod.html Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:26:27 -0400 Summer 2009

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Zhangjiajie, Hunan, China

We took the overnight train from Xiangtan to Zhangjiajie with Luke's father and his nephew, and then caught a local bus into the area known as the Wulingyan Scenic Area beside the town of Suoxiyu. Our hotel, the Emperor Hotel, was one of the only 3 star hotels in the city. We checked in and then walked from the large grand foyer to our rooms in the back portion. It was only mid-morning and already it was hot and humid. We opted for a quick rest before heading out and so we collapsed on the bed, turned on the a/c and waited for the refreshing artificial coolness to offer us some relief. It was a relief that never came. Luke called down to reception and was informed that the hotel turned off the a/c during the day since no one was in the hotel during the day. Interesting - apparently we were no one. Later that evening we discovered the truth to that statement as the tour buses rolled in for the night. It appeared that no one spent more then one night in this hotel - it was just a rest stop on the tour bus road.

From the hotel we piled into a cab and headed for a section of the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. Luke had done some reading and discovered that here there was a lake area to explore and some hiking trails through the dramatic crag dominated landscape of the whole Zhangjiajie area. Compared to the hikes we had been doing this one was an easy one, and a short one. The trail snaked its way through some lower level vistas and ended up at Baofeng Lake where we boarded an electric powered boat for a brief tour of the lake which included a couple of traditional songs from local ethnic communities.

Our whole time around this part of Zhangjiajie was fairly short and so we stopped for an early lunch before we moved onto Huanglong (Yellow Dragon) Cave. My expectations for this cave were not very high. I was envisioning perhaps a few rooms from which to roam and a couple stalactites and stalagmites. There seemed to be a fair number of people waiting to get into the cave entrance and the majority were assembled by an obnoxious tour leader toting a flag and either a megaphone or a speaker attached to their belt. Once we entered the dimly light and refreshingly cool cave we waited for the speedy tour groups to move on. Soon we found ourselves alone with just the illuminated stalactites and stalagmites to guide us along the path.

It soon came to our attention that this cave surpassed any of our expectations. We found ourselves in an amazing network of giant openings, twists, turns, rivers, reservoirs, and giant mineral composed rock formations dangling down from the cave ceiling. In fact we were now on a subterranean path that would wind for 2400 m through this labyrinth and interrupted only by an 800 m river section where we had to go by boat. For over 2 hours we explored the cave and were overwhelmed by the massive size of the grand halls and eerie lighting of our surroundings.

The next day we headed out early for the main entrance of the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.The entrance was inundated with tour groups and after we paid the exorbitant entrance fee (fortunately Luke's father and nephew were able to get in for free - under 13 and over 70) we joined the massive queue-esque staging area for access to the bus which whisked you through the park - no private vehicles were allowed in the park which reminded me of the same policy in Denali NP in Alaska. Our goal was to head over to the electric train and head into an area known as Huangshi Fort where we could, oh no, hike up to the top of the mountain for some amazing views. Luke's Father and Shorty took the train while we stuck with our Taoist Mountain protocol of transportation by foot only.

The walk was a nice and relaxing venture with some stunning crags surrounding us. It was a fairly easy and level hike and we were able to spot a few rhesus monkeys playing about in the tree tops around us. We picked up our two charges at the train terminus and then once again began a not so daunting set of stairs up Huangshi Fort. At least we thought they weren't daunting but soon they became so. Shorty seemed to tire of his Grandfather's, and hence our pace up the steps and so he sprinted far up ahead. It was the fastest we had seen him go - ever. Luke's father seemed to be tiring quickly and so Luke stayed behind with him, thinking that he wasn't going to make it to the top. I took off and tried to find Shorty and when I finally did I was amazed at just how far up he had managed to go. He was at the top of one set of stairs sprawled out over the railing. He had no water and when he saw me I thought I was the bearer of liquid gold. I had no water on me - Luke had it all. This seemed to not go over to well and he stayed where he was in anticipation of Luke's arrival.

I continued up the steps and seemed to have found renewed energy. I was sure I was near the peak which drove my legs to move faster and the only white guy on the mountain was soon passing everyone on the steps. I past a few areas where I was sure I had made it to the top but the path kept on going and going. Finally I came to a T-intersection. I had a choice of either continuing along the side or following a series of 180 steps up to the Heavenly Terrace. I decided that maybe I should just stop and wait in the shade for the others to show up.

I'm not sure how long I had waited for but it was close to 30 minutes before Luke showed up - alone. He had found Shorty on the stairs and left him with his father with the instructions not to move until we returned. We decided to head up the steps the Heavenly Terrace where we discovered and amazing vista of the surrounding area. We took in the stunning natural art before heading down to collect Shorty and Luke's father. Down the steps we went and arrived where Luke had left them. They weren't there however Luke and I had thought we heard his father talking. We continued down a bit further figuring that they had made their way down. Still they were nowhere to be found. Down we went until we reached the first major food area on the path thinking that that would be a logical place to wait for us. They weren't there. And so we found some shade and sat down and waited.

After close to 45 minutes Luke began to get worried. They still hadn't arrived. He now began to question people on their way down and no one recalled seeing the two of them. This was a little disconcerting. We abandoned our seats and headed to the terminus of the train. Maybe they had gone there. We searched every nook and cranny around the terminus and there was no sign of them. Back we went to our first spot and then began to debate when we should head back up the mountain to look for them. Luke questioned some more people and still no one recalled seeing anyone of that combination. Not even the description of Luke's father's ever present red thermos jogged people's memories.

Luke called his sister to see if by any chance they had called here inquiring about our where abouts. They hadn't and now Luke's sister was worried and encouraged Luke to call the |Chinese equivalent of 911. I thought that was premature and was sure that the only place they could be was still up on the mountain. My theory was that they continued up the mountain and while we were up on the Heavenly Terrace, they went past us. Luke was more worried that his father would have lead them off the trail and into the woods to explore. We went back down to the train terminus and they were still not around. We decided to head down to the start of the train and see if they went there to wait. We jumped on the train for the brief trip and found them to be absent.

It was now getting close to 2 hours of waiting and searching and Luke, and his sister were getting agitated. I told Luke to wait where we were and I would walk back to the terminus and keep my eye on the train to see if they were on it coming back. Luke would join me back at the terminus in 45 minutes and if we still hadn't found them then we would head back up the mountain to see if we could find them. While I headed out to walk back Luke found the police and explained the situation - he had lost his father and nephew on the mountain while running around trying to find his foreign friend. The scenario sounded a little amusing until Luke relied the fact that his father was 74 and his nephew was 12 - suddenly the attitude of the police changed.

