Mt Emei or at least part of it
We awoke the next morning and headed off to Mount Emei. E had traveled to this location before and loved it. So we thought we should see it, but this trip fell way short of her previous. Once again, our bus tour guide handed us off to another tour guide. Before entry into the park, we saw a map of Emei. There were two sets of cable cars, one at the foot of the mountain and one that would take you to the top of the mountain, where E had seen the sunrise. We never got close to the latter. We took the cable car to the foot of the mountain (or to a higher elevation than where we were). From there we began our journey. We started off to a Buddhist temple, equipped with its own gift shop, SMH. Yay! There were some beautiful views, but overall it was just okay. Not really any different from the other temples we had previously visited. The highlight was our first monkey sighting. It was scavenging the trash for food and found a banana peel (how cliche) and had a tiny monkey hanging onto it. This would be the first of many sightings of monkeys. They must have just woken up, because when we left the temple the steps had about 5 or 6 monkeys on them. I was giddy. Only thing that would have made me happier was if they were pandas. But there would've been very little room left on the stairs. So we progressed to our next stop, a tea place, to hear another sales pitch.
This is where my niceness died. I tried my best to keep my anger from projecting outward, poorly done, but this was too much. Now I had to deal with it again! I refused any drink or anything else offered. E said I insulted our fellow tourist by refusing the drink, but I couldn't help it. This was just too much! We then left to go to another place, our tour guide's family's shop. There we could order food. E did and I drank a little tea to show I'm not trying to be a jerk to my comrades, but the tea was not very good. Very bitter. We then walked down further and arrived to the shopping district. Shops lined the sidewalk, but we weren't forced to any of them. Instead, our tour guide told us to follow this other group and told us when to come back. I found this to be extremely lazy, but I didn't like her, so I was okay with it. Turned out this was the way to the monkey haven.
We had to walk along, and sometimes across, a creek. We proceeded past the creek to this walkway. It was set along a cliff-side and there was a very strong railing. I only bring this up because the railway was the walkway for the monkeys. They would sit along the cliff and watch the people. We had been forewarned that the monkeys will try to grab things. So we had bundled everything up very well. That did not stop one monkey from taking an interest in my backpack. It slowly followed me. I stopped, so did it. Then I walked a little further and stopped again. The monkey did the same. E was behind both of us, so I decided to see if the monkey wanted to race. I changed my gait into a full-on speed walk. The monkey must have really thought that I had something good because it picked up its pace also. E yelled to warn me, I was already aware. I passed a few people and the monkey shifted his focus to them.
We continued to the monkey haven. We had to cross a rope/chain bridge to get to it (or we could have simply noticed the pathway to the right, its how we exited). While there, I couldn't enjoy the monkeys as much as I wanted to. Not with a bag full of expensive electronics. I wish I would have recorded the moment with our camcorder, but feared the cam being monkey swiped. E took some good shots and we left. There some cool monkey carvings at the entrance that we took some pics of and then progressed back to the meeting spot.
While walking back, E wanted to go down an path that went down sooner and enjoy the creek more. We did, only to find we had to cross the creek almost immediately. You can foresee what is about to occur. I passed first, one of the stones was loose and I fell in, feet only. As mentioned before, my livelihood was in that backpack. My former martial arts training still paid dividends. I wasn't too bad until we noticed our bottle of water going down the creek. Water is very precious to me, and in China, more-so. So I go in after it and completely soak my feet. It was actually quite refreshing. We walked back to the meeting point and walked to our next stop. A tea sales pitch. Must... refrain... killing urge! I survived that last sales pitch and we headed to the final stop for lunch. We did not know that it was our final stop until our tour guide, seems generous to call her that, asked for our ID badges back. In about 4 hours we saw 2 actual spots on the mountain and the rest were sales pitches. Waste of money.
