The big budda and Emei Shan
Trip Start
Sep 16, 2006
1
16
117
Trip End
Feb 28, 2008
Emei,
China
Monday, October 30, 2006
So the last time i wrote to you all it was the 26th October and i was in an internet cafe in Chengdu... Well after that mammoth session i headed back to the hostel to chill out whilst Rob, Arjen & Audrey were out buying our tickets to Lijiang for Sunday 29th October. It wasnt long before they came back - i was fast asleep as was knackered..! We all gathered down stairs with Jack and an american girl called Melissa to chat about the food plan for tea, they all wanted to try hotpot (eeek) so we planed to march to a local (but nicer) venu to sample the firery goods....! The eatery was on the hostel map that was handed to us on arrival so it was a recommended so we walked about 20 mins until we eventually found it (not where it was on the map)!!! Right.... This place was alot bigger than the first place rob and i tried it last and was cleaner which was a good thing. It was packed to the rafters with locals all munching the "on a stick" menu
A view from the top
. All changed when we walked through the doors as the whole restaurant dowed tools and starred at us!! It was like they had never seen white people before and as there was 6 of us it felt like we were the entertainment for the evening!! Even the staff we dumbstruck but they all (about 7 waiters) showed us to a table and we sat down.. We ordered some beers and had a look at what we about to eat. The difference with this place was everything was on a stick and they charged by the stick (0.1 yuan per). Some had 3 sticks stuck into one portion, some had 2 but most had 1 so it was very different from the last place. Then the hot pot came!!!! There were no split pans this time so the only option was the pot of death which looked as evil as i remembered; they lit the burner in the middle of the table and plonked the hot pot in and we were away...We all took it in turns to go up and select our food (most of which i had no idea what it was) but i just loaded my tray up and sat back down. The next hour or so was to be one of the most enjoyable yet hottest meals i had ever tasted!! Every bite would melt your mouth so as you can imagine the beers were flowing at a rapid rate. I had to order rice as well as my mouth was about to explode!!! The whole process though is very fun when there are more of you round the table as you can watch others suffer so you dont feel so alone in your pain. What i dont recomend though is rubbing your nose or your eye when you have the devils oil on your finger - my whole head felt like it was on fire for about 15 mins!!!!!! We had alot of fun in that restaurant i have to say and one meal i think i will never forget.. To end it all off, the waiter comes round and collects up all the sticks from the buckets that are provided, then counts every one until he has the total. Our meal per person including 3 beers came to 20 yuan (1 pound 30)!!
Another funny urinal sign.
! What a bargin hey; that it was but the fun/pain was far from being over i can tell you - you will have to wait for that bit. :)After we had been to hell and back we strolled back to the hostel to continue drinking and chat. We ended up learning a new card game called Yanif which is an israeli game. Melissa had learnt it the night before so she taught the rest of us.. It was tricky at first to pick up but after a while it was great fun so we played in the donkey room until around midnight after which i went upstairs to prepare my bags for the next few days..
27th October 2006.. The plan from the night before was to meet down in the chill out area for 7.30am to have some breakfast before heading off to Emei at 8. Well we all made it but there was a problem; infact there were 4 problems!!!! All of us were having to visit the toilet every 10 mins or so as the hotpot had melted our insides, it was not the most pleasant of experiences i have to say. From 8 until 9am we darnt leave the hostel for fear of having a movement on the bus journey so we had to be patient as one by one we disapeared to the bathroom to spent from 5 - 35mins on the thrown!!! Anyway by 9 we did eventually leave the comforts of the Mix hostel with our day bags packed and our main bags locked in the safe room for our return on sunday
Another shot of the gorge
. few.We got a taxi to the bus station, then had to wait about 30 mins before our bus was due to leave, in that time an urgent fax came in and i had to disapear to find a toilet!!! The only toilets available were in the internet cafe upstairs and by now i am sure you know how bad those toilets are!!! I walked in with pains in my stomach to find a 8 traps, all dive bomers, mostly populated by pooping china men, non of which had a door!! There was one free but i coulnd not bring myself to drop my trollys infront of 4 chinamen all of which were starring at me!!! I ran out... Luckily the pain subsided and i got on the bus with no problems.. few.
The bus only took 2 hours to get to Emei town center. From here we got off the bus with an older american guy who also traveled from Chengdu. A touting lady met us at the bus station and was spouting off at us about staying at her hotel and that we needed to get in the mini van that was to our right!!! We had no idea what was going on, what were supposed to do or where we were so after about 15 mins we decided to go with her plan and head off to The Teddy Bear Hotel on the outskirts of Emei. This did actually turn out to be ok as it didnt cost much to get there and they all spoke english and were very helpful. The weather that day wasnt great as there was lots of low cloud and we had had some rain so our original plan of going up to the summit and staying in a monastary was not looking too good. We came up with a new plan which was to go and see the Big Buddha that day, stay at The Teddy Bear Hotel that night and leave for the summit of Emei shan earliy in the morning.. So that is what we did.
