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| Young hikers on their way down |
My alarmed rang at 4:30am!! I was too tired to even lift up my legs. I looked at the watch again later at 5:10am, I thought they must be planning to start at 8 instead, which was what I hoped too as well. Just when the thought came, we heard a bang on our door! Feipeng joined them, but I needed the bed for a few hours more.
Woke up at 8 and took off half an hour later. It was raining still. In fact it rained almost the whole day. I was in my poncho!
The moment I started, I heard the croaking. I wondered if I was so lucky to meet one of those famous bearded frog that was a rare at Mt Emei!
Shortly I met Feipeng who was on his way down. He took the cableway. Around 9 plus, I met the youngsters! We took some pictures together and exchanged MSN.
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| Pagoda at the peak. |
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| The misty Golden Summit |
I continued the 7.5km stretch and finally reached the Golden Summit in 2 hours, where the huge 4-sided gold Buddha cast was at 3077m! The place was full of tour groups!! Very sadly, the bad weather didn't spare any view at all. Hardly could see the golden cast too! I got into the temple and the moment I saw the tall and large Buddha statue in front of me, I just cried!!! For some reason, I just cried all of the sudden at the corner of the door. When I finally settled down after a long while, I moved in to pray and came out shortly.
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| Huge area around the Golden Summit. |
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Devotees kneeling
all the way up! |
I took some pictures and started to feel the chill in the wet weather. The highest point actually stood at 3099m at Ten Thousand Buddha Summit where one could only reach in a sightseeing train. I walked to the station but unfortunately they were not operating anymore. I started the descend around 11am.
I still saw many worshipers, who were in different colours of raincoat, kneeling flat on the ground in prayer after every 3 to 4 steps! It was also amazing to see some tourists in shorts or slippers and even high heels!!
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| Emei's tea! |
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| Supposing the best spot at the peak. |
I reached the same rest point I stopped earlier for a tea and had my brunch. Instant noodle again!! Bought a bag of the tea as well. Thought of giving to Yap's in law as souvenir.
The descend was much quicker. At some points, I was walking down the steps pretty fast. And by 2:30pm, I reached the junction Jiuling hump. Had a drink and took a different scenic path down, which was a longer distance. Came to Yuxian monastery shortly at 1680m. Then it was a long 12km up and down hike to Xianfeng monastery at 1752m. From here, I took a detour and went to the Nine Deities's cave. The trip was a 20minutes walk to and fro, but a worthy one since I could at least snapped some nice scenery. The rain started to turn drizzle by then for a better view.
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| The quick descend! |
From the Xianfeng monastery onwards, it was luckily all downhill and made the descend much faster and easier. I was also trying to reach the foot of the mountain before it turned dark.
That was when I encountered the first monkey!! He was sitting on the fence. I covered my head with my poncho. He noticed me. I walked passed very quickly but suddenly I felt something dragging my back. I walked even faster without looking back, trying to lose the grip. Luckily, the monkey did not hold on and he eventually lost sight of me! That was a close call...
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| Nice waterfall on the way down |
I passed by a number of bridges and beautiful waterfalls until I reached Hongchun monastery at 1120m. I suspected the monkeys area would start from this point onwards. I met a few chair carriers and tried to follow them as they descend. But their speed were unbelievable to catch up. I think they flew down!!
This path was definitely more scenic that the way I came up. The drizzle had gotten very light by now and I started to get warm as well but I kept my poncho on to hide my belongings from the monkeys.
Then, just when I was about to enter the monkeys "danger" zone, I saw two locals!! I quickly walked up to them. First, one monkey in front of us was looking for opportunity. One of the local used his elastic band to chase it away. Then three more trying to come close. I just followed them very closely, trying to keep a conversation. They asked me for accommodation and walked pretty slow. After a while, I noticed it should be safe from the monkeys and decided to speed up in order to get rid of the locals instead.
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| Seriously, I think Donald Duck probably has left! |
Luckily, I met another group of tourists towards the end of the monkey zone. Indeed, we encountered two more monkeys along the narrow path. I just quickly squeezed through between them. One of the monkeys hopped onto a tourist's head!! It tried to grab me but I managed to sway away!! The tourist had a hard time trying to get rid of the monkey, but eventually he did and wasn't hurt. I even heard his friend teasing him if he had got scratches from the monkey and infected by monkey disease!!
A short while more, I finally reached the Qingyin monastery around 6pm! I was all sweat and stopped to remove my poncho and sweater! At the monastery, I also heard from a tourist that a young lady was traumatized when two monkeys jumped onto her head at the same time!!!
Think the management might have to do something about these wild animals before more mishaps happen.
From Qingyin monastery, I took a different path again. Came to a large dam and bridge, and then walked along the river with shops, hotels and restaurants on my right. I noticed all the shops were packing up at the same time! It was time to close for the day.
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| Heavy dinner! |
About an hour later, I reached the bus station at 600m a.s.l. It was another staggering 10 hours and 30minutes of hiking!!
I just missed the last bus to town half an hour ago. A lady came over and offered me accommodation. She had a very sincere look. I went to have a look and the room was clean and nice for rmb100. I also bought the hot spring ticket from her and a pair of swimming trunk for a total of rmb95.
Had a heavy dinner. The chicken was so so, but the vegetables was nice. The owners were having their dinner as well.
Since they offered to show me the way to the hotspring, I went back to my room to clean up my stuffs while waiting.
Around 8, the husband came to knock my door. He walked me to the hot spring. Along the way, I learned that Mr Zhang, the owner was 48 and had two daughters. One of them, 25, was working at the hotel too. He took over his family business of 50 years from his father!
Before he returned home, Mr Zhang left me a torch for my way back. I got changed and had a shower first. The place was pretty old. It wasn't even mentioned in the map as well. Immediately, I jumped into the first pool, the biggest one but it wasn't hot at all. I walked over to the 2nd pool and the temperature was better but still wasn't that fantastic. I tried the 3rd pool, the smallest of all but it was the same, sadly.
There were two couples, one on my far right and the other on my left. I did not stay for long. Within an hour, I showered and dressed up to go. But it was drizzling outside. So I decided to have a drink and rest for a while. The local were playing mahjong there.
It was a solid 13minutes walk, mostly in the dark along the main road back to the hotel.
There wasn't any CCTV5 and match-making programs on TV. I went to bed at 11pm and slept like a log!!
