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The Trekking Week!
Entry 6 of 12 | show all | print this entry |
On the plane to China i realised that the trekking week was not a week of trekking but just 4 days. This was disappointing to me as a really wanted to have a challenge to finish off my China Experience. Zhong showed us his revised itininary and guess what are trekking had been cut short to 3 days one of the days we would be wallking through roads and past villages back to Shanquing and it could all be seen in the car so we didnt need to do it!!!
This was even more gay to hear but i didnt fancy walking on the treacherous roads and thought we would be doing more mountain trekking. Zhong said that there would be challenging times so this week was hard what to expect.
Feb 24th:
In the morning we visited an orange orchard and picked some oranges to eat. It wasn't very eventful and i left wishing it was more interesting. My wishes were kind of answered. I spotted four puppies that looked like they had just been chucked from the road into the field. They looked so desperate and their death seemed very soon! We performed an emergency rescue, wearing gloves of course. They tried to suckle on2 anything they were so young that i think they were still blind. I tried giving them some water in my hood of my raincoat but it didnt really work. All of our chinese friends didnt look to bothered and after 20 minutes of pleading we got the orchard owners to take them away. Hopefully they're ok and weren't just thrown back in. They're is definitely a gap between the affection we and China see for animals.
We ate lunch in the again 'famous' restaurant for its lamb. There was only one women cooking so it took quite a while and the lamb was disappoininting consisting of mainly fat. Im not actually sure if it was lamb as when we left a rickshaw turned up and instead of a passenger jumping out four goats were hurdled in2 the restaurant! Hmmm...
After lunch we had negotiated to go to the nearest town and have a good session on the much neglected internet. It was a simple town and the only thing that stood out for me was a chinese guy streched out on a curb smoking in his boxers. He was surrounded with people and opposite him was a fairly pretty women in wedding dress that started to massage his frontal boxers with a wine bottle!!! WTF!? When i got a pic some of the crowd panicked but hey?
Feb 25th:
Today we set off for the main trek of the week to the summit of Zhu Shan or Chicken Foot Mountain. This mountain is famous for its buddhist roots. It has 19 peaks which make up the shape of a chicken foot a widely eaten snack in Asia. We had to pack a day pack with a sleeping bag as we would be staying in a temple at the top.
The trek wasnt especially amazing as this mountain was in a way too famous. It had been made in2 a park and to make it an easier climb the path had been concreted with steps the whole way up. It had that communist feel big grey and ugly but effective and cheap! I can't say it wasn't challenging though! The steps seemed to go on forever and 4000m was 4 times higher than i had ever walked to. I kept running out of breath and air felt like it had hardly any oxygen. The path was cut through mainly forest which was cooling but didnt stop my back clamming severely. We had lunch on one of the many food places adjoined to the path. I had another chinese dumpling contest with Jelle and managed 10 which made a slightly worrying structure to my stomach for the walk ahead!
After i think 4 hours of trekking and a race up a flight of about 300 steps we made it to our temple. My legs felt so heavy as the race had meant they hadnt got any oxygen in time! I was ready for a well earned break but we wern't at the top yet we still had an hours walk ahead!!! We were to stay a night in this temple called Jia Se temple. It was of the biggest on the mountain but was destroyed during the cultural rev. It ahd been rebuilt to simple temple, that was surrounded with 2 floors of concrete cell like rooms used as accomadation for monks and tourists alike. It was rebuilt because next to it was this big rock that one the main buddhas mediated for 500 years on before going through a gate in the mountain which we would see later.
After looking at the rock and trying to do the lotus flower mediation on some stone lotus flowers we headed for the top! 2 of our co-ordinators had given up and got the cable to the top where they were waiting for us. The path was yet again more steps but there were some spectacualar views of Yunnan. We also saw an old women being carried in a mini planquin by two very fit men! How did they do it she looked about 20 stone. The temple at the top was well a chinese temple. It was so cold up there and my sweat felt like it was turning to ice! I brought gloves and my sno zone fleece but was still freezing. We went up a pagoda which was adjoined to the temple but spent most of our time fighting over a furnace for warmth. With some good timing we had arrived when the monks where to have a group chant. Zhong told us we could join in so i bravely and probably foolishly joined precession. I closed my eyes and listened to there chanting and thump of the fish drum which is used for chanting. Chinese tourists were arriving and looking at us like WTF and taking pics. It was pretty relaxing but i did feel awkward after a while and left. By this time most of the group had joined and left awkwardly. Still it was atleast a little incite. Another good timing was that freakishly Mr Lee and his wife were at the top when we there. They had wanted to go with thier friends and it was actually a genuine coincidence we had met them!
