9 mountains - 17.5.11 (Day 0 - Traveling in the train)

My dear sister present!

My sister gave me a very nice notebook, titled 化骨绵掌! For me to fill it up my craziness where ever I go. I wanted so much to write on them. But in the end, I could not resist the technology temptation and used my iPhone instead. I didnt like this excuse but my writing sucks as well especially when I write in a hurry. Often I can't remember what I wrote later!

So here am I again after months since my first adventure at Shikoku for the 88 temples pilgrimage. After slacking for a month at Shanghai, I finally had to get out of my comfort zone and start my overdued adventure!! You know it's not an easy endeavor when you noticed the huge gap between the changes. Before was getting drunk everyday and lazied at the sofa the next afternoon. And now, I would be dealing with many uncertainties of getting lost and scammed, not to mention the physical demand to reach the peaks!

I already started panting on my way walking to the next subway station. I guessed my weekly gym sessions had all gone down the drain by those beer!

My cosy upper bunk for the night ride!

I reached Shanghai railway station just about the timing. After a 5 minutes wait, we were allowed to board. I wondered why the train wasn't labelled. After a few rounds of asking the officers, I finally reached mine and found my ward. The lower berth wasn't too bad but I could only get the upper one when I bought the ticket last night. Probably the fault of last minute's job. But then, this whole trip was going to be all last minute's work!! There wasn't any stair but just a step for you to support yourself up. Too bad there wasn't any nice babe in the 4-berth sharing cabin.

At 9:52pm the train departed on time. Estimated arrival at Taishan station was 5:59am. I started to worry if I would miss the stop! Yes, my first stop was Taishan. Then it would followed by Songshan, Wutaishan, Hengshan (north), Huashan, Emeishan, Hengshan (south), Jiuhuashan, and finally Putuoshan before taking the train back to Shanghai around one month later. According to my raw schedule. Very raw indeed. No accommodation booked. Not even sure how to go to most of the mountains, I have a big task ahead especially when one was traveling in China!! Actually, my initial plan was just to cover Taishan, Songshan and Huashan!! I just decided this morning that I might as well do the rest at the same time!!!

After reading up on Yap's very much outdated lonely planet, I started to get bored at 10:17pm.
Trying hard to go to bed at 10:30pm. The earliest since I was in China!! As expected, it was a struggle. Hardly could get any sleep. Not to mention the fear of overslept. Last saw my watch, it said 3:40am!!