9 mountains - 18.5.11 (Day 1 - One with Eyes Must Know Taishan!)

5:25am! I was well awoken by my alarm set. Surprisingly I didn't feel sleepy at all. Only the head was spinning a bit. Quickly brushed my teeth and got ready to alight.

Taishan hero!

Amazing feat!

The adventure began! Finding the bus stop while avoiding all the invading tout as I trying to act I know the way. Round 1 wasn't that bad because at least I knew there was public bus which goes to the mountain entrance. After asking a couple of strangers, I was at the road with the right name based on my lonely planet. You know you need to ask a few times in China because, you would usually just get a one-sentence answer, "there", and pray they don't actually pointing you the wrong way. On the road, I couldn't find the "right" person to ask again. It was on the left, but my sense of direction did not surprise me and I took the right turn. I ended at the long distance bus stop. Anyway, it was just a half an hour walk when I finally walked back and found the bus stop. Thinking the bus no 3 would not come so soon since I saw a couple of them just passed by, I had my breakfast at a stall next to the bus stop. Sad beef noodle. The beef was probably canned meat. The soya bean was still not too bad. While ordering, I saw another bus no 3!! Luckily the bus was pretty frequent. The ride was about 15-20minutes. I reached the main entrance and started my hike at 7:30am.

Young worshipers looking
for 8 trillion charm!

Amazing worshipers
hiking all the way up!

There were as many souvenir shops as there were tourists!! After about 15minutes walk, I reached the ticket office. There really wasn't much view along this central route. There were 2 more routes but only the other western route was more popular where people usually descend from. Noticed a lot of babies and kids where all their pants were baring the backside. Also saw some people kneeling down to pray after every start of a series of steps!! It had to be the most daunting task to reach to the top!!

A man told me along the way, "The bird is calling hai hao hai hao. (still ok in mandarin)"! Interestingly, the birds really made it sound like that. Stopped for a rest after 1.5hours. Rested again after 10 minutes walk more. I started to feel the strenuous!! Finally I reached the mid point in 1hour and 45min. There wasn't much a view at all along the hike. Mainly stones, temples, more stones and more temples! Took a 10min break and started my hike up again.
I told myself, "What is Taishan, when you can see ladies in high heel and skirts strolling up like the others?!"

Famous bridge rocks!

Interesting hotel!

Took a break half an hour later. It was 10am already but it was so sunny that made the hike up a very sweaty task. The hikers really came in all ranges, from couples, family with young kids, young girls carrying joss sticks on their back and even 80-90years old grandma and grandpa!!

Again there wasn't much view on the way up. Mainly only stones, temples, more stones and more temples. Whenever you reach a temple, someone would toss you a joss stick, hoping you would pray and pay a donation.

Steps view from the peak!

Taishan highest point!

After 1.5hours under the very hot sun, I finally struggled to the south gate at the peak! As I did the final 200 steps or so, I could see others stopping besides me panting just like myself. I could not even finished the last 20 steps without stopping. I lost count the number of times I had stopped to catch my breath.

My den at the peak!

After taking a long break, I began to explore the area and checked out two of the lodging. Both had ran out of dorm (which I doubted so) and charged rmb150 for a single bed. Both bathroom were equally bad. I settled one with a lockable room. The bed sheet and pillow case must have been there since they started business. Luckily the attendant changed them gladly when I asked, although I would wish they changed the blanket too.

Salty wild vege!

After settling down my stuffs, I went for lunch. The beef noodle was worse than my breakfast. It didn't even looked like beef at all!!! The owner also persuaded me to order a Taishan wild vegetables. It wasn't that bad except too salty and pricy. In fact, the other 2 lady customers came over to my table when they were leaving, and told me that it was expensive but I was still willing to eat. They said if I told my girlfriend about this, she would definitely marry me!!!
Managed to finish off 90% of the vegetables until my beef noodle soup became salty as well!! Left with a big stomach!!

Taishan lovely couple!

Taishan red wall!

It was still very sunny but not as hot since the peak was windy. After walking around and took some pictures, I met a girl from Fujian. We chatted for an hour and half! She was 23! She told me about how the match-making by her parents were done! She told me how Chinese parents didn't like their son-in-law to be too much older than their daughter! She told me about her boyfriend wanting to leave her! She told me how she regretted not listening to her parents! She came alone by the cable car! She left the same way.

Taishan's view!

Taishan at the peak

After being a part-time counsellor, I continued to explore the rest of the peak! Covered almost all the area, including the highest point of Taishan at 1545m! Came to an isolated area and sat there taking a rest, listening to the beautiful sound of a bird and the wind. By now, I noticed my camera battery was one bar lesser. 2 bars more to go. Initially my plan was just 3 mountains. Now that I was covering 9, I guess my camera couldn't last till the end of the trip, without the changer along.

I hung around a little more before going back to have an early shower at 5pm. After that, I was too exhausted and took a nap. Only woke up 2 hours later to have my dinner. Didn't feel too well. I guess I was in shorts earlier on and the chill had me. But after the meal, I felt better.

Brushed my teeth and wrote this till now at 9:46pm!! Time to get some sleep again. Tomorrow would need to wake up at 4:20am for the sunrise!! Hope it would be a good one =]