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Published: October 11th 2006
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MOUNT LAOSHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!! (which in Chinese I guess translates to Mountain Lao Mountain. They just say Laoshan. Lao Mountain.)
Today we woke up at 6am to catch the #304 pubic city bus to Laoshan. It was mad crowded, and took and hour and a half, but luckily everyone got a seat except Jeff. (sorry Jeff, but you gotta learn to be more aggressive.)
We arrived at the "foot" of the mountain at about 9am, but getting the tickets to the "Laoshan Scenic Area" and moving the bus further up the mountain was a time consuming ordeal. First they had to stop the bus so someone could get on board to sell the tickets. Then, about 100 yards later, the bus stopped again because not all the stops ahead were for Laoshan. So everyone NOT going to Laoshan had to get off the bus and wait while a security guard checked all the tickets of those going TO Laoshan, and then reboard. Then the bus had to climb up the steep mountain to drop off the climbers at the first trail. Once we deboarded the bus, it took us a while to actually locate the trail. We got about ten minutes in and
Little girl
Here's the little girl we met in the tram. then realized no one had eaten breakfast and we'd better turn around and find some food or we were all going to die. (Yes, everyone was going to die.) So, we turned around, went back down, and found a rice and noodles stall. Richard had tea eggs, which I found fascinating. Eggs hard boiled in tea.
Ok. Everyone well fed. Up we go! Amanda, still feeling a bit shaky from her stomach ordeal, lasted about 15 minutes before taking the preventative measures of turning around and going back down to the bottom where she could catch the gondola to the top. If she didn't, she probably would have died. And since I am a good friend and didn't want her to brave it alone (A.K.A. I'm LAZY and I like gondolas) I accompanied her. The lines took so long, the boys beat us to the top. In line to buy the gondola tickets, about three people cut in front of us before I decided to get firm and yell at/blockade anyone who tried to shove us over. They all acted really really guilty, which kind of made it more maddening. In line to actually board the gondola, a woman wearing
one of the larger visors I've ever seen kept trying to get in front of us, but Amanda and I were determined. We were a wall of strength. Then she ended up in our gondola. Damn. But, a REALLY cute little girl came in with her, and she practiced her English on us, and we practiced our Chinese. The woman was nice enough. But she made a slightly weird comment. "women shi huangguoren. tamen shi beigouren." We are yellow people. They are white people. We weren't really sure how to respond to that.
Laoshan, and I imagine many Chinese mountains, differ from American mountains in that instead of trails they have stairs. Stone stairs and walkways all the way up. There were a few Taoist (one buddhist) temples at the top, so that might explain part of it. All the way up (from what little of the up part we ladies did see, and from what the boys said) there were merchents selling souvenirs and snacks. The gondola brought us only three quarters of the way up, and Amanda and I got bombarded with smells, sights, and calls. ("Miss! Come see!) we reached the top, and snapped some photos. It
was kind of anti-climactic. We found the boys and started down, this time via another path that boasted a beautiful waterfall. Unfortunutely it was a beautiful trickle. About six years ago it was a beautiful waterfall, but I guess these days it is resigned to be a big wet rock. Apparently, sometimes in spring it occasionaly "flows." On the way down we bumped into our new British friends, whose names we can't really remember, But the guy looks a lot like Harry Potter so we call him Harry Potter. It was kind of a "hi!" "Bye!" kind of thing. Anyway, eventually we got to the bottom, but realized we were about two miles below where we needed to catch the bus back, and the traffic was so bad that footing it would have been perilous. So we grabbed a cab. And paid forty kuai for a five minute cab ride. Bastards. None of them would barter down. Too busy a time and place. We found the bus stop and waited. The bus arrived PACKED. Sardine can packed. I'm shocked we even got on. And it stayed that way for the hour and half ride back into town.
So, to sum
up, Laoshan wasn't really worth what we paid and the effort we made, but it was pretty and we had a decent time. We did walk along the shore for a bit, and that was gorgeous. The water looked incredibly inviting. And it SOUNDED inviting too. I took a video of the water because I found it so soothing. And guess what: it sounded soothing on the video to so HA.
Bus ride back, snooze, dinner, and now what? I'm here at an internet cafe writing this now because I know that I can't do it this weekend, I'll be going crazy with lesson plans!
Yours
-Carrie
ps: to explain title, see pitures. To see entire picture description, double click on picture.
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Karen
non-member comment
Carrie- you have to try the chicken buses in Guatemala. They are old school buses painted red, white, blue and yellow but packed like sardines. The drivers like to play chicken which must have something to do with their name.