I had only to walk about 10 minutes along the train path when suddenly I saw the two of them riding happily on the train. Shorty spotted me and began waving furiously at me. I stopped in my tracks and with a wave of relief called out at them, "Numptys!". Luke had collected the two miscreants and was engaged in a rather heated discussion concerning their actions. I was glad that I couldn't join the conversation - it didn't seem pretty. Finally I interceded and tried to bring calm to the scenario. They were safe and had indeed done what I predicted. They ignored Luke's instructions and headed up the mountain almost all the way to the gondola terminus where they debated taking it down (good thing they didn't). So while we were on the Heavenly Terrace they had gone by us which explains why we though we had heard his father - we had heard him, only his voice was coming from behind not in front.

When the dust settled we jumped on another bus which took us a little further into the park where we could walk the very flat and even path through an eroded out canyon beside a river. Luke's father and nephew bailed on the trail fairly early and we sent them back with specific instructions to wait for us at the bus stop. We continued on until we reached a fork in the path. The tour groups took the right fork and Luke wanted to take the left fork up to an area known as the Yaozi Village. What Luke neglected to tell me was that this location was high up above the craggy peaks which surrounded us.

The path was empty except for the suicidal frogs that lept off the into the forest floor below as we approached. There were stairs. A crazy amount of stairs and they went up. I had no idea where I was going or how far up we were going and so the path seemed even more treacherous then it actually was. About half way up the path we encountered a new obstacle. The skies quickly clouded over and the rain began. Torrents of water fell from the sky. We were partially protected by the tree top canopy and all would be good as long there was no thunder. Crash! There was thunder. Since we were already soaking wet we decided to continue. After about 10 minutes of massive rain pelting our bodies we found an abandoned cabin and stood under the roof. This momentary refuge allowed us to assess just what we were doing. There didn't appear to be stop in the rain in sight and we had no idea how much we had to go nor if we would be able to see anything once we reached there. Luke had been told by his mother as a child stories from her traveling friends about the amazing vistas of Zhangjiajie from Yaozi Village. Now as we approached the top he was reluctant to let go of this childhood vision. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we had no choice but to head back down.

The rain never let up as we descended. It continued to assault us with all its might. The steps had been transformed into a waterfall and the frogs, now more numerous were like a series of dominoes shooting off into the leaf litter below. When we reached the fork in the path the rain had finally abated. The numerous number of people caught out in the sudden shower were now either just as soaked as we were or sporting assorted colours of thin plastic rain ponchos. The rock pinnacles that now surrounded us were also enveloped in shroud of white clouds mimicking the promotional photos of Zhangjiajie seen around China. I removed my camera from the safety of my rain coat covered back only to discover that it was soaking wet. Oh no. Not again. In 2005 my Nikon was destroyed in a sudden rain shower in Guilin that lasted all of 60 minutes. I powered up the camera and the lens protruded half way and then nothing. It was dead.

We picked up Luke's father and Shorty exactly where we had instructed them to wait. Back in the hotel room Luke tried to revive my camera and dried it with the hair drier. All our money was soaked and lay on the hotel room floor drying - it was all so reminiscent of that day 4 years ago in Guilin. Truly lightening could strike twice.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1252070107/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1252070107/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1252070107/tpod.html Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:38:52 -0400 Summer 2009

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Hengyang, Hunan, China

We were picked up at the Changsha Airport by Luke's brother-in-law and his 12 year old nephew who drove us to his parent's place in the town of Xiangtan. We had anticipated staying the night there but instead we were soon back in the car with his brother-in-law, nephew and his father driving towards the town of Hengyang City from where we would head out early the next morning up our final mountain: hengshan - the southern mountain.

We started out very early. Long before the sun was even up. We had expected to be accompanied by his nephew but Luke was taken aback a bit when his father had decided to join us as well. I was impressed and worried at the same time. Naturally my biggest fear was having my butt kicked up the mountain by a 74 year old. We left the hotel and wandered through the dark and empty streets trying to find the trail up the mountain. There were few people about to ask but the ones we found all steered us in the correct direction and soon we were heading up the correct road.

We made it to the entrance gate as the sun was rising and moved through quickly. Since Luke's father was over 70 there was no entrance fee for him and his nephew was half price. On the other side we encountered a massive queue on the other side of the road. Mini-buses were all ready to take the people up the mountain. We had no intentions of using this service and began falling the road up the mountain.

We walked slower then we normally did (well maybe except on Songshan) with our new companions and alternated between the flatness of the road and steps which acted as a short cut between the lengthy turns. There weren't many people about as it seemed that most took the vehicular transport up. About half way up we arrived at the departure point for the gondola and many people made the transition from bus to aerial car. We continued going up. Eventually Luke and his father strayed from the stairs and took the easier and more level road up while his nephew and I opted to sprint up the stairs. We made a rendez-vous at the top of the first peak. I was amazed by the endurance of Luke's father however that was as far as he was going to go. Still a pretty amazing feat for a 74 year old.

Luke, his nephew and I continued on, now with a lot more crowds since the gondola went no further, until we reached the highest peak. Here we found a large group of people and a Taoist Temple. Incense was burning everywhere and fire crackers were thrown into the burners enveloping the peak with rapid fire bursts of simulated gun shot fire. Finally we had finished our quest which we had begun 10 days previously. We had climbed all 5 of the sacred Taoist mountains, and with 4 of them up to the highest peak. When we were in Beijing and talking to Janet about our quest, she had said that she did not know anyone who had climbed all 5 mountains, let alone to have done it in 10 days.

After a few celebratory photos we began to head down however this time we encountered something we hadn't yet on any of our hikes: a tired and whining kid. As we tried to go faster he slowed down and complained of suffering from an assortment of ailments. He then used another stalling technique: "I'm hungry". And so we had to stop for tofu and noodle breaks all before we had made it back to the first peak to pick up his father. Time was now not on our side. We needed to get back to the hotel and check out before we got charged for another night. When we did hook up with Luke's father we put them both on a bus down and we continued by foot power to go down. We had yet to take any form of transport up or down a mountain (once past the trail head) and were not about to start now. Down we went at a quicker pace watching the time and hoping we could make it back with out garnering a penalty (Now it felt like the Amazing Race). It was close - but we did it.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1251828671/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1251828671/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1251828671/tpod.html Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:10:19 -0400 Summer 2009

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Datong, Shanxi, China

The bus ride from Beijing went through some memorable and beautiful countryside. Once we were out of the urban sprawl we entered the dramatic hillside harbouring the Great Wall. On the other side of the hills began the vast expanse of inner Mongolia and I thought about the Mongol Hordes lead by Genghis or Kublai Khan leading their charges on horseback across the wind swept plains towards the Great Wall protecting China.

