Mount Emei - Emeishan
Teddy Bear Hostel
16.01.2012 - 18.01.2012
1 °C
I think that I am missing home and friends more recently as I seem to be wanting to check my emails all the time which is difficult as I am relying on WiFi signal and over here it is definitely hit and miss. Even when there is WiFi it doesn't always mean you can connect to that network because it could be busy and you have to wait for someone to leave the network. Anyways it is so nice to see that someone has got in touch even if it is a short email just reading how everyone is getting on makes such a difference to the day. Although we are on this trip doing amazing things everyday it is a comfort to know that we can still chat to our nearest and dearest any day catching up on whats going on. So if I don't get an email then I tend to worry abit - it's like a security blanket - an unknown lenght of string that connects me to home - I know someone is at the end. Today I had emails so a good start to the day!!
We are in a small town called Emeishan which is at the foot of the mountain that reaches approximately 3.5k into the sky. We have a map that tells us that 2 hours before the top there is a ski resort......."we're going to that!" Chloe announces and I agree - what a brilliant idea - it will be great!
We are staying in Teddy Bear hostel which is as cold as all the other hostels so everyone wears coats inside. This is usual though - any shop beit the poshest department store of the local coffee shop they have their coats on with name badges. Teddy Bear hostel is great though all the locals come here to eat lunch and dinner. During dinner they have a drink and before each sip they announce a toast - to who I don't know but it seems they can't drink unless there has been a toast. They are up and down toasting and sipping for hours - cigarette after cigaretee, sip after sip, bottle after bottle- laughing and joking. The food that comes out smells great and the table is full of different dishes from fish to frog.
We catch the bus at 10am to get to the ski resort (it takes 10 hrs to walk from the resort to the bottom - a lot longer going up) and arrive at approx 1pm. Yes! Snow on the ground although the air is thick with fog. We walk for about 15 minutes down slopes and ice covered steps to get to the ski resort. We know we get 1hr free and to hire skis etc is 6 quid for the both of us so we were not expecting too much. When we saw the slope we thought 'ok' it was about 80 meters at a 45 degree angle with a button lift to the top. We went in to get our boots and the guy behind the counter just banged two pairs down without knowing any shoe sizes. These boots were back opening (that means they are really old) and mine didn't do up either. We sucked it up and went outside to get our skis and I was beckoned over by a young lad holding a pair of skis a make I had never heard of. "You...You.." he said to me. I took one look at the skis and then back at him, they were about 6ft long and there was no chance I was putting them on especially with the dodgy boots that I had on. I looked around at all the petite men and women and all their skis were massive it was no wonder they were all falling over! I was given a small pair after i pointed to the sky and then to my head this time my charards seemed to pay off. We put on our skis and headed over to the button lift and knew straight away we would be waiting for ever to get on. Each person got on .......then fell off...they veared into the fence or crossed their skis or simply leant forward.....it was so painful to watch but hey we are blessed with Europe being able to ski affordably but here it's different. We decided after coming down twice to give it a miss. To be honest I felt very uncomfortable coming down the slope which had big holes in and was quite icey, I worried about falling with my dodgy boots and hurting myself but Chloe zoomed down as usual!
We made our way to the summit where there is a golden statue as we went up many people were walking past us in the opposite direction, I looked at my watch by now it was about 2.15 and I thought if it takes us 2 hrs to get there thats 4.15 then 2 hrs to get down 6.15, time to look at the statue...6.30 - bus would have left so we decided to get the cable car.....6.50 each it cost thats ontop of the 15quid each just to go on the mountain not including the bus fare and another 5.50 to come down!!! It was a good call though because as we got into the thick of the fog we raised through into bright blue skies and the most awsome view of mountains 360 degrees lifting out of the clouds/fog. We walked further up the icey steps to see the golden shrine and that to was fantastic. By this time we were all 'stepped' out and couldn't even walk the extra approximately 100 steps to the top of the shrine but looked on and took some pictures and were then approached by visitors for our photos....again I think we were the only westerners there which is a novelty.
We made our way down and walked back to Teddy Bear and had a good night sleep. We decided to head back to Chengdu the following day because we changed our plans and now intend to fly to Guilin and spend a day in Yangshuo as we have been able to get our hands on overnight train tickets to Guangzhou which makes it easier for us to get to Hong Kong.
I think this place would be a brilliant place to hike and I would love to come back here one day and hike up the moutain, stay in the hotel at the top and then hike back down and visit the hot spring -----but when the sun is shining!
Oh there are monkeys on the way up to and very cheeky ones as well. Some of the Chinese lads were very cruel to them though - teasing them and throwing things at them and when the monkeys turn on them they run off - im suprised they didn't get bitten! The monkeys were very clever as well - taking a bottle of water from one guys rucksack and opened the lid and helped himself!
Colds are getting better though - but still here - Chloe hasn't been feeling too well but we are pushing on!
Posted by Vicky Bailey 00:12 Archived in China Tagged skiing china journey mother_daughter blog emeishan world_trip back_packing chloe_bailey flash_packing mount_emei Comments (0)