Hellllo. A lot has happened since I last posted. I'll try to skip to the interesting things!
Last time I wrote, I was on my way to Dafo and Emei Shan. Dafo was this big park with tons of Buddha sculptures and art. I took about a bajillion pictures, which I'll upload to here at some point. Anyways, it was really fun, and I have a new love for Buddhism. In fact,I got my own little buddha to put on a necklace. His name is Bob.
It was about a forty minute drive to Emei Shan, the mountain. We somehow got convinced to get in this random sketchy guy's van, but we got there safely and it was cheap! I was having a wonderful nap on the drive, when Anna decided it was necessary to wake me up. I awoke to the van slowing down as it passed a dead body, covered by a sheet except for its toes, with a pile of blood next to it. Thanks Anna for the wakeup. It was horrific. Earlier that day we had commented on how the drivers in China were crazy and how so many people must get hurt each year. I ate my words. Next to the body was a crowd of 30 people as well as a car with a smashed window, and the driver a few feet away, crying. Extremely depressing. Now we think twice everytime we cross a road.
Once we got to the base of the mountain, we took a drive up to the trail which led to the summit. Trail my ass. Who thought it would be a good idea to just build a set of stairs that go directly up the mountain?? The Chinese apparently. Instead of walking a trail that goes from side to side, lessening the grade, we climbed stairs for hours, in high altitude. Needless to say, I died. The rest of the Chinese population took a cable car to the top or were carried by porters (there is a photo of a guy that stalked us for a couple hours, getting carried in such a way)- these poor men were usually less than 150 pounds and didnt even have proper shoes - it was awful!
The mountain was beautiful, but I think it could have been more easily climbed. That night, we stayed at the top. Anna and Bryant got up for the "Sunrise" although it was too cloudy to see anything. Obviously I opted to stay in bed until the late hour of 7...then went to the peak to see it in daylight. There were millions of Chinese tourists. Among the mountain terrain and the different temples, there was also another tourist site - the white people, i.e. Bryant and I. I was asked to be taken a photo with. In fact, lately people have just been taking photos of Bryant and I without even asking. I'm going to be in random photo albums throughout China. And every single person will now stop and stare at us. And then stare at anna for being with white people (and for being a really really tall asian!) It is really awkward. I actually now even find myself at staring at any white people I see, because its so unusual!
Anyways, the rest of the day we trekked a bit nicer of a path (meaning 50% stairs, 50% walking) and headed back to Chengdu. We woke early the next morning to get a flight to Lijiang, which is a really pretty elevated town with beautiful mountains all around. We caught a taxi at the airport, which called our hostel to get directions. He was instructed to drop us off on the side of a highway, at which point it is pouring out. Two people from the hostel meet us and continue to lead us on a 25 minute trek through a forest, through a large creek (sans bridge), through the town to this almost empty hostel. Don't always trust a hostel by its hostel world rating percentage. Apparently, there exist three old towns in Lijiang, and the hostel decided to not tell us it was not in the main one! It was a cute town, but I never got over walking through the river.
The next day we changed hostels immediately to a place in the popular, populated old town - a place called Mama Naxi's (Naxi are the indigenous there). It was an awesome hostel where Mama Naxi basically takes care of you like her own kids! It was pretty, and through the 15 RMB dinner ($2.5), we met tons of people from Australia, England, Korea, China, Belgium, etc, and played some exciting drinking games with them. The first night we went to a bar called "Sexy Tractor" - what a great name! The next we went to an Irish bar, called "Stone the Crow" which apparently also sold baked goods to live up to its name.
The second day, we walked around and did sight-seeing. However, somehow Anna and I got left alone, and knowing me, we found the only Mexican bar in probably all of the Yunnan State of China. So at 2pm, Anna and I were outside in the sun, drinking margaritas and eating authentic queso (not that liquidy dillo stuff). The owners were from Mexico City and very interesting to talk to. One of the owners had come up with this concotion he called "Tequila Mockingbird" - tequila, soco, cointreau, triple sec, sprite, and peace juice. Amazing... By 4pm, Anna and I were walking the streets singing "Patron. Tequila. I'm Drunk off Margaritas" (Thought you would appreciate that Jess...) Thankfully no one understood us, but we got a lot of stares. What's new.
This morning, we left Mama Naxi's for the airport - just like amother, she gave us breakfast to go as well as an interesting smelling necklace. We arrived in Kunming around noon, and came to our current hostel which has a rooftop bar (already taken advantage of), pool tables, and a nice restaurant. Apparently there is a disco at night and tons of connecting bars, which once were raided by 300 police officers! It has reoped though on "promise of good behavior." We walked around Kunming this afternoon- it's basically like any other Chinese city - we went through a semi interesting market that sold lots of different animals (turtles, millions of birds, rabbits, snakes, lizards, etc - basically your neighborhood petco, but outside) as well as flowers and other regular products.
That was long again, but covered many more days! We are about to head out for the night, and then tomorrow, we take an 18 hour train to Guilin. Fun. The town, Yangshuo, outside Guilin is our last stop in China, before we head to Bangkok on June 8. Hope everyone is doing well!