The bus came to stop in the coal mining town of Datong near the border of Inner Mongolia. This part of China is rife with coal and unsafe mining conditions. Whenever you hear of an accident in a coal mine in China, odds are it is near Datong. We decided it wasn't worth staying in Datong and so headed out to stay at the foot of Mt. Hengshan. We still had about 75 km to travel and the last bus had already left. We boarded another bus that would bring close to the town and figured we could catch a taxi the rest of the way.

Our choices for hotels was slim and we ended up in an old communist style hotel with a leather couch - that was a nice touch. Luke arranged for a taxi to pick us up at the ridiculous early hour of 5 am so that we could watch the sun rise from the peak. We stayed in the hotel for dinner and were surprised that the food was actually not too bad. That made for a pleasant change from the vast majority of meals we had suffered through so far on the trip. The quality of food had greatly deteriorated from my last trip in 2005, when I engorged myself on flavour dishes from Sichuan.

We roused ourselves long before the sun and waited for our taxi not to arrive. Luke called only to discover that he had no intentions of picking us up. We flagged down the lone taxi on the road and he agreed to take us out to the trail head at Mt. Hengshan. We zoomed past the closed entrance gate and up the zig-zagging road to the main parking lot. When we arrived a heated argument broke out as the taxi driver demanded that we pay the entrance fee for Mt. Hengshan to him. This did not go over well with Luke nor should it have: it was clearly a scam. Another example of gouge the tourist and with me being there, the price of the scam increased. The taxi driver was putting on a well animated show. He was screaming and jumping up and down throwing an embarrassing tantrum. Luke tried to pay the driver with our negotiated fee however he seemed to feel it was not worth it without the entrance fee. Then he began to argue that the entrance fee in fact should cover 3 people: himself along with Luke & I. Luke took his money and placed on the ground for the drive to take as he was obviously not going to take it from Luke. We began to walk away but this enraged the driver even further and he ran in front of us screaming like a banshee. Finally Luke gave him more then the agreed upon fee and we hastily made our way towards the steps. Not more steps.

The ascent up this mountain was an easy one and we were making very good time until we reached a temple blocking the trail. There was an entrance fee as well but just like the main gate it was closed but the gates were wide open. It would have been nice to continue through as easily as the main gate however at this temple the entrance gate was guarded by a very loud and scary looking black dog chained to a pole just beyond the entrance. We thought about trying to get around the dog however it was very well strategically placed to prevent just that sort of tactic. We really had only one course of action and Luke began to try and call for someone. Eventually and reluctantly our cries were met and the dog was removed from the path. After paying the requisite fee we were on our way back up.

We reached another temple, however this one was under repairs and we had to give way to a pair of donkeys carrying down supplies. We could see the peak just above and figured we only had maybe another 15 minutes or less of hiking left. It turned out to be less. We had reached the end of the trail, sort of. There was a gate just beyond the temple and the gate was locked. Luke inquired with a local monk who seemed completely apathetic to our cause and if he knew how to open the gate he had no intentions of doing so. Instead we were told that the gate was locked to prevent fires. It was hard to believe that our ascent was going to come to such an unexpected end. We back tracked a bit and headed over to another part of the mountain where the lift chairs dropped off people on the mountain. Unfortunately we could find no way up to the peak from there. We went as far as we could but it was not to be. We would not reached the peak even though we could see it not too far above us.

Reluctantly we returned down to the main parking and onto the road where a young kid picked us up and drove us, without a tantrum or immature drama, to the hanging temple just down the way. The hanging temple literally hangs off the side of a mountain and more then made up for our disappointment on Mt. Hengshan. We crawled through the narrow walkways of the precariously perched building waiting for the sun to shine down and illuminate it from the shadows of the cliffs surrounding it.

As we left the temple a group of taxi drivers told us that the bus was no longer running and we needed to procure their services. We ignored them and caught the bus as he came down the mountainside from Mt. Hengshan. We wasted little time leaving the town for Datong and then immediately continued on to Beijing.


]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1250674461/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1250674461/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1250674461/tpod.html Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:41:06 -0400 Summer 2009

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Huayin, Shaanxi, China

About 70 km outside of Xi'an is the sacred Taoist mountain of Hua Shan. A couple years back my friend Paul forwarded me an email of the world’s craziest hike. It was essentially a photo essay email showing the perilous route that people take up this mountain which included a wooden plank along the side of the mountain. I thought this was absolutely insane and of course circulated the email around. I then discovered that this crazy scenario was concocted in China on Hua Shan. It quickly became a destination of mine. What I didn’t know is that Hua Shan was also one of the 5 sacred Taoist mountains and soon would become peak number 1 in Luke’s and my quest to climb all 5.

We made our way back to the train station where we caught a local bus for Hua Shan. It wasn’t a great day. The temperature was rising and the haze and smog were closing in. It took us around 2 hours to get to Huayin, the town at the foot of Hua Shan. As we approached the mountain we had no idea where it was. The entire range was completely obscured by clouds. We got off on the main street and were ushered into an orientation session on the hiking routes up the mountain. Since it was in Chinese I was absorbing absolutely nothing and so we left. Actually I was more disturbed by the menu out front which included photographs of the food it served – pheasant, duck, rabbit, chicken and at the bottom a picture of a golden retriever.

We stood at the base of the mountain and looked up. Way up into the clouds. We tried to see something 2000 m up there. Nothing, not even a faint outline; and so off we set to climb mountain number 1.

The first stage was a pretty easy ascent. There was a groomed almost cobblestone type path that slowly took us up along the side of a clear and very inviting stream. We went past a few stalls selling assorted food and cold drinks as well as fresh peaches, watermelon, and what we soon learned to appreciate, Red Bull. We slowly worked our way up higher and soon our smooth even path began to be interrupted with stairs. The stairs were small at first with only a few steps in each batch but after about an hour the batches of steps began to increase.