We got back on the bus for one more sales pitch stop and then finally got back to Chengdu, about 5/6 hours before our train leaves. We ate some lunch, pretty good eats, and then went to the train station. We discovered a restricted area, VIP. To get it, you must spend 20RMB per person. About $3USD. While in there, we got tea, a comfy seat, and an outlet to charge our electronics. Not only that, we were the first to our train. Not bad. We got to the train so early, they weren't even ready for us. We took the train ride home and finally met up with E's Aunt 7. They were nice enough to pick us up and take us to our hotel. The ride was kinda crazy because her husband didn't know where to go (they usually ride the bus, they were borrowing the car) and Aunt 7 was ignoring his pleas for help. We did eventually make it to the hotel. It was clean, small and had ethernet. Winner of nicest hotel we stayed at. We slept in our bed and awaited the next day of family 'fun'.
This is where my niceness died. I tried my best to keep my anger from projecting outward, poorly done, but this was too much. Now I had to deal with it again! I refused any drink or anything else offered. E said I insulted our fellow tourist by refusing the drink, but I couldn't help it. This was just too much! We then left to go to another place, our tour guide's family's shop. There we could order food. E did and I drank a little tea to show I'm not trying to be a jerk to my comrades, but the tea was not very good. Very bitter. We then walked down further and arrived to the shopping district. Shops lined the sidewalk, but we weren't forced to any of them. Instead, our tour guide told us to follow this other group and told us when to come back. I found this to be extremely lazy, but I didn't like her, so I was okay with it. Turned out this was the way to the monkey haven.
We had to walk along, and sometimes across, a creek. We proceeded past the creek to this walkway. It was set along a cliff-side and there was a very strong railing. I only bring this up because the railway was the walkway for the monkeys. They would sit along the cliff and watch the people. We had been forewarned that the monkeys will try to grab things. So we had bundled everything up very well. That did not stop one monkey from taking an interest in my backpack. It slowly followed me. I stopped, so did it. Then I walked a little further and stopped again. The monkey did the same. E was behind both of us, so I decided to see if the monkey wanted to race. I changed my gait into a full-on speed walk. The monkey must have really thought that I had something good because it picked up its pace also. E yelled to warn me, I was already aware. I passed a few people and the monkey shifted his focus to them.
We continued to the monkey haven. We had to cross a rope/chain bridge to get to it (or we could have simply noticed the pathway to the right, its how we exited). While there, I couldn't enjoy the monkeys as much as I wanted to. Not with a bag full of expensive electronics. I wish I would have recorded the moment with our camcorder, but feared the cam being monkey swiped. E took some good shots and we left. There some cool monkey carvings at the entrance that we took some pics of and then progressed back to the meeting spot.
While walking back, E wanted to go down an path that went down sooner and enjoy the creek more. We did, only to find we had to cross the creek almost immediately. You can foresee what is about to occur. I passed first, one of the stones was loose and I fell in, feet only. As mentioned before, my livelihood was in that backpack. My former martial arts training still paid dividends. I wasn't too bad until we noticed our bottle of water going down the creek. Water is very precious to me, and in China, more-so. So I go in after it and completely soak my feet. It was actually quite refreshing. We walked back to the meeting point and walked to our next stop. A tea sales pitch. Must... refrain... killing urge! I survived that last sales pitch and we headed to the final stop for lunch. We did not know that it was our final stop until our tour guide, seems generous to call her that, asked for our ID badges back. In about 4 hours we saw 2 actual spots on the mountain and the rest were sales pitches. Waste of money.
We got back on the bus for one more sales pitch stop and then finally got back to Chengdu, about 5/6 hours before our train leaves. We ate some lunch, pretty good eats, and then went to the train station. We discovered a restricted area, VIP. To get it, you must spend 20RMB per person. About $3USD. While in there, we got tea, a comfy seat, and an outlet to charge our electronics. Not only that, we were the first to our train. Not bad. We got to the train so early, they weren't even ready for us. We took the train ride home and finally met up with E's Aunt 7. They were nice enough to pick us up and take us to our hotel. The ride was kinda crazy because her husband didn't know where to go (they usually ride the bus, they were borrowing the car) and Aunt 7 was ignoring his pleas for help. We did eventually make it to the hotel. It was clean, small and had ethernet. Winner of nicest hotel we stayed at. We slept in our bed and awaited the next day of family 'fun'.