One of the staff showed us to the bus station and sorted out our tickets which was nice of her, rob and i grabbed some noodles from the shop to consume while we waited the 40 mins before our bus was due to leave.
Aww look at his little head.
.The journey only took about 30 mins to get to Leshan which is the home of the Big Buddha. When we arrived at the bus station in Leshan the taxi drivers were trying tout us into their cabs to get us to the site until a girl that spoke some english said that we needed to take the number 10 bus just down the road. The bus was only 1 yuan each so was the cheaper option. Our plan was to take the boat to see the Buddha as we had heard that it was the best way of seeing the buddha in full and not up close. If you go and walk around the Big Buddha there is a single file system in place with a stream of tourists all edging around the site which in my view would have been horrible so the boat was high on my agenda and with my fellow travelers. After a bit of searching we found the place to board the boat, paid the hefty 50 yuan ticket price and boarded.. The weather conditions werent the best for enjoying this great land mark but once we got going it was obvious that we were going to have a clear view. The Big Buddha is the biggest buddha in the world and stands a whopping 71m high, so as you can imagine being too close would mean that a full picture would be impossible.
The boat itself had an open deck on the top where everybody could stand and take in the sights; we were first in the cue so i ran on to get a good place ready for this great specticle.. The trip down river only took about 15 mins so we didnt have to wait long until the Buddah himself was in full view. It was an amazing site and the boat gave a great view of the had carved masterpiece. We could see the line of tourists inching round the outside in one long line from the base right up to the head and around. It wasnt a straight path, it weaved in a sort of zig zag pattern and was carved into the rockface like one long cave (half tunnel) in places
Breakfast at the Hard Wok Cafe
. The boat was only in the area for about 10 mins which was abit of a dissapointment as we expected alot more time for the 50 yuan price tag so i have to say i was not impressed but i guess its a tourist trap and they want as many people through the doors as they can cram so you cant blame them for that...After the boat trip we sort of planned to go and have a closer look at the Buddha but time was getting on and the site closed at 17.30 and it was 16.30 when we got off the boat so we had to scrap that idea and head back to the bus station to check in at the Teddy Bear for the night.
At the bus station we booked our tickets and had some time spare so we decided to have a play with our new toy.. (the kicky thing we had bought in Chengdu).. It was great fun but i think it was more fun for the people watching us make prats of ourselves outside the bus station as we had a fair few on lookers checking out our form (or lack of it as the case was)!!! Unfortunatly it broke after 15mins so we had to call it a day but we had bought 3 so all was not lost and we could have more kicky thing fun at someother point alone the trip. :) Back at the hotel, we checked in and chucked our things up in the room which was nice and clean and only 30 yuan a night before heading back down to enjoy some good food from a chinese menu written in English.
Dive bomer toilet at Monastary
. :) There were two guys we recognised from the Mix Hostel in the eating area so we joined them to eat and that would be the start of a great friendship that continued for the whole trip to Emei.. :) Mark and John were good fun to be with and we all shared the same sence of humour so as you can imagine we laughed alot that night over a fair few beers until it was time to hit the sack ready for our trek the next day. Oh what i havent mentioned is that we all decided to do the trek together and had a plan of meeting down stairs in the morning at 06.30 to check on the weather and hopefully leave asap to ensure we would have a full day on the mountain.. :)Robs alarm went off at around 6am which wasnt the nicest of times to wake up when your on holiday but it wasnt too bad as i had a good nights sleep. The night before we had ordered 2 Teddy Bear picnics each which is basically 2 lunch packs, one for breakfast and one for lunch. They consisted of an egg n bacon bap, a piece of fruit and a bottle of water. After a munch we were all offered walking sticks to aid our walk; they were like old mans walking sticks so we all opted to take them just for the comedy value if nothing else..