We stopped at a small stall near one of the first sets of steep stairs for a watermelon break. At this location we spotted our first set of engraved locks tied onto the railings with red ribbons. Each lock was engraved with a family name waiting to be discovered so that their luck could be unlocked. All refreshed after our watermelon break we tackled our first set of steep stairs. Now the path alternated from ramp with occasional stairs to stairs with occasional ramp. We began to ascend higher and faster but our pace quickly began to get slower.

We had hoped that as we got higher up the mountain that the view would clear and the temperature would drop. Neither was the case and soon we began to sweat ourselves onto the road to dehydration. At one junction we encountered a small pool. Luke grabbed a towel and soaked it in the cold water. It was so refreshing to wipe our sweaty faces clean and cover our over heating heads in the cool liquid. Luke then placed the towel on his head so that it looked like he had just stepped out of a Monty Python Gumby sketch.

Shortly there after we encountered our first challenge: a long set of steep and narrow stairs through the rock. We quickly discovered that the easiest way of navigating this challenge was by walking up the steps on all fours like a dog. We took it slowly and were busy passing the camera back and forth to record our folly. Then I looked down and noticed that a porter was starting to climb the steps. He had a bamboo rod across his shoulders and was balancing a weight of water from one end and assorted supplies on the other. I couldn’t imagine walking up the mountain carrying that let alone trying to come up these steps that way. However not only was he doing it, he was gaining on us.

At the top we began to laugh at what we had just climbed up. In Canada there was no way something like that would be allowed without a million safety precautions put into place. Here in China natural selection seemed to be encouraged to weed out the stupid. The climb up did not get any easier. The steps did not get as steep as the last lot or as claustrophobic but they did increase in number. Soon we reached a section that we dubbed the never ending stairs. They never ended. They just kept going and going like a taunting energizer bunny. Just when we thought we had made it to the top, more would appear. After 3 and half hours of climbing we finally reached the north peak of Hua Shan. The final set of steps was also crazy steep and the steps themselves were exceptionally thin being able to only accommodate the tips of my toes. The easiest way to go up these steps was by imitating a Broadway dance troupe ascending steps sideways, "I’m putting on my top hat ..."

Hua Shan’s north peak (Yuntai Peak) is the lowest of its 5 peaks at 1561 m; it’s also the place where the gondola drops off those who are afraid of producing a little (ok maybe a lot) of sweat. Soon our quiet ascent which we shared with a small handful of other “purists” was a thing of the past. We now shared the mountain with hundreds of people crowding the precarious paths and ledges that lead up to the other 4 peaks. It didn’t take us long to develop a clear disdain for the gondola riders. They attacked the peak in a swarm and with a passion and voracity of an army ant colony invading virgin territory they spread out pushing and scrambling over everything and everyone in their path. A few days before our ascent, 19 people had died on Hua Shan. Apparently they had ventured into an area that was out of bounds and they fell to their deaths. This recent tragedy had no apparent affect on the current crowd scarring about the mountain. People were perched in dangerous areas all for the sake of a photograph.

We had no choice but to join the human current working its way towards the higher peaks. We went past Ear Touching Cliff and then moved onto Heaven’s Ladder which took us to Green Dragon’s Ridge: a very narrow stairway which followed a small rock ledge up to Wuyun Peak (Central Peak). This is the view of the traditional photos from Hua Shan showing the two peaks connected together. On either side of the Green Dragon’s Ridge was empty space. If you slipped off here it was a long drop to solid ground. The crowed moved up the stairs at an uneven rate. Traffic jams were common as people stopped constantly to take assorted family combination photos in the middle of the steps. Others suddenly realised the precarious nature of their current position and came to a complete mind numbing phobic stop. Fear grabbed hold and their feet stopped as their hands clenched tightly onto the newly installed railings.

We reached Gold Lock Pass relatively unscarred. Suddenly our narrow ledge had spread out into a wider rock and tree land expanse allowing our frayed nerves a rest. The clouds up here were moving quickly and at times we were granted views of our surroundings. You definitely had the feeling that you were at the top of the world as we now towered over most of the surrounding land. We opted to by-pass the crowds and headed towards the East Park (Facing Sun Peak). On our way we encountered an interesting choice if we wished to continue. Either we could take an insanely step metal ladder up the rock face or you could try to use the steps carved into the stone and a metal chain hanging down the middle to haul yourself up. The steps in the stone were probably as close to 90 degrees up the rock face as you could encounter. In fact as you neared the top you exceeded 90 degrees to get around a small rock outcropping. Luke jumped at the opportunity to try the rock steps and chains. I stayed at the bottom and took some photos just hoping he didn’t loose his grip and come tumbling down upon me. By the time he had safely reached the top of this section, two others had begun the rock steps up and quickly abandoned the way after a few steps up. I headed up the corrugated sheet metal stairs which was more like climbing up a steep rooftop ladder then a set of stairs.

Once we had met up on the rock steps at the terminus of the two ladders we still had to continue up some more steps until we found ourselves beside the Chess-Play Pavilion on a large exposed rock face on the East Peak looking out into a sea of white clouds. We had now been climbing for 6 hours. We could see to our right the rock face falling straight down but it wasn’t until we followed the Sky-way trail that we could see the extreme drop that we had been standing upon at the East Peak. Something’s are just better not known.

We then followed a trail towards the Yanggong Pagoda which was a small structure located at the most extreme tip of a small rock outcropping. To get there you had to take a set of steps bored out of the rock face up and over a boulder jutting out of the side of the mountain; this meant that you were hanging on by your hands for a bit. For safety reasons you could harness yourself in: for an extra 30 RMB. I watched a few people disappear over the edge ad then reappear somewhere below us before heading across the narrow rock ledge towards the pagoda. I was contemplating actually trying it until the clouds parted and I saw the drop. There really was no reason for me to try this even as Luke attempted to challenge me to do it.

Time was now starting to creep up on us. We had to be back down in order to catch the last bus back to Xi’an at 19:30. We still wanted to find the infamous Wooden Plank Path and in order to do that we had to go to the South Peak (Landing Wild Goose Peak). Off we scampered across rock and stairs when, as we approached the crazy ladder section, we encountered a young Chinese girl and her father. They had just successfully traversed the rock ladder and chain. The girl shouted out to the two of us, “Be Careful!” Oh crap! We had to go down the ladder now. The family stopped their journey up in order to watch the two of us cautiously and slowly make our way down the slippery rock face to the corrugated metal ladder. All of us were laughing at the absurdity of the situation. What were we doing? Or better yet why were we doing this? We made it to the bottom and then had the opportunity to watch and laugh at a few others trying to navigate their way down the rock face. Did we look that stupid? No. We probably looked stupider.

