Monday, May 26
Photo 1: The twisted railing that was unsettlingly close to the edge of the stairs wherever we went
Photo 2: Going to a lookout point via a narrow pathway
Photo 3: Group photo of the morning hikers
Photo 4: Dong Laoshi looking good with her unrivaled stamina
Photo 5: Part of the extremely long descent to the bottom of Huang Shan
Photo 6: A cute baby monkey that distracted visitors as the rest of the monkey family swarmed for food
Bonus Photo: A bunch of us being able to use our legs before we went to Huang Shan
I woke up this morning only to find myself unable to do anything besides blinking. The soreness of yesterday's hikes finally caught up to me as I found myself unable to leave the top bunk until Dong Laoshi, who slept in the bed underneath, rose up. I had to pathetically slither down the bed because my legs refused to move properly. Seeing the weather conditions outside, Dong Laoshi made the morning hike optional. For the person writing the blog though, optional activities are clearly mandatory and the sheer willpower to write a good blog was the only thing that kept me going strong enough to wobble out to the hotel lobby. A tasty and slightly satisfying breakfast of Orion Chocolate pies may have also helped me regain my energy for the long hike ahead.
It was only a small group that set off this morning (Tyler, Tim, Jimmy, Luther, Jon, Alex, and Dong Laoshi) and I'm not surprised that the only girls on this hike happened to be the two girls (Me and Mika) that shared the room with Dong Laoshi. We were headed to Xihai Grand Canyon…which is a really strange name because I don't think it's anything like the Grand Canyon in the States. But eh, what do I know, I'm just a city girl.
Our time in China has taught me to never trust weather reports as we all looked silly with coats and yellow rain ponchos for the first few minutes of the hike before realizing that the rain was simply morning mist. I'm just glad that there is a lot less fog compared to yesterday as we were able to see past five feet of what was ahead of us. I finally got to see peaks and mountain ridges without the annoyance of rain sticking onto my glasses. Honestly, words will not do Huang Shan justice so I'll just let the pictures do the talking.
Huang Shan may not have been an actual mountain hiking experience but without the aid of bridges and stairs, we would have never been able to take some crazy photos on some pretty crazy rock formations. The fences here seem sturdy enough to hold onto but then again, they were made in China…
Around noon, we came back to the hotel to gather everyone up for the descent. Huang Shan, it was nice sightseeing but it was time to get off this mountain. At first I was really confused when we had to climb up stairs to start descending but we eventually reached the steep set of stairs that would bring us seven kilometers down to the bottom. Normally, going down is way more desirable than climbing up but when you're descending wet, uneven, and small stairs with no railing to save you from slipping, going down becomes a formidable challenge. I had to repeatedly chant "mountain goat" to get into a zone because it was not fun going down sore. We did see some awesome views on the way down, including a scene where a family of monkeys terrorized a Chinese family for their food. Tyler even recorded one stealing cucumbers out of their bags, heh heh.
I'm glad to say that everyone made it down the mountain without copping out for the cable car. We all deserved our group lunch, which happened to be the first time we had actual food since our last meal in the village. The coach bus ride to Nanjing lulled many of us to sleep, while others stayed up writing journals and blogs and whatnot. I think it's safe to assume that many of us were happy to return to civilization. Well, except for the chance of getting hit by a Nanjing cycler the moment I stepped off the bus. I don't think I'm ever going to get used to that!
- Bobo
No comments:
Post a Comment