Sorry to friends and family that are following our blogs we have had a hectic week last week, We have had no service on our phone or access to the internet, as we have been living in Monasteries and staying on a cruise ship, but here goes a bit more information about our last 10 days. We are still having lots of fun!
This overnight train seemed newer than the last hard sleeper we were on. It was another good experience, this time we were placed in a 6 birth sleeper with the rest of our group, so it was better. We also slept in the middle bunks for a change, some things were the same, the noodles for tea and bedtime at 10pm. We didn’t mind as we were absolutely shattered. We arrived in Chengdu very early 5pm the following morning.. Outside the station it was crowded, obviously a lot of other people travelling very early. We left our luggage in the hotel and had our first English breakfast Chinese style at Holly’s Youth hostel. It was a really good change from eating noodles or dumplings.
We then set off by private bus to visit the Chengdu panda breeding centre. We didn’t really know what to expect, but this experience seeing these large pandas exceeded our expectations. We got very close to the pandas and were able to watch them eat and play. We also saw the baby pandas in the incubators varying from a couple of weeks old to a couple of months old, they were very cute, as you will see on the photos.
In the panda breeding centre there was a lake, which had a numerous amount of carp, in fact we have never seen as many in one place before, they were jumping out of the water, and fighting the ducks for the food. A great day, well worth the visit.
The following day we got a bus to a monastery called the Baoguo monastery, it was nice to arrive somewhere away from the hustle and bustle of the city and the sound of car horns. The accommodation in the monastery was pretty basic and what we expected, however the toilets were a bit of a letdown. The monastery itself was impressive with a very peaceful ambiance, lighted scented candlelights in the middle of the courtyard and a number of very impressive Buddha’s displayed in various temples with kneeling mats so people can go there and pray. We mentioned that it is peaceful, but not at 4am, early hours of the morning when we heard the first beat of the drum, this was the wakeup call for the monks to meet and start their chanting. We certainly did not need our alarm clocks. The chanting and the drums go on for about 2 hours before they start their silent prayers, by this time breakfast is ready.
We packed an overnight bag ready to go to Mount Emei 3,099 meters above sea level, This mountain is a famous Buddhist mountain and has four famous views, the cloud sea, the sunrise, the Buddist light and the saint lamp. Also as part of our tour we were heading off to experience another monastery at the top of the mountain, so we prepared ourselves for a four hour walk on the afternoon, it was very humid with lots of rain.
We were very excited about the experience until we were given a talk during breakfast and handed a bamboo stick which all of the group thought it was help them walk up the mountain. But to everyone’s surprise we were told that this was to be used to defend us when we are passing the monkeys during our walk! Most of the group sat with their mouth open in surprise and told there was monkey police controlling the area. The guides did not understand why we were all in fits of laughter. Nobody ever mentioned to us that we would be fighthing off the monkeys as they would be after our lunch.
We finally set off on a bus travelling up hill on a very treacherous road. It wasn’t long on our first walk where the monkey’s were waiting for us blocking the paths as they were in families of groups of 5 or more. They were much bigger than we thought close up, some at around 35 kgs. We thought they looked quite harmless and were just looking us up and down, scanning our bags for food. We listened to our leaders and all our food and drink were well hidden in our ruck sacks. Once we got over the initial shock of being so close to the monkeys it turned out to be good fun! and fairly exciting. We managed to get to some good close up photographs Once we passed the monkeys we got a cable car up to 3,200 metres above sea level. The cable car was pretty erie, we could appreciate the heights we were travelling up too, but the vision was poor due to the low clouds and the mist.
Once arriving at the top there was a massive gold Budha with various heads which stood about 100ft high, it had a very magical feel about it. We were very impressed, it was well worth the long cable car ride. The photos were not so good though because of the mist but we managed to capture the large scale of the budda.
The afternoon was a fairly long four hour walk up hill towards the monastery with fantastic views, consisting of paths, waterfalls, suspension bridges; these views reminded us of the scenes we saw from jungles in Indiana Jones. After climbing many steps of which our legs were starting to ache, our final walk finished with 1200 steps to climb to the monastery. A nice surprise! The monastery was similar to the one we had stayed the previous night, but the toilets were worse, which we didn’t think was possible as these were totally open air and out in the open with no doors!
After a nice breakfast of pancakes and fruit salad the next day we saw the monkeys coming towards the restaurant , one of the large ones had the audacity to open up one of the fridges and try and pinch the water. The guide soon scared them off with the bamboo stick. It didn’t stop the babies keep coming back to have another go, but the owners of the restaurant had a couple of little terriers who were fairly confident in protecting their territory.
The following day consisted of a full day walking back down the mountain, we stopped after a couple of hours and the group were given an option, which was to either take a coach back down the mountain or do another 3 hour walk, four of us decided we wanted to do the walk as the views were stunning. We have never seen as many steps, up and down, so it wasn’t the easiest walk we have ever done but well worth it for the views.
We returned back to the monastery at the bottom of Mount Emi, ready for our early morning chanting, but we had a lovely optional surprise to look forward to and that was some hot springs. This was a combination of hot pools to sit in all different scents, banana pineapple, cocoa, Aloe Vera, the perfect end to a day after walking so far. It filled in a couple of hours before going to the restaurant for our local evening restaurant meal with the group .
The following day we got up fairly early and set off on a long journey by public bus, 7 hours in total, in order to go to the Docks to start our 4 day tour on a cruise ship sailing down the Yangtse River It should have been a fairly comfortable ride by bus, but the driver beeped his horn every time he passed other traffic and believe us the roads were busy so you can imagine the horn never stopped. We finally arrived at the Docks to board the cruise ship and once again we were pleasantly surprised by the cruise ship called ‘Victoria Rose’. The rooms were great, really clean and back to western toilets. (not squat toilets of which we have had to experience so many of them). The cruise was a great experience we learned so much about Chinas famous gorges, the city Wushan which had to be built 300 meters above the old town due to the dam being made as they had to raise the water level higher on the Yangtse river, therefore the old town of which 30,000 people lived their much loved town ended up under water. This was sad for the locals especially the older people who did not like change, as they missed their original homes. In he afternoon we were taken on a small sampon ,up three smaller gorges where the views and scenery was outstanding and breathtaking in its own right. We also visited the dam , completed in 2009,which is now the largest in the world. It was a great experience last night entering the docks it took four hours in total for the cruise ship to get through the 5 locks.
We are staying overnight in Yichang before departing Monday September 19th for our next adventure where we will take another over night train to Liuzhou. This time we are staying in a soft sleeper supposed to be more upperclass we will wait and see!
