Don't tell me to Ssshhhhhhh!

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By the time we arrived in Emei from Ya’an we checked into our hotel in the foothills of Mount Emei just to be told the chef had gone home & it was too late for us to eat, so our guide suggested taking us to a local restaurant “Don’t be put off from the way the restaurants look on the outside the food is really good” said the guide, I was a little worried but trusted her judgement, first of all we had to check into our room. We were given the key to our room & when I opened the door it felt as though I was walking back outside, I could hear crickets & other animals like they were inside the room “I hope they haven’t left the windows open” I said to Nikki, when I eventually got the lights to work so I could see where the windows were they were wide open & when the lights came on fully I was in for a surprise, inside the room crawling/flying all over the walls were hundreds of insects, some were the biggest insects I have ever seen in my life. No way am I staying in there! I went back to reception, luckily our guide was still there & hadn’t gone to her room yet, I told her what the room was like & she told the staff at the hotel, everyone looked at me in a strange way & then the guide said “You’re up a mountain, there are going to be insects here” as though sleeping in a room with insects is fine. It must be the city boy inside me that is not comfortable with huge insects everywhere, I changed rooms and the next room had its windows open too but they were small windows & the room didn’t have any insects inside so I was happy.

We went for dinner at a restaurant just around the corner from our hotel, we were shown into a separate room away from all of the other diners, I’m not sure if we were shown to another room because they thought we may feel more comfortable there or if we were told to eat there because they didn’t want us to eat in the same room as them, either way as long as I get my food & it doesn’t kill me I’m happy. As with the room in the hotel huge insects were flying around everywhere, along one side of the wall was a mouldy old bed mattress, I see what the guide meant when she said ‘don’t be put off by the way the restaurants look’, when the food came it was fine, not gourmet cuisine but for £3.50 in total for Nikki & me I wasn’t complaining.

The next morning we were up early to visit the Golden Summit at the top of the mountain, again my planning & preparation for this trip left me short, it was a lot colder than I thought it was going to be & I ended up having to wear two pairs of trousers & two jackets to keep warm. It was a two hour bus ride to the top of the mountain along winding roads, the higher we climbed the colder it got, it literally felt as though we were driving up into the clouds, I couldn’t understand how the bus driver could see where he was going, it was so misty I couldn’t even see the ground.

When we got off of the bus we then had to get a cable car up the mountain which only took about two minutes but it moved very fast & went up at a very steep angle! When we got off it was so misty that you couldn’t see very far ahead, we got to some stairs & either side was lined with white elephant sculptures, there were candles a light in the middle of the steps & Buddhists lighting incense sticks to make their wishes. Our guide told us that for a Buddhist to visit here is a once in a lifetime experience, on our way up the stairs we saw some Buddhists chanting, one of them had a camera & turned to take a picture of me, I should be used to Chinese people taking pictures of me by now but I didn’t expect a Buddhist to take a picture whilst at a ‘once in a lifetime Buddhist site’ lol.

As we began to climb the stairs the guide asked if I could see the Golden Summit, I looked up but couldn’t see anything apart from stairs, as we got closer I saw a vague outline of something but couldn’t tell what it was, even when I was standing pretty much next to it all I could make out were the six tusked elephants at the base of it. We walked around the Golden Summit, the guide pointed to the gold & silver Temples, I could see an outline of one of them but I couldn’t even see the other one, at this point I was feeling a little deflated as I couldn’t actually see what I had travelled so far to see & when the mist did clear slightly when I took pictures all you could see is mist. I decided to wait & hope for a clearing to get a good picture, luckily there was only Nikki & I on the tour so we could go where ever we wanted whenever we wanted, I heard some Chinese tourists speaking loudly & they started to walk towards the Golden Summit, I turned & there it was as clear as anything. I was standing quite far away from it at this point, I didn’t want to miss my chance of getting a picture so I ran over to the Golden Summit, unfortunately I couldn’t contain myself as I began to run & said quite loudly “Shit” Nikki had serious words with me after for swearing at a religious site.

After I had got the pictures I was happy with (and some random pictures of a squirrel) we left the summit, by the time we got down to near our hotel our guide had told us about a natural hot spring & spa, Nikki & I were exhausted so decided to go to the hot spring to relax & have a massage. We got changed into our swimsuits (well I had to wear my underwear as I forgot to bring swimming trunks), we entered the area where the hot springs were & we passed another pool full of fish, I’d heard about this before, there are literally thousands of tiny fish that eat your dead skin (google ‘fish therapy’). It was £5 per person to go in, after a short conversation with Nikki of “I will if you will” we decided to go in, Nikki got in first but was a bit nervous & couldn’t stop moving so the fish didn’t go near her, I got in & sat down all of a sudden I felt them. I could literally feel loads of little fish biting my skin & some were hurting a little, I turned to Nikki & told her they were biting me “what do you mean they are biting you” she said followed shortly after by a quiet scream & Nikki biting her hand to stop herself from freaking out as the fish started to bite her. I could not stop laughing, I think it was a nervous laugh more than anything, some Chinese people walked by & then stopped & walked back to look at us. They were all pointing & talking, something tells me this isn’t a traditional Chinese Therapy, I looked down & couldn’t actually see any of my legs, I could have freaked out very easily but remained calm, this was the first thing I have EVER done where I have nearly freaked out. After a while we both got used to it & then Nikki dunked her whole body in apart from her head, I knew if I didn’t do it too she would take the p*** out of me forever, so I did it too, it was actually really nice on my back but when they started to bite my nipples that was excruciating I had to sit with my hands on my tits to stop them! lol

After our fish therapy we took a dip in the extremely hot springs outside before going for a massage, I did feel a little uncomfortable though when a man that worked at the spa said he would show Nikki & me the way to the massage room, he then followed me into the changing room & both him & another man that also worked there watched me get changed into my clothes before showing me how to get to the massage room. With the exception of the two guys watching me getting changed we’d had the most awesome day, I was so relaxed I couldn’t wait to go to bed to sleep, I had not slept well the entire time we had stayed in China, Nikki & I were tucked up in bed just about to nod off to sleep when we heard shouting outside the room, two groups of Chinese people were having a conversation shouting to each other at either end of the corridor. I jumped up & opened the door, I asked them to be quiet but I can’t speak Chinese & they couldn’t speak English so I had to gesture to them to be quiet by asking them to ‘ssshhhhh’ this was not a good idea, as soon as I closed the door I heard them all laughing & going ‘sssshhhhhh’. Eventually they went away but at 2:30am they had got back from where ever they went & they began to shout again, I was so angry I didn’t get out of bed as I knew I would have had a massive argument with them, the next morning we had to be up early to go to Leshan, we got ready & packed our bags & on the way to breakfast I walked the opposite way to where breakfast was, Nikki looked at me as if to say ‘what are you doing’ but it became very apparent what I was doing, I was getting even. I shouted at the top of my voice & began clapping my hands & banging the walls, I did this for about 15 seconds, which is actually quite a long time, I know it’s a childish thing to do but it felt so good knowing I’d woken them up, lol.

Apart from drunken idiots I had the most amazing time in Emei & I would definitely recommend anyone to go there.

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