Super Buddha
Trip Start
Jan 24, 2004
1
21
31
Trip End
Apr 01, 2004
Leshan,
Sichuan,
China
Tuesday, March 9, 2004
Typically, we'll drink Pi-Jou ( beer ) at the Dragon until late and descend en masse on the open fronted cubby hole of a restaurant down the street . A man hunches over a griddle wearing a suit. Customers take sticks of meat and vegetables from the fridge and they are cooked as the old Chinese fellow counts the sticks to calculate the bill. We must have had hundreds upon hundreds over the course of a few days.
The Wengshu temple is holding a special ceremony as we arrive. The ragged collection of beggars outside, quite frankly, give me the arsehole. We go inside and the place is full of smoke and firecrackers, yellow candles and hordes of Chinese prostrating themselves before Buddha. Behind the frenzy of temple worshipping there is a substantial courtyard style garden
Big boy
. I sit and play cards with my amiable dorm mate, Randy Andy from France. And two rather well built German girls, Bertha and Brick. Back at base, it's classic hostel life. The one internet workstation displays a slide show of pornography as the beer fridge is drained again. Some of the less-able English speakers question the meaning of expressions like camel-toe. We include staff member Leonard in this evenings picture show and discussion and ask him if "Leonard likes ?" his reply is bashful and hushed "Everybody like". But we are convinced he is a homosexual. Scottish Barry is always at the centre of things at this juncture and I like him immediately. Randy Andy staggers in about 4am, absolutely shit-faced. He misses his 8am bus to Kanding over in the west. Leonard straightens it out for him.
There is a spontaneous kick around with the football in the courtyard this morning. The communal guitar changes hands. We all came here from different directions. We find ourselves together. Now a group of five of us are waiting for the minibus to Leshan. Harry and George are off to Hong Kong instead. They are good guys with beer and girls set high on the list of their priorities. And haircuts much lower down that list.
Once in Leshan , we seek out the 90 meter stone Buddha carved into a rock face. Not exactly hard to find. About the height of 10 houses. Rumour has it that it took nearly 100 years to carve and during this time one of the artisans lived in a cave at the top. We take the precarious fire escape style iron staircase down to the bottom and young Chinese are taking their photo opportunities with the Buddha very seriously. We play some cards again in the pavilion overlooking Leshan and the river below. I remain in Leshan at a small hotel. Wanting to continue by public transport tomorrow to Mount Emei Shan. During the evening riverboats take Chinese tourists past the foot of the looming Buddha who is now lit up in rainbows of neon - it's so Chinese. I've had a good wander and a sniff around and find myself more interested in who might be misbehaving in Chengdu.
Next ; Up a mountain, down a beer
