Our bus from Daju left for Lijiang at 7:30. Unfortunately it was near impossible to get to Lugu Lake from here so we had to change our plans again and head to Leshan. We off loaded some more weight from our bags, discarding clothes that we didn't really need. The trip to Leshan started with a 3 and a half hour bus ride back to Lijiang, another 7 hour bus ride to Panzhihua and then catching a 11 hour overnight train to Leshan. All of this travelling cost us less than 18 pounds each for the entire trip.
In Lijiang we stopped briefly for, yes you guested it another KFC before our connecting bus to Panzhihua, a hygiene bus, or at least that's what the doors told us. This stage of the bus ride was fairly uneventful, the scenery was same same.
Panzhihua is an industrial town, a bit like Newcastle. We were dropped off at the Southern Bus Station before we headed into town in search of a railway line. After about 30 minutes we attempted to ask a local, pointing to the train section of our newly acquired guide book that we have borrowed from the Daju Inn. We decided it might be easier to get a taxi! The driver sped off down the road, which seem to never end. After 20 minutes we saw a sign for the station, 10km more, glad we didn't walk! We think it's going to be the same in the whole of China, the train stations are generally out of town.
At the station we purchased the cheapest seat on the train to Leshan, it was Y72 and left at 00:08, four more hours to go. A Chinese lady took us to a noodle bar for some dinner. The menu was totally Chinese so we attempted to order Chicken (Ji) but failed in our attempt to get rice. 10 minutes later our dish arrived, Sichuan Chicken... very hot and full of Chicken Claws and heads which we worked our way around!
After dinner we headed for the large waiting room which was full of Chinese people eager to speak to us. We spoke to a friendly man who was from Yining in the North West near the Pakistan border. He was a marshal art teacher who didn't like nuts or crisps and wanted to be our friend as he pointed to the translation section of our guidebook.
Feeling tired and weary of the Chinese people who wanted to talk to us we tried to hide in another room out of the way. Eventually the time came to get on the train. We walked up and down the platform showing our tickets to the conductors, to finally get to the right carriage. We were in 3rd class which was an every man for himself job. It was a bit like Forest Gump on his school bus as the Chinese people would spread themselves across the seats... this seat is taken. Jo perched herself next to a young Chinese woman bearing tatooes down both arms. After about an hour she moved over slightly to let Jo sit down properly. Steve was a little less polite and barged himself into position. We were certainly not going to get any sleep tonight, not just because it was uncomfortable but for the fact that we wanted to keep our possessions.
The carriage was packed of people making the journey north who would openly smoke, spit and discard their rubbish on the floor. Every hour the stewardess who certainly put pride into her job pushed the trolley up the runway where she would battle to get past the sleeping passengers. The squat toilets were a little over a metre from our seats and smelt like they were closer. The residue lined the floor around us along with the sunflower seed shells spat from the mouths of the people around us. At every stop a hoard of fresh flies and passengers would mount the train, with a host of unofficial food sellers, no one seemed to get off. We will certainly be paying a little bit more next time!
After taking it in turns at resting our eyes it began to get light. At 10 the conductor approached us in an alarming manner. He ordered us to show him our tickets and then marched us down to the other end of the carriage to his office. Jo was ordered to sit down. A little scared that we had possibly overstayed our welcome on the train and maybe gone a bit too far, the conductor started talking to us in Chinese and pointed at the clock. Thankfully we hadn't gone too far, he was letting us know that the next stop was our station. He also wanted to practice his English and proceeded to point at random phrases in our book.
We disembarked the train to a flurry of tricycles offering to take us into town, although ours dropped us off at the bus station. After a short walk around the town we remembered that the stations are out of town and that's why we needed to take a bus. 20km later we were in Leshan. Again we were met by the tricycles who this time took us to another bus station.....NO GO AWAY...WE HAVE BEEN TRAVELLING FOR OVER 27 HOURS!!!!
Our itinerary for the day was to head to the Big Buddha and then bus to Emei where we would stay the night. We were finding it difficult to get away from the tricycles so opted to jump on a local bus. We headed into the centre and then back out again. Seeing a sign for the river we got off and started walking down the hill. Another tricycle approached us and this time he wasn't giving up. He looked like the Halifax man, as he pedaled around Xtra hard to keep up with us. "I will take you to Big Buddha for Y1" he said. We just wanted to sit down, rest and get something to eat. We gave in to his demands and got on the back of his bike. He was quite friendly as he pedaled along the river bank showing us all the sites and testing us on our knowledge of Leshan. He dropped us off at a restaurant, which I'm sure he got commission from, but we were glad of a rest. After lunch we headed to the ferry crossing to see the Big Buddha, Halifax man had waited to take us and gave us the various options of ferry, we took the cheapest at Y1 each way.
When we returned from the Buddha photo shoot Halifax man was still there, he told us that he could get a private car to Emei for Y50. Within minutes the car arrived and we loaded our bags onto it, the driver then took us 50 metres down the road to another ferry. At this point we realised it was a plot to get us on every tourist attraction in town, we quickly unloaded our stuff, having not paid any money we hailed down the first taxi which took us to our required destination.
Leshan Hotels
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