Home and Dry

Home is great because we missed the plane. We got to the airport 15 minutes before the plane was due to take off. They had already filled our seats with people on standby and were happily taxi-ing as we arrived at check in. Not an auspicious end to our trip although you do tend to think of beginnings as requiring auspice. Through the generosity of Virgin and the hard work of our esteemed group leader who had chosen not to take the bus that had missed the flight we were booked onto a plane leaving Hong Kong that night. All other planes out of Shanghai were booked for some days. No relaxing in a Shanghai hotel for us we bundled to the ticket purchase desk and handed over our credit cards and a rush trip down to Hong Kong. Hung over from the previous nights revelling and half starved because of the early but not early enough trip to the flight we all gladly lay down on the half empty plane to Hong Kong and headed three hours towards the South Pole. Hong Kong from the air at least is delightful a spread of South China Sea islands in a glorious turquoise sea. The airport was lovely too. We looked around in appreciation on the colonial aspects mingling with essence of China. Menu’s, signs and even papers were in English as well as those Chinese characters that had been so bewildering for many a day. We went to Poppa Something’s Italian restaurant and feasted on Mediterranean delights and fine new world wine. We eventually boarded a very full plane heading North again at midnight.


Dry for the time in the mountains. Oh my word what glorious mountains they are. You know or you may not, the film Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, well on the first day we were in the place where they filmed it. Bamboo forest lining and gushing waterfalls connecting a myriad of pools of varying colours. We mad Laowai ignoring the rain stripped off (to bathers) and sunk our weary already wet bodies into the clearest mountain springs. We frolicked and played, jumping off rocks and sliding down the rock slides. We actually became a tourist attraction in our own right. Sylve got very upset when she got out and found herself changing to be the focus of a Chinese chap and his video camera. We got soaked in the rain then wet from the pool and that was how we remained for the rest of the trip. Somewhere between soaked and damp.


The next day we headed up to mountains proper. We climbed and climbed and climbed. Three hours of non stop steps in an upwards direction. Basically a long row of people all climbing heavenward. On arriving at the “top” we met up with the rest of our group and proceeded to visit a number of Chinese tourist attractions. The theme of these attractions remained much the same throughout the days up the mountain and I have to admit I don’t think we got it. We would trail after our tour guide and her flag listening half heartedly to the Chinese information about the attraction. Pushing and shoving with the other 1000’s of people and their tour guides with flags and megaphones and broadcast systems. We went to see a pine tree. It was a perfectly nice pine tree but very similar to the other pine trees. There was the pine that a tiger sat under. The pine that symbolised young love with a split trunk. The pine that welcomed visitors to the park oh and the goodbye pine that waved them off. There were rocks likened to well, I lost focus, but a lot of different things the only one I slightly saw was the fish on its head sort of shape in the rock.

We began to loose enthusiasm and were tired cold and grumpy and came upon a delightful looking hotel which we thought might be the one we booked into. On enquiry it wasn’t, ours was several hours more up steps and was of a somewhat lower standard and we were booked into rooms of 6 bunks. Now we had had enough by now of the people and the wet and the walking and so with great difficulty aided though by a beer and some lunch we communicated to our guide we would be checking into and remaining at this hotel and would meet her tomorrow. The hotel of the previous night had been truly horrible so much so that Sylve and I had to lay plastic on the floor and play island hopping to get from cold shower to insect infested bed. This place was much nicer. We checked up and had a hot shower before exploring the area sans guide, megaphone, other 1000 tourists. We spent a very pleasant evening playing poker and drinking the hotel dry before heading up to sleep much later that we really ought to have done.


5.30 came early the next morning, definitely not at a respectable distance from the night before but the sunrise was glorious and we set off to meet our guide and group. It was incredible. Islands of mountain top emerging from the cloud below and the kind of peace you only get at sunrise. We made it to our rendezvous a few hours later and many steps on with time to spare. Time to stand 1800m up and look down on what surely should not be witnessed by mere mortals; truly a kingdom of heaven. I wish I could describe it or that the battery in my camera had not gone flat and I could show you a picture. It took my breath away; it made every step and megaphone well worthwhile. Once we had re-established connections with our group we set off in search of higher peaks, steeper steps and more pine trees. We scaled huge peaks, precarious steps always thinking I cannot walk up the one ahead and then a few hours later looking back and thinking wow that is where I came from. It was amazing, you kind of got on the conveyor belt and were just moved on because that is what everyone was doing but it got quieter the higher and steeper we got. All around you could look down on mountain valleys and see the paths and the tiny rows of people making their way through this incredible scenery. After about 7 hours walking we stopped and reconvened with the group and elected to take the cable car down the last couple of hours of steps. It was a worthwhile trip both for the birds and eye view and for the foot relief. At the bottom we headed to the hot springs that had been the carrot tempting the donkeys on garbed in swimming costumes since the start of the walking.

The hot springs as it turned out were not the carrot we had yearned for but a mouldy building with a very poorly maintained swimming pool in which lacked chlorine so may have been spring water. Dave got in griping heartily about the fact that we had made him spend 50Y on coming into the springs that were so horrible until conquest number 2 of 3 for the day decided to join us. There were a number of spiky balls floating unloved at the deep end of the pool but we decided to have a go at playing volleyball. Turns out we are all pretty crap at it and descended into just trying to hit each other with the balls. Then conquest got involved, conquests mother and then slowly but surely all sorts of members of the group we had been walking with appeared in the pool and began to attack. From a peaceful couple of people floating in an empty pool absolute chaos broke out and the whole pool was filled with people on the attack and spiky balls flying everywhere. It was amazing, all these people we could not talk to because of the language barrier were there and we were all playing together and just working out the stiff and ache of the days of walking. It was an wonderful end to an incredible trip.