Biggest Buddha in the world

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Thursday August 10th

I woke up pretty late again today even though I went to bed early the day before. I guess I needed the sleep. I had some banana pancakes (I love the stuff) and went to the internet cafe. I had a lot of catching up to do on my blog and the previous day hadn't been enough. Writting these blogs takes time and updating pics can be even worse sometimes. I pretty much spent the whole day in that internet cafe, surrounded by kids playing dance games or Counter-strike. I stopped for lunch where I had some cookies (very nutritious). Also by that point I was getting worried about my visa since it expires on August 14th so I was planning to go to the PSB office to get it extended but I had heard that they take 3 working days to extend it which would force me to stay the weekend. The friendly staff at the Mix solved my problem, go to Leshan where the PSB office does same-day extension. At the same time I could see the biggest Buddah in the world. I went to the bus station near the train station and bought my ticket for very early in the morning (6:40, will have to wake up early again!).

I came back to the guesthouse by 8 hoping to find Brandon and S but I guess I came too late as they were already gone. I ordered some Sichuanese meal which had to be the spiciest thing I've ever had in my life, beats the hotpot hand down. It was like vermicelli in a sauce that looks a bit like spaghetti sauce (whcih was full of chili, of course) and rice. Good stuff but I was sweating like if I had ran a maranthon. I went to the dorm at around 10, there was one of hte frenchmen in the room. "A girl will come in here in about an hour, hope you don't mind the noise" he said. Uh oh I guess that's why he likes Chengdu so much. In any case I'd be sleeping in an hour and I doubt he'd wake me up as I sleep pretty hard.

Friday August 11th

I painfully woke up to get to the bus station for the 6:40 bus, bringing just my daypack as I was going to Leshan only as a daytrip and would be back by late afternoon/early evening. The bus ride was boring and uneventful, I tried to get a few extra precious minutes of sleep. I was dropped off in some parking lot in Leshan and the road I was on couldn't be identified on my map. I saw a police officer nearby and contrary to what I thought before I came to China, chinese police are very nice and helpful (much more than in Canada to be honest) so I pointed to him the PSB office where you can get visa extension. He told me to get a taxi so I did because I was too confused about where I was to try to figure out how to get there by bus which is good because it ended up not costing much.

The man working at the visa extension bureau was very nice. I filled some form, took photocopies of my passport and took some pictures (without my cowboy hat, unfortunately). He told me to come back at 4. Everything was fast, efficient and user-friendly, I loved it.

Now I was ready to go see the Buddah, the other reason why I came to Leshan. I had been told actually going in the park to see the Buddah wasn't that exciting and you had to wait for hours to go close but that the boat ride that goes in front of the statue was much better. The Buddah in Leshan is the biggest in the world, carved from rocks alongside the river in the hope that Buddha's presence would keep the river, which is very fast at this point, from destroying boats. It was partly succesful as all the extra stone from the carving was dropped in the river which made it more shallow and less dangerous.

I took a bus to the dock, I asked the conductor to drop me at the dock but she thought I meant the local dock (I guess this cowboy hat is making me look too much like a local) which is different from the one that tourists usually take. At first I was a bit mad because it wasn't the right place but then I remembered somewhere in the LP it said that you could take the local ferry to an island right in front of the Buddah which could give good views, all for 1/25 of the price of the ferry ride. I figured hey it doesn't cost much so I entered the boat and went on the island, although this time I was spotted by the local as a non-local (I'm not too sure how they find out, might be the glasses).

Once I got on the island I quickly figured it wasn't the island I was supposed to be as it was supposed to be very narrow and it simply wasn't. I sort of walked around feeling like a total idiot and took the other ferry which passed 20 minutes later. I went back to Leshan and this time I took the bus to the tourist dock. It might cost more but at least I'll see the damn Buddha. I had some cheap chinese noodles for 3RMB that was delicious (I love sichuanese food) before going on the boat. I went to buy my ticket for one of the big tour boat but right after I bought a pepsi bottle. The ticket lady was making me signs that I should go on the boat now but I was like what's the rush I'm only buying a pepsi.

I found what the rush was about when I started walking toward the boat, on left about 2 seconds after I arrived leaving me to wait for the next boat to filled up. It took about 15 minutes before we could leave. The boat ride is very short and then it stops at the Buddah for about 5 minutes so that you can take pictures. The statue is very huge and quite impressive, I don't think the pictures give a good idea of the immensity of it all. The other thing that seemed huge was the lineup of tourists waiting to get a chance to touch the toe of the Buddha. I've heard it takes on average 3 hours and I was happy I didn't go. Also from the boat you see 2 guardians statues that cannot be seen from the park.