The bus journey to the coach park 2000m snaked around the outside of the national park area and the scenery was stunning; tree covered mountains both sides with waterfalls and streams cutting the landscape in half, winding roads slowly gaining altitude and signs with comical monkeys on showing the driver which way the road was to turn next. I really enjoyed the bus trip but deep down i wanted to walk all the way but i had no one to do it with and the trek would have been way too dangerous on my own.! doh. Once we arrived at the coach stop we had the choice of either a trek or a cable car to the summit, of course i wanted to walk it and thankfully everyone else had my enthusiasm to at least walk the last 1100m
Female monkey at the monastary
. :) Audrey i have to say wasnt keen as she wasnt feeling too well and didnt think she could make it but after a chat with Arjen she decided to give it a go and i think - looking back - she knows she made the right choice.. At the start of the walk, there was a place where you could hire warm coats which seemed to be the choice of the more adventurous chineses who dont think about it actually been cold at 3099m!! It was really funny to see lots of people all wearing the same coats in one big pack. Even funnier was that - if you wanted - you could be carried up in a bamboo chair by 2 chinese men for 300 Yuan.. yes carried up!!! It was hilarous as only the fat and unfit were taking this option; the look on the faces of the poor guys who had to lift chinas laziest up the mountain was a picture i can tell you..The trek is well laid out as there is steps all the way. It is a very touristy area so the track up was also lined (in places) with stalls selling crap and drinks. Some were even selling framed butterflies, why the hell would you want to buy a series of framed butterflies on your way up a mountain!!! Beats me.. Being that it is a tourist area, there was a fair amount of building work going on route. Men and women of all ages had the arduous task of lumping all the building materials up the mountain in wicker baskets with the thinest of straps.. Some had pebbels, some had bricks but the weight of them must have been back breaking as they had to stop every few yards to have a rest.. Tourists would stop them and give them money as they were helping to build the future of the moutains toursim and with it money for the area so i think they were grate full of the offering as it was probably more than they were being paid for a whole days work!
At the top, the view was breathtaking as the weather had been kind to us
Forest walk
. There was a fair bit of mist and low cloud but still the scenery took my breath away. Mt Emei is one of the four sacred buddist mountains in china so many of the chinese tourists scale the mountain to pray and make offerings. We had a good look round at the top before eating our teddy bear picnic (:)) which was needed as we all were ravenous.The cable car would be our mode of transport back down to the coach park, then a mini bus to another coach station near the bottom. From here Audrey and Arjen decided to head off back to the hotel as audrey had had enough walking for the day plus they wanted to head back to Chengdu that night so that left me, rob, mark and john to continue the adventure as a smaller group. The plan was to walk for the rest of the day through the forest, visiting the many temples along the way, then walk through the Monkey area then head to the Hong Chun Ping Monastary to spend the night. The walk was hard work as we had alot of ground to cover within the 3 hours we had before it wuld get dark. The paths led us through small villages, past fantasic temples, up steep mountains and down to more forests and yet more breath taking scenery.. In places we had to walk along wooden walkways through gorges with a streams running beneath which i have to say was the highlight for me as the dramatic mountains were towering over us as the light was dimming which made the walk a real pleasure even though i was beginning to flag.. Then we came to the monkey area... As it was the wrong time of day to see the monkeys we still got to see a few in the distance which was great as it was to be the first time any of us had seen monkeys in the wild. We didnt hang around long as we had a bit of walk ahead of us and the light was dimming fast. It seemed to take us an age to get up to the monastery as it was all up hill (400m) from the monkey area so by the time we got there i was pooped
Funny sign i toilet
. The nice part though was finding a little locally ran eatery in the middle of nowhere just a bit down from the monastary called the Hard Wok Cafe.. :) They served cold beers and hot food so we couldnt wait to get our bags dumped and head down to relax over a well earned beer or 3...The monastary was amasing.. It was like any other temple we had visited during our stay in china, tradiional style but this time was full of practicing monks!!! We were to be staying in a room off the main courtyard right underneath the main temple where the monks pray and chant which we didnt realise until the following morning.. I had a good look round the grounds before we headed down to the eatery. It was such an great little place; a woman and her husband ran the joint which was perched on the side of a mountain up in the trees. They also lived there which was realised when we had to walk through to use the bathroom!!! You could watch them prepare and cook the food fresh in front of you and it was all made to order (as you would expect what with its location). The beers were flowing, the food turned out to be fantasic and me, rob and our new buddies laughed and joked until it was evident that the owners wanted to hit the sack.. :)
Back at the monasary we too hit the sack as the days walking had hit us hard so after a bit of chatting we all drifted off in our individual four poster beds under mosquito nets in complete silence..Bliss
The next morning (30th October) we were woken at 5.45am by the moastary bell being hit followed by a monk chanting.
