Monks and Monkeys

It only took 20 minutes to transfer to our monastery lodgings. There is far less traffic in Emei Shan than in Beijing or Xi'an. The centre seemed quite built up, but that quickly gave way to forest of mixed trees and bamboo. Our lodgings were in the middle of these forests, though only a couple of minutes walk from a street with a few shops on, which is convenient!

We got settled in quite quickly, in simple yet clean rooms as you may expect. Next it was time for a long overdue shower. I had been joking that it would be communal showers, and I wasn't too far wrong, though there were chest high screens between shower heads. No sign of monks with wire brushes to wash your back as I also predicted though!

A courtyard near our rooms. So convenient for when you need to burn incense!

Looking out of our balcony. I don't know whose hand that is

Out the front. The lions will protect me tonight!

For tea we had another buffet, which was one of the nicest yet, especially the vegetables (anyone who knows me well will be surprised to see me write that!). Afterwards it was back to the monastery for a little reading, and early bed, as it was an early check out tomorrow for those of us hiking up to the second monastery.

There was a gong at 5am to get all the monks up to pray and such. I went back to sleep though, I'm not that devout! When I did get up, we walked to the aforementioned nearby street, and breakfast was (predictably) steamed buns. These were huge ones though, so I only had 2.

We then met our local guide Nathan, and got on the 2 hour public bus (though a small one with allocated seating so we were half the passengers) towards the summit of Emei mountain and the Samantabhadra monument/temple on top.

There was a half hour walk to a cable car, and as we had climbed a fair way on the bus, we were conclusively in the clouds. I finally got to use the thermal I have been carrying the whole trip in my rucksack just in case. Before we started, Nathan gave us a warning. The enemy was here. In this instance I am not talking about cabbage, nor tomatoes, but monkeys!

Pea soup, as we call it

This was as close as I was getting to the furry death machines blocking our path!

The walk was pleasant, nice to be walking in sub-30 degree heat, but it was quite busy too, a lot of people going to pray I think; this is one of the 4 holy Buddhist mountains of China after all. Once we reached the cable car it was a mad scrum to get in, and I got asked for my second photo of the holiday, by a load of middle aged women.

At the top Nathan gave us some fun facts on the monument. The current monument is a replacement for an old one, about 15 years old. It is made entirely of bronze and gilded. It has 10 heads, looking to the north, north east, east etc, up, and down, because Buddha can see everywhere. The elephant is a symbol unique to Samantabhadra, gifted to him by his master. It has 6 tusks, representing the 6 paths to enlightenment.

We looked around for an hour or so, and thankfully the cloud occasionally lifted a little letting us see the monument properly.  As we were wandering about a load of monks from somewhere else came up and asked Alfredo and I for some pictures. Even they are not beyond the allure of white people!

 

It's pretty shiny. Good job it wasn't sunny or it'd be blinding!

He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake...

This lion kid wasn't hungry I guess. The ball is getting fed instead!

That monk with the selfie stick has way too much attitude. He won't make Buddha!

Afterwards we got a bus back down (there was a hilarious Donnie Yen film playing as this time it was more of a coach for some reason), and had lunch at some place three quarters of the way back to our hotel, where we would be starting our hike to the next monastery. Thanks to people being scared by the potential difficulty, only Del, Alfredo and I were going, along with Nathan.

Our pre walk fighting pose. With the potential for monkey ambush, we might be needing those fists!

The walk was through the forests and gorges, about 2 and a half hours long, all on good paths but with a lot of steps. We were told it would be harder than the Great Wall, but I don't think it was. It was a much cooler day though. The views were amazing, and there was no monkey attack, probably because we were armed with anti monkey bamboo sticks by Nathan.

I did say I'd steal it!

The water was amazingly clear! There were a fair few people too though

There were some carvings along the way, they are only as old as the statue in the mountain, not at all how they look!

I did say the views were unrelentingly nice

A little wildlife as well, including mum's favourite!

Prepared for war at the start of the monkey zone!

Both photos at that spot were so good I couldn't forgo either!

We made it, just...

Del bought a mask because he used to watch Journey to the West. It looks particularly odd on me...

The monastery at the top was insanely quiet! 13 monks, and no other guests but us (at time of writing)! The rooms are nice, the wifi is (oddly) the fastest we've had since coming to china, it's certainly worth the walk! We arrived about 5:30pm, and had a hot shower, before relaxing with some bamboo shoot tea, sharing photos and chatting before tea.

Our little monastery


View from the window!

Editor's note: 

Misty Pic of the Day

It was a late night for Misty last night with the excitement of the 5(five) - 1 win for the mighty Rotherham United yesterday! You can see she is feeling tired as she sleeps snuggling with one of her toys..