Monks and Mountains
Trip Start
Jul 27, 2010
1
18
127
Trip End
Aug 29, 2011
Emeishan, Sichuan, China
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
We arrived at the Monastry in Emeishan -WOWW! This was amazing. There were about 70 monks staying there. The rooms were basic as you would expect, but clean and comfortable. The showers were communal, a bit like at school and only had water in the evenings. the toilets were squat and thrust ones with only a small wall between. So the group got to know each other very well!
After a quick shower, we had dinner in a local restaurant. The food is this region is Sichuan and is very spicy, but lovely. We even had chips! The beer is Snow beer, lovely. Off to bed, for a restless sleep.
Woken up at 4.30am by banging drums and bells and monks chanting! In the brochure it sounded very romantic being woken by the sound of chanting monks, they did not tell us about the banging and crashing that went with it! They made a great alarm clock.
Our local guide was Patrick for this leg of the trip. His wife did all our laundry overnight - washed and dried! She then made egg sandwiches for our breakfast, we also had pork steam buns (or steamed bums as Bing calls them!) along with coffee and bananas, great start for a good walk up the mountain.
We caught the bus up to the Ropeway to take us to the top of Mt Emei. The Ropeway was amazing, bit high and misty too. It was then a short walk up to the top, passing loads of monkeys. We were warned that the monkeys can steal your stuff, but we had big sticks to keep them off! At the top there was a temple and the most amazing huge gold statue. The clouds kept coming across (we were over 3000 metres up) making it very atmospheric.
Back on the Ropeway and bus to have lunch before walking back half way up the mountain to our next monastry for the night. It was an exhausting walk up many many steps! But worth it.
This monastry was smaller - about 15 monks. We had communal showers again, and loos with a fantastic view. After a giggle shower with the girls (me, Paul was with the boys!) it ws back down a few hundred steps to the 'Hard Wok'cafe and another lovely meal sitting out in the woods - perfect setting.
Slept in four poster beds, which was strange and the matress were very hard, so not much sleep again.
Woken to the sound of monks again but not so early or loud this time! Then packed for the decent, stopping off for banana, apple and honey pancakes at the Hard Wok cafe. Back to the first monastry for our last night in Emiesham.
Some of us went to the local spa for a treat! They had a pool and bubbly baths, we all felt so clean and relaxed after our hectic few days days.
Out to town for our first really scary food - duck soup! Sounds okay, until you stir it round and the head pops out with beak attached, just could not eat, paul managed a bit. We had ice cream and Oreo cookies on the way home. There was the most horrendous rain storm too. Not enough seats in cabs so Paul had to sit on an up turned bucket - health & safety?
Better sleep, monks started a bit later. Still raining, so we had to go in golf buggies to catch the bus to Chong Qing (population 37 million, china's biggest city), to catch the boat down the Yangtze.