We had to run down a long set of stairs and then up another set in order to get to the South Peak. At 2160 m this was the highest peak on Hua Shan. And just past a large bell we found the Wooden Plank Path. We looked down at it from a rock outcropping above it. You had to be joking! In order to get to it you had to take a narrow rock ledge to a ladder that went straight down at 90 degrees to the start of the wooden plank. The planks were in fact just that. Two wooden planks beside each other some how hugging the side of the cliff and disappearing around the corner. Unfortunately it was a one way journey as there was an interruption in the path: there was a large gap in the middle that you couldn’t cross. I had seen it and I wasn’t going to try it. Until I got down and decided I wanted photos.

At first my intention was to go under the archway and take a photo of people coming back from the path. Next thing I new I was out on the rock ledge since I couldn’t get a decent photo from under the archway. Then I made a near fatal mistake. I looked down. Crap! The rock face went straight down for what looked like the entire 2000 m. I briefly asked myself, “How long would it take you to fall that distance?” Then I more intelligently asked myself, “What the hell are you doing?” I got myself off of the ledge and found Luke. He was the smart one and never even attempted to go out onto the rock ledge. All I kept repeated was, “OMG! I can’t believe how steep that was. Holy Crap!” I think my nerves didn’t relax until I made it back to North Peak. At least after standing out on that ledge the rest of the crazy paths back were a piece of cake.

We made it to the bottom without having to take the gondola down. We thought with time closing in rapidly that we might have to exercise that option. Fortunately we didn’t have to. As we made it to the north peak and we saw the line up to get onto the gondola it might actually have been faster to walk down.

Our timing was just about perfect and we only had to wait about 10 minutes before the final bus left for Xi’an. It had been a physically and at times mentally exhausting day. We had been on the mountain from about 9:30 until 19:00 – almost 10 hours. We made it to 4 of Hua Shan’s 5 peaks which also is a feat for a single day – most people tackle it over the course of 2 days (except of course for those who choose the gondola option and then they usually are pressed for time in order to get back to their tour bus). Our legs ached on the bus ride back and muscle fatigue set in quickly. One mountain down – 4 to go.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1251819657/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1251819657/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1251819657/tpod.html Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:40:26 -0400 Summer 2009

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Luoyang, Henan, China

The train ride into Zhengzhou wasn't exactly what we had expected. We had asked for the comfy soft seats but seemed to get placed in something half way between the hard seats and the nice soft seats that we walked past. The train was busy and after 5 long hours we arrived at close to midnight. Outside of the train station the large concrete square was hot, humid and filled with people laying about waiting for their trains to arrive.The taxi stand was at the far end of the square and soon we were whisked into a traffic void zone and onto the Ramada Inn which was a welcome bit of luxury.

We were still completely exhausted from our hike up Tai Shan the day before as well as the hike up Hua Shan only 2 days before that but we had a quest to complete. We inadvertently took a tour bus to the town of Luoyang instead of the local bus but fortunately we were dropped off almost right at the trail head by the Shaolin monetary. Originally we were going to enter the trail through the monastery however at 180 RMB per person to enter we decided to pass and just get on with the hike.

It was a nice even level path that deceived us at the bottom of the hill. The clouds had descended to a very low level and we were surprised by the humidity level we suddenly found ourselves in. In no time we soon became completely drenched with water. Our clothes absorbed the combination of moisture from the air and of course the copious quantities of sweat that we were producing.

It didn't take long before we hit the stairs. This time they were the dreaded stairs. We had thought that this climb was going to be easier, based upon some reading that Luke had done on the Internet. In fact the climb turned out to be probably the hardest one that we had done. It wasn't any more physically challenging then either Hua Shan or Tai Shan. This hike seemed to be a mental battle. It was us against the humidity and the mountain and exhaustion. Our legs hadn't recovered from Tai Shan.

We walked up many many steps and some were approaching the steepness of Tai Shan but not close to some of the crazy ones of Hua Shan. We went through a few Taoist monasteries on the hike up and with the misty mountain background and smoky incense burners it gave the place a medieval feel. Finally we approached a large which we thought was close to the top. Unfortunately we couldn't see the top and just assumed we had almost made it to the top. We wrong. Oh so wrong.

From the monastery with the stone bridge the steps went up until we could see them no more. From a very small pavilion-like structure we struck out thinking this was the final push to the top. We set out closely followed by a boy and probably his two sisters. The girls were lagging behind taking the steps at a reasonable slow pace. Luke was somewhere in the middle and I was in the lead closely followed by the boy. Up I continued with the end sight. Then the boy made a push for the lead. I sped up. There was no way this 13 year old was going to beat me up the mountain! Soon my legs had found new life and I was almost running up the final steps taking them 2 at a time leaving the kid behind me. Then my foot found its way onto the top. Victory was mine. I turned around from my victory perch and saw the steps continue higher up around the corner. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

At the bottom of the mountain we were told that it was about a 2 hour climb up to the summit. We did it a wee bit longer - around 3.5 hours. We had a few moments of crushing defeat when we reached what we thought was the peak only to be proved wrong. At one false peak we stopped for a prolonged rest and Luke purchased some noddles while I consumed some vitamin enriched cookies. We still had another km to tackle before we could begin the descent. Fortunately the final km was an easy climb and we reached the peak in pretty good shape and at a quick pace. There was nothing to see from the peak except for a small Taoist temple and some flags. The view was completely obscured by clouds and we had absolutely no idea how high up we were or how precarious the drop around us might be.

On the way down our spirits were quickly lifted as we encountered a group of climbers sprawled out on the steps in exhaustion. It seems that it wasn't just us. We joked with them in broken English, laughed then continued on our way down. The trip down seemed just as long if not longer then the trip up. Nothing looked familiar and the steps just kept going and going. At least this time they were going down.