Gorge
. I got straight up as this was something i didnt want to miss but the others listened from their beds. I walked around until i had a good view of the monk in question; he was holding a big wooden beater and reciting (singing)a buddhist chant over and over again. After every repetition, he would hit the bell again and repeat the whole process. This went on for about 45 mins but it was still dark outside as the sun had yet to come up. It was a unique experience to be this close to something that you generally only see or hear on television so i made sure i didnt miss a thing.. At about 6.30 all the monks were up in the temple and started to chant and play differnt instruments for what must have been another 45 mins. The chant started slow but would slowly speed up under the guidence of the main monk (?). By the end it was being spoken at such a speed that the mood changed (for me). It became very haunting yet very spiritual as every monk would be speaking as one what with the atmospheric sound the instruments added. I was deeply moved by this experience as i was stood in the doorway watching every move they made. Wow. Rob did join me part way through but he had forgotten to cancel his alarm on his watch; it was so embarising when i went off, i wanted the ground to swallow me up but i have to say non of the monks flinched one bit as they were so focased on what they were there to do.Breakfast time was around 7, so the boys got out of bed. We headed back down to the Hard Wok Cafe to grab some pancakes filled with bannana & chocolate which we had seen on the menu the night before.. They were fantasic and just what we needed as we had another day of walking ahead of us. On the way back up to the monastary we were treated to something that non of us had expected.... Wild Monkeys everywhere!!!!! Right outside the entrance, the monks were feeding the monkeys which must be part of the daily routine
Group shot at waterfall
. Their were baby monkeys, adelecent monkeys and fully grown adult monkeys all i front of us, it was such a surprise. They wernt aggressive at all and would get really close and just look at you. Some were grooming each other, some were fighting and some were just sitting there enjoying the view.. I took lots of photos and a few videos as i wanted to capture as much of this i could. At one point during my video blog for rosie one of the adul males nicked a pack of biscuits from the lady who runs the shop!! I was just about to enter the monastary to give a guided tour when it all kicked off; the monkey had ripped the packet open and was cramming as many biscuits as he could into his mouth whilst the others just sat back and watched. Eventually they decided this was ok and the monks opened another packet ahd shared them with the little ones that were nervously watching fro the flanks; it was great that i mangaed to catch it all on film so iguess if you want to watch it you will have to give my brother a call or go and visit rosie in Cam. (note, disc wont be sent for a while yet but will let you all know when it goes in the post.. :))After that we packed up our stuff, said our goodbyes and headed out for the trek back to Teddy Bear to catch a bus back to Chengdu to catch our pre-booked train to Panzhihua then a bus to Lijiang... few (tight time scale)
The walk back took us down the way we had come, through the monkey aea and beyond
Hard Wok Cafe
. At around 9.30am the monkey area is teaming with the little buggers, so many so that there are staff employed to ensure that they dont come too close to the tourists. They are armed with long sticks which the monkeys know as "back up back up now and give a brother room" but that didnt stop a very oppertunistic monkey from trying nick johns walking stick!! Probably to get the monkey beaters back!!! This blog is massive now i am aware not only from the actual length of it but the fact that i busting for a wee and my back is aching from being hunched over this keyboard!!! I will summ the rest of the day up in brief...Long walk back to Teddy bear hotel, time was getting on so we had to march the last bit and rob and i got in a taxi to speed the process along. We only had 20 yuan each left i our wallets and the bus back to chengdu was 35 so we found a bank to find that our cards didnt work!!! Time was ticking now so we then had to go back to the hotel to change dollars for local currency (Thanks to Andy) which meant we could board the bus and get back to changdu. The bus took longer than expected and we were dropped back to a differnet bus station to where we had left so the taxi journey was monumentous, leaving us 15 mins to get in, sort our bags out and shower!!! Arjen and audrey were waiting but we said to carry on as we were on a mission. I was ready and showered in 20mins so we were now getting very close to missing the train!!
Mark, rob & John
! eeek. Oh and i dropped my towel in the fish pond just because i wanted to carry the extra weight of heavy smelly water!! Doh. Then i a taxi, then get some food as were hadnt eaten for about 7 hours then to the train station!!! We just made it in time with 15 mins to spare before the train was due to depart so we were very lucky.. Arjen and Audrey were in our cabin so we arrived very stessed and very sweaty but at least we were there. I then consumed my chicken burger and chips i had bought on the way in and concentrated on cooling down which took ages!!The train trip took 12 hours (over night sleeper)so we arrived in Panzhihua at 7am after a good nights sleep and before that 3 beers and many rounds of cards to while away the evening.. :)
In Panzhihua we got straight on a bus to Lijiang (Close to Tiger Leaping Gorge) which took 9 hours in total but was amasing as the scenery along the way was breathtaking. The only bad part was being sat next to a travel sick chinese women; rob got some of her sick on his trousers and she threw her full bags of sick out of the window (which had to be lifted over me to do so)!!! Yuck. The bus driver drove like a madman though so i can see why she had a problem.
Anyway, i am still in Lijiang now and it is the 31st October. Lijiang is a fantasic little city with lots to see and do but i will tell you about that some other time as i have had enough of blogging right now!!! I leave for Tiger Leaping gorge tomorrow morning and plan to do a 2 or 3 day trek stopping off to sleep along the way so i guess thats it from me..
Steve, Sneeky, Beeky, Arr Trace. xx