We had some lunch at the top but it really was 2 cold 2 stay much longer so we went back down and saw the gate which had opened for the buddha. It was a massive cliff that had a big arch and really did look like a big stone door like the one off lord of the rings! We walked back down the steps to our rooms which for me and Jelle was pretty good as we had 4 beds between us. I accidently knocked over a thermal flask which was owned by the temple and had to give an offereing to the temple and pray for forgiveness. At night me Jelle and Tiffnay snuck out of the temple and sat out on the famous rock. Looking at the stars and the listening to the wind was good but we soon got cold and had a great night sleep.
Feb 26th
I woke in the morning with an egg burp!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
My bug had come back! I cudnt eat much breakfast and we soon headed down to the carpark where are bus was waiting. The walk was much easier and i just focussed on getting back down. It took an hour to get down which made yesterdays walk seem really easy. We walked around another temple which had a monk with 6 burn wholes on his scalp. To get to knew levels of buddhism u have to have hot rods burnt on2 ur head! Inner peace? We went to a massive hollow tree that used to house a murdering snake spirit disguised as a pretty women. We also saw a mig waterfall but it was hard to get in2 it as my stomach and bowel were in no good state and spent most of my time on the i.pod.
I had a terrible drive back to Shanquing holding in diarrhoea desires the whole way. As soon as we got back i ran to the loo and that occupied most of my night.
Feb 27th:
Luckily today it was our free day or rest day from yesterday. For me it was a good chance to get all my diarrhoea out and hopefully kill this bastard bug. Unfortunately Zhongs mum had cooked up another amazing meal for breakfast. Massive pancakes, rice porridge and big steamed buns fills with sweet syrup. I cudnt resist some pancake but i did hold back!
I spent the day visiting the loo, reading and washing all my clothes! This takes a very long time having to scrub and rinse then ring everything. A random chinese kid came in2 the house courtyard wanting to learn english. I wanted nothing to do with him when he told the driver i had a big nose but he wudnt leave me alone and tried to amke me read my whole book out to him!
By the time the sun began to set. I was feeling a lot better and wanted to make something of this dull day.
This wasn't too much of a problem as a few days before we had asked Zhong if we could have a big meal with his family and relatives. This meant Chinese spirits! Though i expected more Zhong's parents, aunt/uncle and cousin turned up and ate with us. They wern't really interesting and made no effort to speak to us. The women don't eat with guests as theyre cooking and eat the scraps afterwards. So maybe they were just shy. The meal was delicous though and after 2 beers and 5 hefty glasses of 50% spirit just sitting with them was good enough for me!
Mr Zhong's father had made the concoption with orange but it still tasted like paint stripper to me. If any one makes a toast u have to drink the 75ml glass and if people shout "Ga!" u supposed to down it. I had to be hospitable!
After dinner we stumbled over to another house which the owner had taught Zhong Chinese as in all the Bai villages, Bai is the language which comes first! We went in2 this big room with that had a TV and was packed full of friendly chinese peasants. There must have been about 20 people in their and all of them seemed to be smoking. The atmosphere was really good with loads of laughter and i seemed to have a constant supply of cigarettes as villager after villager provided me with a fag as soon as i had finished one. When cowman had arrived we knew we were in for a night! We swiftly made his way over to Tiffany with a bag of sweets to win her heart over. That failed so he tried his party trick smoking a fag through his nose! Soon after this a bong arrived and the owner challenged me to use it! I falied miserably as they wanted me to smoke it with a fag attached to the pipe! I managed to match 5 glasses of this death juice the same as cowman who by now knew he wudnt be heardin the cows 2morro. For some reason i ended up munching on sour pears before we stumbled home hugging each other.
We had are biggest walk 2morro and i was drunk! I sat in the dogs bed and stroked him and then Jelle carried him in2 our room. After being ashamedly sick i ate loads of cookies and apples in my bed with Tiff and Jelle.