What we thought was going to be a quick climb turned into a 7 hour odyssey. As we neared the bottom we found ourselves moving aside for a group of young Shaolin monks running up past us along the stairs. All I thought was that I really hoped that they weren't going to run all the way to the top, however they probably were. Fortunately the few stragglers looked in worse shape then we did and they were just starting. We got on a local bus and headed back to bask in the Ramada. We both were so unbelievably exhausted that the idea of exploring Zhengzhou wasn't even remotely interesting. Instead we crashed on the bed and dreamed of our return trip tomorrow to Beijing where we could rest and spend some more time with Janet and Matthew before heading out to Datong and peak #4.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1251156375/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1251156375/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1251156375/tpod.html Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:39:11 -0400 Summer 2009

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Zhangjiajie, Hunan, China

I noticed this time that the air conditioning had shut off around 5 am. I heard the fan slow down and the temperature began to rise. Soon I had to discard the covers. Luke's alarm on his phone went off and I could hear through the walls that his father and nephew had risen. There didn’t seem to be a volume control on his nephew . The phone rang shortly thereafter.Shorty was ready for breakfast and itching to go. I slowly rolled out of bed and plodded into the bathroom seeking relief and inspiration from the shower.It was our last morning in Zhangjiajie and we were going to head back into the park for a brief early morning hike before moving back to Luke’s hometown of Xiangtan near Changsha.

Luke & I breezed through the entrance – we just went to the left which was the opposite direction of everyone else and we found entry gates completely empty with very board ticket checkers. The funneling area for the buses was a zoo. It was infested with the blight that makes independent travel in China such an arduous chore: tour groups. You can’t blame those that take the tours, which is mainly the rapidly growing middle class, however the tour operators and guides are a shady and untrustworthy lot. As we stood in the long queue for the buses, tour group after tour group rounded the corner in waves into this holding area. Led by the megaphone and flag waving guide they moved in unison as a school of fish evading a predator. I watched in fascination as the groups in front and to the side of us raced to the nearest bus as soon as its doors opened. It all reminded me of Pavlov’s experiments. An open door was the tour group’s bell – minus the saliva, I hope.

We wear waiting in the queue to return to the infamous location from the day before. We would let Luke’s father and Shorty walk to the elevator that would take them up to the top of one of the mountainy crags. We were going to make a second attempt to climb up to Yazoi Village, alleged home of magnificent view. This was all contingent upon being able to get on a bus.Tour groups leaders kept walking up to the front of the queue and tried to jump in front of everyone else. Behind, since I was at the end of the metal railing,another leader was trying to push his way past me and through to the front of the line. Fortunately this white guy was annoyed at their obnoxious and self obsessed behaviour and was large enough to very effectively block their movement further ahead into the queue. He then tried another tactic of moving up to the front of the line which was not effective as another tour leader had already led his flock up there.

After close to 10 minutes of jocking for position,protecting our position and standing in the sun, our line moved. At the front the people raced to the bus. I walked, which greatly annoyed the tour leader behind me. As we headed for the bus, a tour group guide then told Luke’s father that he was getting on the wrong bus. Luke and Shorty were already on the bus and I was about to get on when his father erupted in exclamation of our perceived error. Luke ran to the front of the bus and talked to the driver. We were on the correct bus. The reality was that the guide had purposefully lied to Luke’s father in an attempt to secure enough seats for his group. That way none of his flock would have to stand in the aisles. Luke was furious and began to berate the insipid leader on his dubious tactics. The guide firstly defended his actions by stating that this bus had been specifically reserved for his tour group. Clearly he was unaware that Luke had already spoken to the driver and was well aware that you could not reserve the buses and that all buses within the park were public buses. Luke called him a liar and then the guide changed his story saying he was just looking out for Luke’s father’s best interests: he didn’t want him to get on the wrong bus. Apparently based on what he had told his father he didn’t want the 74 year old getting on any bus. I then saw rage envelope Luke and his eyes turned a mysterious shade of red. The screaming match began. The guide and Luke exploded into a verbal volley that probably was not translatable. I listened for a little over a minute then had heard enough. Either a fight was going to break out or a heart attack. I stepped between the two of them, I told Luke to calm down and then turned to face the tour guide and told him to shut up. To my surprise he did so immediately and moved passed me to stand up by the driver. I’m guessing he felt some safety up there as Luke said later, "When big white guy tells you to shut up it is very scary to them."

Luke was still fairly angry on the ride to our stop. When we got out the tour group stayed on to be driven directly to the elevator. We parted with Luke’s father and Shorty and followed the sea of flags and flocks down the trail we did yesterday. We didn’t go as far – only a few hundred meters and then we parted with the crowds and followed a side trail until we reached a wooden pole diagonally across the path. It had a sign on it that essentially said – trail closed. We had a choice to make and opted to take the closed trail. It was sure to be tour group free.

The trail clearly had not been used before based upon the abundant piles of leaf litter, overgrown trees and bushes and voracious appetites of starving mosquitoes. We quickly reached a wooden bridge in assorted stages of decay. It was a slippery algae covered mess and we were definitely not wearing appropriate footwear for this kind of foray. We made it across safely with only a couple slips and a liter of blood donated to the buzzing blood sucker brigade.

The ascent up to the area known as Yaozi Village wasn’t a particularly difficult climb. The steps were clearly marked and as we got up higher they were in good condition. The wooden bridges we encountered weren’tin the same kind of condition and the mosquitoes were relentless through out the entire climb. As well the humidity level in the forested area was bordering on oppressive. We only stopped a couple times on the way up to watch foraging monkeys. We had a time-line to follow on this hike. We had told the other two elevator based adventurers that we would meet them back at the bus stop by 11:30.

We made it to the top in about 75 minutes and the view was worth the climb. It was also amazing to be able to enjoy a stunning natural vista in China without the constant din from megaphones and food stall and souvenir hawkers. We enjoyed our solitude and spacious perch high above the ground staring out at a sea of crags eclectically carved out by water, wind and ice. Birds sand and cicadas screamed for us. We climbed as high as we could which was along a narrow ridge on the top of one crag. The ground quickly vanished on either side of us and when made it to a section of rock above a very large archway, Luke simply stated, “Oh, this is scary. Look down here.” I bent over the railing and peered down the serrated rock face onto a section of tree tops far below. Now we were approaching the dramatic cliff designs of Hua Shan – not quite, but close. At last we could go no further. We had the reached the end of the trail atop of the ridge. I was a bit anxious to get going as I was beginning to sense a repeat of the Great Wall incident of 2005, and that' didn’t need repeating. Halfway across the ridge I knew the incident was going to be repeated. Fortunately Luke came prepared with some napkins and I relieved the immense pressure and pain in my bowels atop a high perch. Once again, I shat on China.

