Kanas Lake
Trip Start
Aug 23, 2008
1
17
26
Trip End
Dec 12, 2008
Kanas,
China
Saturday, September 20, 2008
We finally reached the bottem of the stairs that we needed to climb up. I made it up 480 and then i needed to stop climbing. Then our tour guide (Li Dao) and Rea Laoshi came up and were checking on me. I decided that I could keep going. And i made it up the 1000 steps up the mountain.
Then came the really hard part because what goes up must come down, but down in thise case meant down 2000 mostly there steps. I quickly discovered that my foot really hated being walked on to go downstairs and the uneven steps
A bit of Kanas Lake
. Which is the only way you can describe the path down. Oh well other than my foot i had a fairly enjoyable time going do the mountain. I spent the entire time talking the laoshi part of team turtle in Chinese. By the time we reached the bottom of the mountain the rest of the group had already moved on. Li Dao kept funning between the groups making sure that we did not get lost. well we followed the path until we came along this fence. One of those spiked on top do not cross fence and the Laoshis said that we had to climb over the fence. Before this happened Li Dao had taken off and not come back. I bet he was off collecting the vans that would drive us up to the hotel. Well team turtle kept walking down the road until the van came and picked us up. We also stopped to pick up some of the IES girls because of course the guys so were so manly they could just stand around in the freezing cold until the next bus arrived. At the hotel they told us that we needed to sleep in the cabin instead of the yurt. The Cabin was just a totally inclosed building with beds but i'm sure it beat the yurt that would have leaked air from the top and bottom. We dropped our packs off in our rooms and went to the main yurt to eat dinner. The food was all tasty and warm so it made everyone happy.
After dinner i went back to the cabin to take care of my foot
hmmmmm does this look like a path to you?
. At this point I had a total meltdown and called mom (and ate the rest of the time on my Chinese cell phone.) The meltdown was mostly caused by pain but in small part because it seems like lots of the other students think i am just being wimpy or seeking attention. I know it is hard for people to understand my pain because they haven't dealt with it before. After I had calmed down I went back to the main yurt to join everyone and find out what the plan for me was tomorrow because i can not ride a horse for 8 hours. When i left the cabin I was shocked to see so many stars. I thinks that is the first time i really understood why people back home go camping so far out in the middle of nowhere. I am going to miss being able to see lots of stars when i go bak to Beijing.
I am now curled up in my bed in the cabin without heat.... I hope i don't freeze tonight
