This past week was the Chinese National Holiday, so pretty much everyone in China had the week off. We decided before that a group of 9 of us were going to take a train to the Sichuan province, the province next to Tibet, so across China. It was a 36 hour train ride but, basically, it was awesome. On the train ride there we had a dance party with the 50+ year old older women in the aisle of the train. We had them jumping around and waving their hands in the air to Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Enrique Iglesias, and Queen. It got kind of awkward when the ringleader of the old women started spooning me while we were dancing with them (it was a tight space). Once we actually got to Sichuan we went to a place called E Mei Shan. We went hiking there for three days, which hiking in China means stairs. We climbed an altitude of 8,800 ft while hiking the stairs and then went back down. The two nights on the mountain we stayed in Buddhist Monasteries. When we woke up at the first one there was a clan of monkeys taking over the place. Two monkeys climbed on one of the girls in our group and pantsed her. It was pretty cool. After the hiking and many sores muscles, we went back to the city, got stinking cheap massages (not quality but price ($1.50 for 50 minutes)), and had some famous spicy food (Sichuan is famous for having some of the spiciest food in the world). It numbed your mouth as soon it was in there; a weird sensation to say the least. The last day we went to the Panda Reserve; Pandas are only native to the Sichuan Province in China. That night we got on the train and came home. Sorry this was a long post but a lot happened. These are the pictures of my excursion:
There was a shortage of beds on the train so Ray and I had to share...It was tight! This is the calm part of the trail and me with my pancho.
Most of the hike we were in the clouds so we saw the "cloud seas" the entire time. These are those monkeys.
These are our humble accommodations in the Buddhist Monasteries. The sun finally broke through the clouds and the trees near the top.
The giant golden Buddha at the top of the mountain. The view from the top.
The waterfall, stream area we found on the way down. The splash I made after jumping off the rock into the pool and a random picture.
The pandas going to town on the bamboo and me advertising for AH Plumbing. Ray and I sporting our new panda hats.