We did the climb down fairly quickly and found Shorty and Luke’s father exactly where we had instructed them to wait. That was a nice change. The bus back to the main gate was fairly empty and once we made it back to the hotel, had showers, complained about the hotel’s air conditioning policy to the front desk (and we weren’t the only ones complaining either) we sough tout food then piled into a taxi for the long ride back to Changsha.

About 1.5 hours into the journey the driver pulled off the highway for a quick fill up. As the pump jockey put the nozzle back a bit of commotion broke out. It seems that the girl had just filled the tank of the car with diesel. Luke explained the situation to me and I quickly pointed out that the diesel had to be pumped out immediately before it had a chance to get into the engine. If that happened then we would be screwed. As I was explaining theist Luke two hitchhikers trying to secure a ride at the gas station told the taxi driver that he should be okay with that grade of gas. The driver was about to get into the car and drive it away from the pumps before Luke interceded. Anew argument broke out between the employees, the driver, the hitchhikers, Luke’s father and basically anyone in the general vicinity. Blame needed to be determined first before a solution could be reached. Basically that meant a scape goat. Corporations are infallible in China. If something goes wrong its always the fault of the lowest person on the ladder. In this case the girl who pumped the gas was at fault as she neglected to ask the driver what grade of fuel he wanted and she would be the one who would bear the financial responsibility of the error. The company could not have their profits jeopardized. Forget the fact that the company had refused to pay for new signage at the pumps indicating that the pump only had diesel. Instead they kept up the old sign which indicated both diesel and regular could be purchased at the pump. The girl who pumped the gas stood to lose all of her monthly bonuses which could add up to half of her monthly salary over this faux pas.

Luke, the station manager and I pushed the taxi away from the pump and off to the side. The station had called for someone to come from the main station to pump out the gas. We milled about outside for a bit and then we had to make a choice: the smell of gas fumes or the smell of sewage from the toilets. Into the variety store wit air conditioning at the gas station was an even better choice. It took 90 minutes but finally the gas was pumped out, a resolution was reached and we were on our way again.

Things took a turn for the worse as we approached Changsha and we had to get to Xiangtan. No one really seemed know how to get there. Soon an argument broke out in the back street between Shorty and Luke’s father on how to get there. I was beginning to think that neither of them knew where they were going. The poor taxi driver was definitely out of the loop as he kept slamming on the brakes as we approached an exit and I’m sure he was asking, “Do I get off here?” I couldn’t take the screaming and arguing emanating from the back seat and so I put in Myer buds and turned on my Ipod all the while wondering how long would Gandhi be able to take this before he resorted to violence?
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Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

The night train took us into Guangzhou about 9 and fortunately our hotel was ready for us so we could check in immediately, shower and then head out to meet Luke's cousin for lunch. With lunch wrapped up they took us for a quick tour of the old city before dropping us off in the electronic market area. It seemed that everything was for sale here and most of it was imitations of the more popular products from the "west".

In the basement of one of these crazy big stores we found a less chaotic area to browse. In the far end there was a small cell phone kiosk with a very bored looking girl. We took a look at what she had for sale and the next thing I new someone was bringing down a duo Sim card Iphone. I didn't know the Iphone was capable of holding 2 Sim cards, and I was right. This wasn't an official Iphone but a Chinese copy. It looked like an Iphone. It came with Iphone instructions but it definitely didn't respond like an Iphone. We spent over an hour playing with it and checking out Sim cards in it. It did seem to work fine as a phone. The phone was unlocked and came with an assortment of programs similar to what you would find on the Iphone. The downfall was that it wasn't a real Iphone, it did not connect to the 3G network, it did not have the memory of the Iphone and not all of the applications worked in English. Then again it was about 1/5 of the price of an actual Iphone and it would accept 2 Sim cards. Luke then did some haggling and we ended buying 2 of them for a cheaper price.

With our new toys in tow we headed out and did some more browsing of stores and malls in Guangzhou. It seemed that jsut about anything could be found. If you didn't want to pay the outrageous prices of the genuine products you could always ask for a Chinese brand similar to what you were looking for, for a fraction of the price.

We finally packed in the shopping around dusk and wandered outside into a very strangely lit sky. It was an odd apocalyptic orange shade and the wind howled about pushing us along the street. Clearly there was a storm on its way. Luke, who had lived in Guangzhou for a few years, was sure he knew where we were and so we began to walk over to the hotel which was obviously just around the corner. Or was it?

Lightening began to light up the sky and thunder roared in from the distance. My only concern now was getting to the hotel before the skies opened up and our fate was similar to that which happened to us a few days previous in Zhangjaijie. We went under an over pass and towards an on ramp, which was where ours was near. No it wasn't. No hotel at the on ramp. The wind picked up and then it began to rain. Not a good sign. The strange orange sky was now dark and still we moved on. I had no idea where we were but Luke was convinced that the hotel was jsut up ahead. Then we found a number on the street: 480. Pretty good - our hotel was 416. So if we think that the even numbers are on the same side that was only about 40 buildings to go past. Then we found the next number: 479.Oh, this was not looking good.

After a few more streets and some construction, the numbers dropped more rapidly and we made it inside before the heavy rain hit. Mainly because the rain never did hit. Instead the lightening continued for a few hours and so did the thunder. We watched and listened from the cool safety from our air conditioned room. At least I did. Luke played with his new "Iphone" - for a long, long time.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1250992947/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1250992947/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yyztrvlr/1/1250992947/tpod.html Sat, 22 Aug 2009 22:07:31 -0400 Summer 2009

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Tai'an, Shandong, China

Luke stayed up late trying to figure out our plan of attack in the quest for 5 mountains. It seemed everything was falling into place for our fool's errand and early the next morning we were on the shuttle bus headed for the Xi’an airport. Our goal was the city of Jinan in Shandong Province where we could then catch a shuttle to the town of Tai’an at the foot of Tai Shan. The China Air flight was smooth and quick. We landed around noon and had quickly located the quiet shuttle bus. It wasn’t scheduled to leave until 14:00 and that would most likely only be if it was full.

