Roof of the world Part XIII

Early bird catches the worm. We were told that we will be spending 4-5 hours going up Mount Er Mei. The ladies are dying to get to their shopping spree. So we have our breakfast at 6.30am.

At 7am, we walk to the boarding area for visitors to go up Mount Er Mei. Its even more crowded than Mount Le. Argh. Damn commercial. We have 2 options again. Mid mountain or mountain top. Our initial plan is mountain top. Its has 3 amazing sights.

The cloud sea. The sunrise. The buddha light. But now Chengdu is raining, so sunrise is probably a gone case. Buddha light needs the right timing and right sunlight. Only appears once or twice a year. But according to the guide, the top is undergoing construction, so a lot of view is obstructed. So seems like mid mountain is a more sensible choice.

We are handed over to a local guide for our tour. We first have to take a coach to a cable car point. The cable car will send us further up to the Wan Nien Shi (Wan Nien Monastery). We have to ascend a flight of stairs before we reach the monastery. A very commercialized monastery as we all agreed.

Next attraction on the route is Bai Long Dong (White Dragon Cave). Its the legendary place where bai she (white snake) train herself. No one interested, so we just passby the place. Then we descend 1km to Qing Ying Ke (Qing Ying Pavilion) to prepare ourselves to enter the main attraction of Mount Er Mei. Its the natural monkey zone. Up and down. Up and down. After traveling like another 500m, someone overheard that the monkeys are in hiding. No monkey sighted. Damn. We decided to u-turn and travel back to the pavilion.

Then we have to first climb up what seems like endless flight of stairs, then descend at twice the distances before we can board the bus to leave. We climb and climb and climb and climb and climb and climb and climb and climb and climb and climb and climb and climb and climb and I still cannot see the top. ^.%#*$

By the time I get to the top, I am literally steaming. Someone can see me smoking away, thinking someone is smoking behind me only to realise the smoke is emitting from me. I say I'm probably at boiling point. In army, favorite phrase would be any sweat lotsa sweat, underwear also wet. I'm totally soak through. Perspire like turn on tap.

Some are asking if not seeing the monkeys is considered this Mount Er Mei a failure. My reply is I dun give a damn about the monkeys, I climb it once is more than enough. All agree with me. A regular jogger is not the same as regular climber. Hopefully no aching tomorrow.

After lunch its back to Chengdu. Some of the girls are dying to get back to shopping. These are hardcore cheaplo shoppers. They are having the intention of buying additional luggage just to dump their loots in. SIAO.

But before that, we are stopping by our last tourist attraction, Huang Long Xi Gu Zhen. An old town with 1700 years of history. Its also probably the most dead attraction but also most clean town I have seen. There are always some cleaners sweeping the litters. We are reminded not to throw on the floor! First time told NOT to throw on the ground!

We had Chongqing steamboat for dinner. We merge yesterday's lunch, today's dinner aud tomorrow's lunch for this one meal. We go for the 88 per head type. Not bad sia. We get our own room. Everything is free flow, including beer.

Last night in China ... sleep tight. Good nite.