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Published: August 24th 2006
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the bus to taihuai, a small valley in the mountainous region of wutai shan, would leave around seven but first i had to find it. everyone wanted to bring me to taiyuan so i kapt on running around in front of the railway station looking for the bus. finally somebody told me that i had to go down the street. i was picked up by a guy on my wy to the bus station. he helped me buying the ticket and put me on the bus. it was a small bus and the seats were etremely small so that i had to sit completely upright but still my knees would be pressed into the seat of my frontman. it was kind of uncomfortable to sit like this for 5 hours. after about one hour we stopped to pay for using the road and i could get out for a moment for a smoke. the guy who sold the tickets on the bus "asked" me for a cigarette and i gave him one, he didn't thank. i considered him as rude and he also lookes quite brutal because something was wrong with his faces. his mouth was tilted somehow downward on the
left side. the next stop was four hors later at a petrol station. they played loud music there, that was - i'm pretty sure about that - that was actually invented to torture people probably during the time of the cultural revolution, maybe for reeducation. however, the clerks there, all of them being girls of about 18 years, didn't mind. they jumped around happily to the hammering rythms of this cruel music and seemed to get delighted by every arriving truck. three of them would immediately run to the arriving truck and try serve the driver as good as possible. i watched the scene for a while, but i got a headache from the music and was happy when we left again and i could again crawl back into my tight seat feeling my neuighbor sweat and the only sound i heard was the chattering of all the chinese in the bus.
before we could enter into the village we had of course to pay entry since we were just tourists and no monks on pilgrimage. in taihuan the driver drove directly to a hotel where all the other people in the bus seemed to plan their staying. when i
got out, i was somehow insecure where to go and hesitated for a while. the guy with the ugly face gestured me with his rude movements also to stay there. i asked how much it would cost and he said 30 RMB. pretty cheap, i thought and wasn't sure if i got this right so i asked again but it was true. they showed me the room. there were three beds inside and a bathroom with indeed a european style toilet. thus i agredd to take it. everything was allright, i really paid 30 for the room and thought there would for sure come two other guys whou would also sleep there. but in fact i stayed there alone.
when i came out of my room again, the ufly guy gave me some fruit of which i wasn't so sure how to eat it so i put it into my backpack to eat it later. there was also a small room where you could eat something, e.g. a restaurant. i went there and of course they had no english menu. this time i took out my phrase book and told them that i'd like to eat some vegetables and rice.
it was a good meal and afterwards i started to have a look at some of the temples that are spread there all over the place.
walking along there i got into a cheering crowd of chinese and suddenly one girl asked me if they could take a picture of me and her. i agreed and ended up with them making about ten photos of me always standing to a different person. someting like this makes you feel welcome somehow. this feeling got stronger when i met a monk sitting on a small path. when he saw me he started to smile, then bowed slightly, murmered someting and then made a gesture with his hand that looked as if he would bless me. it could also be that he just cursed me but these guys always look so friendly and peaceful that this seems to be highly improbable. another contact with a monk was not so inspiring. he was sitting in fron of emple on the street and when he saw me he waved me to him. he started talking to me and i was not really able to make clear that i could not understand him although i think
that that was quite obvious. a woman came who could some words english. she asked me where i com from and i answered. she told the monk and they started to discuss something. from time to time they would adress me and i would raise my shoulders helplessly as a sign that still i could not speak any chinese. the rest of the time i stand there smiling stupidly since i did not know what to do. then the woman went away. she had been friendly. i also wanted to go but the monk invited me to sit down next to him. i really had no idea what he expected from me. he started talking to him and sometimes it seemed he wanted me to pray. well, i wouldnt do that, i had no idea how. finally he waved me away and i went on. a strange experience. this monk was not so very friendly. i would have liked to explain him what i did here but there was no way.
after this meeting i felt a little bit insecure. i really didn't want to be unrespectful in any way. i searches fo a path that would lead into the mountains. actually, the scene there is quite nice and i read that the highest of the peaks there is a little more than 3000 m high but from taihuai it looks like a hill. i guess that taihuai itself lies on at least 2500 m. everything is very green and you can't see any rocks, like i would hane expected it from a mountainous area. however, i went up on one of this hills. of course the were no people on the path since walking up a small path just to get to the summit is not something chinese people would do very often. they seem to prefare walking up stairs in crowds. to my surprise i passed a small cemetry or something that looked alike and than made it up the first summit where there was standing a small pavillion completely covered with these colored tibetian praying flags. really nice indeed. i walke further up and took some pictures of taihuai befor wlking back to my room. i ate again at the restaurant there because i ws thankfull that they had given me this cheap room.
when i took a shower, there was only cold water. then i started reading. after an hour or so a girl opened the door and said something to me. once more i tried to show that i had no idea what she was talking about. she went away. a guy opened the door and pointed at the door of my bathroom. at first i thoght he wanted to take a shower and made an inviting gesture. he closed the door afain and went away. after some time of thinking and after realizing that this sound of boiling water, of which i had already wondere hat it had been, was gone it the thought appeared in my mind that all this could mean that there was some hot water now. i tried it and really, that was true. i took another, this time warm, shower.
the next morning i walked up to another temple where you had a nice view over taihuai. at the beginning of the stairs some guys ripped me off by selling me some of this joss-sticks and making me light it at the entrance and praying a little bit by bowing towards east, south, west and north. i considered thas at some kind of entrance fee.
coming back to my room i saw that the bus was again standing right in front of the hotel. there was another ugly guy sitting in there and i made clear somehow that i wanted to go back to datong today. he said the bus would leave at 10. so i went up to my room for some more reading. at half past nine the guy from the bus came into my room and told me that the bus would leave. we left at 10.
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bernie
non-member comment
have fun
hei flo! i really enjoy reading your stories! have fun and all the best, bernie from graz