We sought refuge from the heat and humidity inside the airport only to discover that it wasn’t air conditioned. It was cooler outside so we tried that for awhile until the aggressive taxi drivers drove us back inside. We debated the merits of taking a taxi on the 150 km drive to Tai’an and decided if we could get it for about 150 RMB it in fact would be cost effective. The taxis loitering around at the taxi stand wanted 300 RMB to do the trip. Luke figured one reason for the inflated price was my white face which equated wealth to the taxi drivers. So Luke left me in the lower level arrivals area and headed up to the departure level to try and negotiate a better price. No luck. Finally one taxi driver followed us into the terminal. We were able to negotiate the price down and headed out for a long drive around the corner. Here we were transferred to another car. Apparently the taxi drive had a friend who had just driven in from Tai’an and was just looking to cover the gas costs of the journey and so he was helping him out in finding a fare. It was a win-win scenario all around. He also had a nicer car.

We arrived in sunny Tai’an and our taxi driver dropped us off at what looked like a traditional communist hotel from sometime in the 1950s. Luke went in and checked out the room. They wanted over 400 RMB for a barren smelly room. The taxi driver argued aggressively on the hotel’s behalf. We figured he got a kick back but Luke stood his ground which then resulted in us having to abandon our so-called Good Samaritan for another taxi. This driver took us to a much better hotel at the base of the mountain. Now we just had to procure laundry facilities and get ready for the morning hike up the mountain.

We set off on a cloudy morning probably, not as early as we should have. One thing we never counted on was the weekend factor. It was Sunday and it seemed as though everybody had decided that today would be a good day to climb Tai Shan. A taxi dropped us off at the trail head. With a deep breath we set out to tackle mountain Number 2. We stepped up onto the first step. Only 6999 more to go.

We were surprised at how strong our legs felt considering the climb we had done only 2 days previous. We bounded up the first half of the mountain only stopping once for a Chinese crepe and popsicles. The trail was similar to Hua Shan only in that it was a combination of ramps and stairs. Where as Hua Shan had an assortment of step styles and combinations, Tai Shan had one style of steps and they were all full with people.

It only took us about 1.5 hours to reach roughly the mid point of the mountain. This was also the location where many people were dropped off by mini-busses and tour busses to begin their climb. As well many of these people that were driven to this point then transferred over to the gondola to continue the journey. We by-passed the not so tempting queue at the gondola and continued on the path of stairs. This set of stairs was a little different from the ones at Hua Shan. Here we could see them rise high up the mountain. The crowds had increased in volume and our semi pleasant ascent was now being shared by hundreds of others out for a Sunday stroll up a mountain.

After a few minutes, or more, we made a turn in the climb. Now we could see our goal looming loftily above us. The entrance archway leading to the peak of Tai Shan beckoned us onwards however the steps that we could see leading up to the archway seemed more then a bit daunting. Onward we climbed. Higher and higher we rose closer to our goal. The skies began to cloud over into a grey cover. A light rain began to fall for a short period of time. The archway grew larger and larger and we took each step one at a time.

Success! We reached the peak and danced our way under the archway and emerged in ... Disneyworld? The cable car dropped its contents off on the backside of Tai Shan and just as busy as the steps up Tai Shan were, the peak area was 3 to 4 times busier and chaotic. Throw into the mix an odd assortment of shops, photo ops, food stalls, souvenir kiosks and a Taoist Theme park is the result. All this was perched high up on the top of Tai Shan: 7000 steps above the trail head. We tried to manouvre our way out of the chaos after consuming some serious ping shui and red bull. We followed the crowd towards a couple of temples further afield from the convergence of cable car refuse and step pilgrims and there we found some peace. Sitting on a set of boulders overlooking the scene below which should have been a dramatic landscape but was instead an invasion of clouds floating up and around our position. We enjoyed some fresh peaches with our quiet crowd of maybe 8 and not a tour group flag was to be seen.

As the Taoist temple bell rang out Luke made an interesting and startling observation, "It’s snowing!" We were up high but I didn’t think we had reached an elevation (we were only about 1500 m above sea level) where snow would be occurring in August. I looked up at the large grey flecks floating softly about our vicinity. I just began to laugh and broke the truth to my poor exhausted partner, “Luke. It’s ash.” The news seemed to both crush and embarrass Luke as he in turn began to giggle. “Oh.” The temple near us had incense burners going and as true pilgrims walked the extensive stair network up Tai Shan they often carried with them bags full of incense which would then get burnt in assorted burners in assorted temples across the top of Tai Shan.

We had to force ourselves to vacate our position of serenity when the white clouds were replaced with threatening grey clouds. Neither of us felt like descending just yet and so we headed through the top temple and over to a rocky area where few people seemed to be gathered. Here we found some examples of strange rock designs that Mother Nature had crafted over the millennia. One of the most precarious was a set of boulders seemingly sewn together and jammed between two crags. Even more amazing were the numptys who thought that the middle of said string of boulders would make for a great photo op. Either a potential candidate for the Darwin Awards or an example of natural selection in action was dancing about on the boulders and it was a long way down before the Earth stopped your fall.

A light drizzle began and as we explored the area near the string of boulder pearls we tried to imagine just how steep the cliff face below us was. Maybe it was a good thing that we couldn’t see it through the clouds. Back at the temple the tour group crowds had found their way there. The mob followed their respective flag carriers yelling out instructions through a megaphone. I had a sudden urge to yell out “Serenity Now!” but I probably wouldn’t have been heard above the din.

Instead of heading back down by way of the arch we decided to try another route near our serene rocks. This route had some very steep and thanks to the rain, slick steps. At the top I recalled that Neil Peart had talked about a cycling trip he had done in China. One of the stops he had made was to Tai Shan and he was so moved that a song entitled “Tai Shan” ended up on Rush’s Hold Your Fire album. The chorus went “I stood at the top of the mountain and China sang to me.” I just hoped that for Neil they weren’t singing through megaphones.

We moved slowly down the mountain until our steep steps merged with the main set. Here we began to pick up our pace and once we were out of seriously crazy to run down steep steps, we started to run down. Strangely enough we started to pick up some “copy cats” or “admirers” like Rocky or Forrest Gump. A few stuck with us for a fair ways while others fell (figuratively) by the way side rather quickly. One tried to match our pace step for step and actually kept up with us for quite a few set of stairs. In the end we completed this section on our own.

Mountain number 2 was over and successfully completed. Only 3 more to go and after we showered and got lost returning to the hotel from lunch, we headed out to the train station. We had an early evening train to catch that would take us for a 5 hour ride to Zhengzhou where we would be ready to tackle mountain number 3 the next morning.
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