Emeide It! (read I made it)

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Made it to Leshan by 3PM. As soon as I got off the bus I was attacked by men who wanted me to take their taxi. I negotiated with them down to 15 Yuan from their start of 30 CNY (ps…CNY=RMB=Yuan)…I then realized that I needed to leave my bags at the bus station according to advice from Melanie and Mike. When inside inquiring, the nice woman also mentioned that I could take a bus to Leshan for 1CNY. Obviously, that was the best option so I left the taxi driver who was not happy about it.

Since I arrived so late, I only had time to do the boat tour to see the Grand Buddha (Dafo). Which to be honest, was totally fine. By the looks of it, even at 4PM the stairs to get up to the top looked like a bottleneck at every turn, so I’m not too disappointed, although with more time I would have definitely done it. Alas, we cant see it all and I had to be back at the train station for the last bus to Emei at 6PM. No use stressing.

When I arrived back at the station I had an easy 45 minutes to wait. While I was in the washroom I had a thought…I guess I totally understand the hole squat toilet thing…I get it…but I don’t get why NONE have toilet paper. Its not an issue since I carry with me, but why is the culture here you have to lug around your own roll…I would think every human would want toilet paper…especially the ladies…what gives?

There was this western guy on my bus. Seemed nice at first but then got really annoying. He must have been round 40 and was acting like a 10 year old (both on the bus and at the hostel we were at). I guess you cant make friends with everyone you meet. I politely brushed him off and made friends with another guy from Germany. Don’t know his name yet but we are going to hike Emei Shan tomorrow. I will hike all day tomorrow and stay over night on the mountain at a monastery and then hike the rest of the way up the next day and make my way down so I can catch my train to Jinjiang. Man, I’m really on the move aren’t I? Guess I can’t see China fast enough…

Im finding that you have to be very trustworthy here. With the whole leaving your bag at the bus station and leaving it in storage at the hostels and giving money in CASH to the hostels to book your flights that are weeks away. I mean they are in business and written up well in LP so they must be trustworthy, but still, I can be a little wary.

I’m at the Teddy Bear Guesthouse which is magnificent! The shower is just so beautiful…I mean it’s a wet room, but the pressure and heat is lovely. Two places in row… the only downside is the amount of flies and mosquitoes. I must have at least 30 bites. None from Emei so far, but in general…they itch SO badly and to be honest, I don’t know where they come from…they are in bizarre places that are usually covered and I just wake up everyday with like 5 more…maybe its bed bugs…EWWW! Thus, I’ve been running around my room (like in Bhutan) with a shoe and switching the lights off in the room and on the in the bathroom, hoping the flies flock to the light in the smaller, more manageable bathroom for me to SWAT them. I know I am not the only one to do this cuz the amount of bug guts on the walls in the room is nothing short of a lot. Anyway, it must be a riot from the outside looking in…if someone were to see me doing this.

I must say…I enjoy the feeling of being calm and relaxed. I have a sense of peace and just utter happiness that I’m in love with it. Nothing quite like this.

It is now Saturday, October 20. Yesterday morning we met for breakfast at 7 and caught an 8AM bus to the base of the Emei Shan where we began hiking. I don’t think, once again, I knew what I was getting into. NINE HOURS later, we arrived at Elephant Bathing Pool, which is a monastery at 2070m…we started from 550m. oy oy oy! And we walked up stairs, and steep stairs and more steep stairs and that is it for pretty much the entire time…for those of you that have climbed Masada from the back end, try Emei…you will PAIN. Oh and I figured out my German friend’s name. Frank. I’m definitely happy I met him so I had a buddy to climb up with. I probably would have turned around otherwise. Especially cuz you think you see an end and then turn the corner and there is another ridiculous vertical to climb. This was tough stuff.