Feb 28th
I awoke in a mess on the bed with cookie crumbs, apple core and probly loads of flees by the look of the bites i had all over my back. I had roomspin and was finding it very hard to get up for a 7 hour walk we had ahead of us. What made it worse was that we had to pack our bags as we wudnt be coming back to Shanquing again! Jelle saved me again and got me loads of water. I had to drink aobut 4 litres before my mouth loosened from a stone texture. The sick had done me good and i ate 2 big pancakes for breakfast. I packed just in time and drove to a nearby town to begin are walk.
The walk was from Shanquing to Wa Se and wud take 5 hours in total but we wanted to get to a peak so we didnt know how much longer it would take. At first i thought my hangover was going to be a problem but i kept drinking and the pace was slow so by lunch time it soon left my worries. After lunch we made a group decision to get to this peak it would take an extra 3 hours. Not all the group was up 4 this but i really wanted to have a long walk on my belt. We thought there was gonna be a path to follow but when the guy who was leading us got out his big knife i knew we were in for a treat. We left the beaten track and went straight in2 the wilderness crouching through gaps in the vegetation. Ducking, lunging and getting scratched to pieces this was everything i was looking for. We had been walking for an extra 2 hours and by this time the group were getting pissed off as we cudnt even see if were near the top. There was talk of turning back to i told the group the guide had told me that there was a clear path at the top which would be a short cut for the way back! It worked and we carried on. It was pretty awesome to see this guide gliding through the forest and when we got to big rocks he was hopping around like a goat. This gave a chance for some good scrambling which didnt go down with the girls (dangerous etc) but the view at the top was worthwhile and a good stop for the rest of our remaining lunch.
When we started walking back into the bush and not on2 the clear path it was not a good mood but i just stayed with the leader and missed the moaning. We walked 4 ages and ages and eventually got over the other side of the mountain and into Wa Se. We had walked 4 8 hours and i was completely knackerd. My legs were shattered. We had a meal in a homestay, which felt like a mission to get to, and went back to our old homestay. It was really good to see our old friends again and our playroom and had been updated to a pent house. We had this massive room on the second floor with two big double beds, panorama window view and a big balcony!!! I slept like a log!
Feb 29th:
This was to be our last day in Wa Se the place i really liked and would miss. It was a glorious day, clear skys with the lake and snow capped mountain in site. The viillage was full of colour and noise with the banter and exchanges of market day. Street dentists and big gatherings around the biggest pig were something i wasnt going to see for a long time. Today was also gonna be my last nite out with Jelle! So we had to make it a good one!
My legs actually felt alright when i thought i wasnt gonna be able to move. I spent the day looking around the market, doing washing and playing with some kids. We a farewell dinner at the restaurant which Mr Lee owned. It was a great meal and Jelle got really really drunk! We had loads of good toasts including a thoughtful attempt by me! We had a gr8 time and i felt lucky to have this group and knew i would miss em. Even Mr Zhong! Jelle ended up being sick sprawled over an Asian toilet so me and driver went to get him some water and he gave me his playboy lighter. This was a true honour as it had a light at the bottom that displayed a naked lady!!!
March 1st:
Me and Jelle woke up late and packed late to arrive late to leave for Kunming. We said goodbye and thanks to the village leade and his family. Jumped into the vanwagon to drop Mr Zhong and Jelle off in New Dali. The trip brought up another recurrence of stomach pains for me. We reached Dali just when i had my 1st egg burp. We played football with the kids in the school where Zhong teached while waiting for the driver to fill up the van. It came and we had a sad farewell. I left behind a great friend who i had passed on a book and he had given me a big bag of coookies! The drive was reallly long and we arrived in Kunming at 5pm. We checked in to the hotel and after buying a camera battery, we set off for our last dinner together. It was in a nice restaurant for once and we had some good group pics. Everyone wanted to go to Hagen Das and without Jelle i had to think of a way to join this expensive ice cream desire. I went to McDonalds which is becoming very popular in China! It was strange to see it packed with Chinese. After ice cream we left to go to a Chinese bar. We were lead to this big bar that had a stage and some super attractive women were dancing on it! All the chinese sat on tables and raised glow sticks and attempted to dance but theyre a long way away from dancing madly in a club.
We walked back and i remembered when i had first arrived here and was getting a hair cut how i thought i cudnt go anywhere without a translator. I got into my room and had diarrhoea again. I was determined to watch my food and alcohol intake from now on and i havn't had it since. Thank God.
Where I stayed:
Homestays
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