We climbed a mountain. conclusion: monkeys are evil

So, this has already been a hard blog to write. Our web browser is in Hebrew. That means that everything goes from right to left. Wierd.

So, we climbed a mountain. We started at an elevation of 500 metres, at a temperature of about 25 celcius. Then we went up. and up. and up. Two and a half days later, we reached the summit of nearly 3100 metres, and about 5 celcius. So, what did we see/do along the way?

The mountain we climbed is called Emei Shan. It is one of the most spiritual Buddhist mountains in China (and perhaps the world). According to legend (actually a sign we read) buddhism came to this mountain in about 63 A.D. So the temples along the way are nearing 2000 years old. The path is entirely hand-placed stone, forming an elaborate staircase the entire way. Corinne refuses to climb another staircase for a very long time! Although we may feel bad for Corinne, imagine the poor chaps who built it! We came across one section in disrepair and it was being repaired. Some guys actually carried the stones to make the path on their backs all the way to their final destination. The choped up stones and make the cement filler right there on the spot. Also, there are nice little grooves in all the steps, to make them less slippery. We saw a guy hand-chisling grooves in the stones. Imagine around 40 km of path, climbing 2 km altitude, all hand laid. Amazing! Moving on...

We started out in a lush sub-tropical jungle, complete with vines and snakes and everything. We made our way to the "joking monkey zone". joking? ha! more like vile little thieving barbarians! While we were in the "joking zone" there were employees of the park to keep the monkeys in line while the tourists go through. This creates a safe atmosphere, and an illusion of security. Although, we were going to get close to a male monkey and the employee warned us that we may get bit.

Ok, so we made it through our first (supervised) monkey encounter alive and intact. We kept on our way. It was beautiful, although somewhat tiring. We saw some amazing waterfalls, and valleys, and sheer cliffs, and trees, and generally nice scenery. Then, it started getting dark. Strange because it was only 2:30 in the afternoon. The incoming mist was an especially ominous addition to the landscape. It was a little beautiful, but spooky.

Then, as we walked, not another person for miles, and we come across a cute little monkey on the path. What was not so cute, however, were the 10-15 grown-up monkeys, also on the path. The grandpa monkey was especially frightening. As we passed within about 8 inches of this 65 pound beast of an ape, he let out a menacing hiss. His exposed fangs warned us that the territory was his, not ours. We held our ground, and passed unscathed. barely. After we reached freedom, an evil fate of torment via ape followed. The evil grampa monkey and a few of his henchmen followed us up the mountain. Finally, some brave chinese food merchants with slingshots saved the day.

We have no photos of this encounter. We both passed through the pack of rabid apes with a rock in one hand, and our raised bamboo walking sticks in the other.

At the end of day one, we slept in a buddhist monestary. It was... damp. Apparently, clothes dryers are not high on monk's christmas list, so things just don't dry. Including our bedding. We did opt for the cheapest option, so what more can we ask for than a roof, right? We woke to their drumming and chanting at 5am.

After managing a few more hours of sleep, despite the drumming and the gongs, we moved on. We exited our shelter to find a thick fog. We couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of us. and that was day two. foggy. We could tell that we were moving uphill, but we didn't have much visual proof as to how far. We spent a large part of the day travelling with four Chinese hikers. We didn't understand each other, but they bought us oranges, so they must have liked us. This brings us to another point... China has the best oranges in the world. Big, fat, juicy mandarin oranges. They're like christmas oranges, but normal orange sized. amazing.

We finally made it to our second monestary of our journey. It was more hotel-like and we only saw one monk. It was also alot colder because of the high altitude. Fortunately, we opted for the more expensive room which came with electric blankets. Nice, right? It also had a TV (very un-monk like we thought) but we were so exhausted that we watched Chinese cartoons and a 80's Jackie Chan movie (all in Chinese of course). We ate our dinner at the monestary and had the largest spread of food that we've come across so far in China. It was delicious, and all vegetarian!

The next morning was thankfully less foggy for our climb to the summit. It was actually quite a short climb compared to our previous days of hiking. We emerged from a buddhist nature path to find a full-fledged tourist track. Oh, did we mention that we could have simply taken a bus to near the top, and then a gondola to the very top? Well, we didn't but many many people did. So the top was quite crowded. It was amazing though. The fog had lifted to reveal an enormous golden elephant-buddha statue. huge! wait for the photos to see how huge. There were also two golden monestaries which were quite amazing. All this sitting about 2500 m above the rest of china (that we could see anyway). It was one of those special times that folk singers write about that we think are corny so we don't buy those albums.

then we walked down a little, took the bus down the mountain, and took a much needed shower back at our hostel.

that offically brings us up to date. Jason is starving and our reward is a nice little vegetarian restaurant and several beers. Corinne already got her reward in the form of chocolate oreo cookies at the summit of the mountain!

cheers!

-Jason and Corinne