It was also freezing out but somehow I managed to want to strip off everything…you sweat SO much. And then when you stop to catch your breath, you freeze your ass off…while also trying to fend off monkeys that inhabit the area. Never have I experienced such change in body and outside temperature. Ugh, I couldn’t complain like I would have otherwise if I was with good friends…I appreciate those of you that would have dealt with this. AND minus us, and the occasional other westerner, we were the only ones on the mountains. Apparently the Chinese like the easy way out and they all take buses up (I may not have minded this option, but then I wouldn’t have felt so accomplished now). The only Chinese on the mountains were workers who were rebuilding some of the stairs we were climbing and they were climbing as well, but with cement slabs that must have weighed at least 5 of my backpacks. Incredible. And let’s not forget that they all like to hock lugers and snot out of their nose. Makes for an even more pleasant experience in nature…trekking on concrete steps…I guess I had envisioned woods. And every so often we would see someone sweeping the stairs!! I couldn't believe it…

We slept at the Elephant Bathing pool monastery going to sleep at like 8PM…I think very well deserved! This monastery, as well as the others, is NOTHING compared to what I’ve seen in Bhutan or Tibet. It was fascinating to me…I don’t know that I saw ANY monks. So weird. And it’s just not that pretty. Anyway, aside from the kick-ass workout…I better have buns of steel after this…we were getting up at 3AM to make the final leg of the trip up to catch the sunrise. Now, I didn’t have much faith that we would see it since I heard it was very rare to, but if you do its one of the most spectacular sights to see. But Frank and Alison, an Aussie we picked up on the way, wanted to shoot for it so we all left together with our torches. The walk was probably better in the dark cuz you cant see the insane number of stairs you actually have to climb. We got up to the cable car at 5AM, the time the guy at the monastery told us it opened…nonono…the sign said SEVEN! Seriously??! Two hours to wait in freezing cold?! Alison and Frank after 30 minutes decided to hike cuz they had to see the sunrise. Well, I wasn’t convinced that there was going to be one. So I let them go and I waited in the bathroom. Why? Because there were heaters in there!! It was a pretty nice bathroom so not much smell. I defrosted and went out to wait in the cable car line. I’m pretty sure I made it up there before the two of them, if not around the same time. We found each other at the peak so traveled back to the hostel together. I’m happy about my decision to pass on the stairs…firstly cuz the timing didn’t matter since we got there essentially the same time, I didn’t kill my legs anymore, I was able to rent a coat cuz it was probably 20 degrees F, which meant instead of mist there was SNOW! Well I finally got my snow, but wow, it was frigid.

I also saw Tibetans this morning at the peak of Emei. And I just had this big grin on my face. There are such civil kind people and not to mention beautiful.

Back at the hostel, the woman who works at the Teddy Bear is going around with a fly swatter killing flies but does she care that the doors are WIDE open!!! Its not doing any good and you are wasting your energy. Minus the shower in the single private room, not in love with this place. They aren’t so friendly or helpful. One thing interesting here is that they have these sheets hanging on the wall for graffiti and with people who have made it to the summit and tried to see sunrises and from all different countries with their flags represented. There are about four sheets and NOT ONE single American flag is drawn on. It just reiterates to me how much of a shame people in the US don’t travel like this. Partly cuz it is imbedded at such a young age that you need to graduate college and get a job immediately…become a doctor, lawyer or go into finance. The option for a gap year isn’t there to figure out what you want…if you don’t know what you want you take the LSAT and go to law school. And then later on all of our companies become so demanding of us there is just not enough time to take off to make trips like this. It’s pretty disappointing.

I just got off the phone with Gilligan to plan our little week together. Pretty excited to be with a good friend in China before I leave. And there will be no turning back to China. My overall impression is thumbs down…but I keep an open mind, especially during my nice little overnight 12-hour train ride tonight. Oh and I may be also meeting up with Frank again when I arrive in Dali. He left for Litang, out west, earlier and will then make his way south, whereas I go south and putz around there for a few days.

I guess I am just kind of disappointed in China cuz towns aren’t what I expected them to be and I guess that was just naïve of me. They are cities and nothing like the one horse town that I envisioned. The development here is incredible and they build things so ridiculously fast. Another thing I am noticing is that all of the shops whether at the tourist sites or in town are selling the exact same things! How does one differentiate and how do they make any money??

Two hours later, she is still swatting flies. Maybe you should close the door too?!?! Jackass. And the internet has been down for hours. Sucks….really wanted to get a bunch of research done for Africa…

One hour later…I have now closed the doors and taken the fly swatter myself. Effective.

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