Monks, Monkeys and Mountains
Trip Start
Mar 14, 2006
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59
374
Trip End
Mar 15, 2007
Emei Shan,
China
Friday, May 12, 2006
Continuing the less than brilliant cleaning facilities in the hotel (Idan & Lihi's private shower was great though) we all had to do a load of laundry using the most pathetic washing machine ever invented which did little more than wet our clothes in cold water for 15 minutes before resorting to hand washing to get anything clean but I suppose it was free at least. Maybe sounds a little harsh as the rest of the hotel is spotlessly clean and the staff ever helpful.
Anyway today we set off to climb Emei Shan one of the Middle Kingdom's four famous Buddhist mountains but from reading some of the messages left my past climbers in the hotel perhaps also one of the most loathed due to it's 66,000 plus steps to reach the summit complete with aggressive monkeys along the way
Another Rest
. We were advised to take a walking stick along with us to help some what with the climb but also as a form of defense against any unfriendly furry locals.We took a bus to the base of the mountain with two other Israelis we met at the hotel also planning on climbing and from there took a short cable car ride up the first section simply to not set off too fast of course.
The going was not to tough to begin with but it was slow at least with continuing stopping due to one of the other Israelis we were with finding it pretty hard going. This admittedly did get quite frustrating as I felt fine and realized that at this pace we would never reach half way today never mind the Golden Summit Temple were most people spent the night to then get up early to watch the sunrise from the top. Perhaps more frustrating though was them speaking in Hebrew most of the time so I had no clue as to how they really felt or their intentions as I finally learned they did still plan on reaching the summit which I tried to gently explain we would never do today at this speed while trying to not sound too critical.
A few hours and many more stops later the weather which had been really misty got even worse with the mist getting thicker and the air feeling much colder with spots of rain beginning to fall
Lunch
. Reaching one of the temples on the mountain I met a group who were descending and told that the nearest place to stay took them six hours to walk down from so it would probably take us more than double that to reach it at our less than blistering ascent speed. Finally accepting that we would not reach the top but still wanting to experience sleeping on the mountain we asked at the temple if they had any beds which thankfully they did so the five of us piled into a cramped and basic but comfortable enough 5 bed dorm.
We then asked about something to eat and were taking to the kitchen were they rustled up some excellent Chow Mein with us picking out the vegetables we wanted from the piles available.
With the weather worsening we were glad to not still be climbing and passed the time playing cards and continually getting more and more blankets for the beds as the temperature dropped even further.
One of the monks of the temple was very friendly and through the use of a Hebrew - Chinese dictionary (not the most useful book in the world for me mind due) we learned he was a guitar playing scientist - hope they kept the receipt for that book.
After another good Chow Mein meal (was about the only thing they had really other than rice) we soon all felt the ascent catching up with us and crawled under enough blankets to the point of being hardly able to move, with few of us hardly being able to anyway after the days climb took its toll.