After the boat ride I tried to find the bus station that is supposed to be right next to the dock. I walked around for an hour trying to find it, asking several people but didn't find anything. In the end I just said screw it and hopped into a taxi. To my surprise it seems that the bus station has been moved somewhere pretty far from the dock and it costed me quite a lot of money for that taxi ride. It's wierd there were several thing wrong in my LP map and it really confused me, first in the morning when I wanted to get my visa extended and then at the dock when I was looking for the bus station. I got a bus ticket for 4:50, hoping there wouldn't be a problem at the visa office. I had some time to kill so I asked a rickshaw where was the local internet cafe using my phrasebook and he brought me there (he was a cool guy so I figured why not) so I spent an hour there updating the blog. They were pretty damn surprised to see a westerner there as they're in a very hard to find spot.

At 4 I got a taxi to the visa office. I paid the fees at the Bank of China next door and got a brand new visa, valid until September 13 (a 1 month and 2 days visa, original no?). I took another taxi (they're very cheap in Leshan, thankfully) to the bus station where I arrived slightly early. The ride home was also pretty uneventful but I got really pissed off when I realized that this bus dropped me at the outskirts of Chengdu, pretty far away from the city center. This really put me in a bad mood as I had expected to be dropped at Xinamen station, close to Highfly Cafe where I was planning to go for dinner and I just didn't feel like taking a long city bus through the city's suburb. But in the end I didn't have the choice so that's what I did, taking the bus mentioned in the LP. I got to Highfly about 45 minutes later (heavy traffic since it was like 6PM) and ordered some sandwhich with french fries (something it's small thing like sandwhich that makes you happy) which I finished with a very good brownie with chocolate sauce and ice cream.

I got back to the hostel by around 7PM. I really wanted to finish my Yading blog entry so I went to the internet cafe and worked on it until past midnight.

Saturday August 12th

I woke up Saturday decided to leave Chengdu. I stayed much longer than I had originally planned, in good part because of the lovely atmosphere at Mix but I had the urge to move on and go somewhere. I pondered about what I should do next at breakfast over a delicious ham sandwhich and vegetable breakfast (a bit wierd, but hey I felt like it). Proving once more that plans are useless I decided to go to Jiuzhaigou instead of taking a train to Xi'an like I had planned to do for the past week. I prefer the travelling in the mountain, more laid-back and remote which to me makes it interesting. Jiuzhaigou is THE park in China. It is sold as the most beautiful nature reserve in the world and from the picture I saw it did look beautiful so even though the entrance fee is steep and the place is swarmed by tourists I decided to give this place a look.

I went to the bus station that has bus to Jiuzhaigou and it took me almost an hour by public bus so I bought a ticket for tomorrow at 8AM since if i got one earlier I'd have to pay a fortune in taxi (bus start running at 6:15-6:30 in Chengdu). I spent most of the rest of the day updating my blog again. I was really late before Chengdu and after this day I'm just a few days behind. I'll try not to fall behind so much in the future. I had some cookies for lunch. During the afternoon I started feeling some stomach pain but didn't pay too much attention. I went to the Indian restaurant for dinner and unlike the time I went there with S and Brandon when we were in a rush and the service was really slow, this time it was awesonely fast. I chatted a bit with 2 american girls but that was pretty much the only social thing I did for the day. I guess I didn't feel too social in the last few days and just wanted to be on my own mostly.

When I came back to Mix I went to talk with the girls who work there to tell them I really enjoyed my stay there and I told them I'd do advertisement for them among travellers. I took a few flyers to distribute among travellers going to Chengdu. By the time I went to bed, my stomach pain had grown and I was pretty sure I'd get a diarhea tomorrow. Since having a diarhea on a 12 hours bus ride is not the most fantastic thing in the world, I decided to put some Immodium in my daypack. Just in case.

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Photos

Yours truly
Oh there's like a guy in stone in the background. He's Buddah and he's the biggest in the world.

Big B
Sitting around.

Buddah, the guardian and the crowd
Well you don't really see the Buddah, but you see one of the Guardian on the side. Also you can see the huge line of people who are waiting to touch the Buddah.