One Big Buddha

It seemed like a good night's sleep would be had by all with such a late start, but unfortunately it was my turn for the inevitable cold circulating through the group. It wasn't to the levels of the Hallucinogenic Mosquito Night of Madagascar, or the horrendously sunburnt back+cold of Vietnam, but unpleasant nonetheless. I was glad when it was time to get up!

I tried to get a steamed bun for breakfast, but ended up getting tricked and buying what seemed to be white and dark rice bread mixed together. It was alright, but not the delicious treat I hoped for. At least I still had my trusty instant coffee sachets to keep me alive!

The drive to Leshan was shorter than many of us expected, only an hour. I spent it napping, as for some reason I found it easier to sleep on the bus (which I normally can't do well) than I did in bed. Cold logic is so weird. I randomly opened my eyes once and caught a glimpse of a passing sign, and it was showing the way to "Orientalist Buddhist theme park". Maybe this was an attempt at divine intervention, but unfortunately we had no time to go.

You'd have thought a 71 meter tall Buddha would dominate the riverside, but upon arriving in Leshan it was nowhere to be seen, as it is sort of in the cliff face. We had the option of walking around it, viewing it from the river, or both. It wasn't too much (70 yuan, or £9), as either one or the other was included, so I decided to do both.

The Leshan Giant Buddha is a Meitreya Buddha, symbolising the future (I'm not entirely sure what this means, but couldn't get a proper explanation). It was built over the course of about 90 years, finishing around 715 ad (I think. That could have been the start though, the explanations were frustratingly vague). Leshan has a confluence of 3 rivers, and this means a lot of floods, and associated deaths and damage to food stores and property, so a monk decided to build a giant Buddha to protect them. It is made from limestone, but had survived mostly intact thanks to a clever haircut which diverts rainwater away from the body of the statue.

The boat ride was first. It was only a half hour long, but really once you've taken some photos of the Buddha, and marvelled for a while there isn't too much to do so it is sufficient. They told us to wear life jackets, then told us not to wear life jackets because it was spitting, and the  colour of the life jacket might run... safety first right!

People for scale. And because I couldn't make them move, but mostly for scale

I went with a smile as I felt showing an expression of anguish at my body trying to drown me in snot would be inappropriate

From afar the mountains look a bit like a Buddha lying down. Ignore that tiny bit of my finger...

Next up it was time for a walk. I have seen a lot of steps over the last few days, and with only half of my airways functioning correctly, I was glad we only had to go up 71 meters. Turns out it wasn't as "only" as I  thought, 71 meters of stairs is still quite a lot! There were a couple of temples on top, which were quite nice, but also very similar to all the others we've seen. The only difference was that the main Buddha in this temple was the Goddess of Mercy and not Samantabhadra (I'm not sure why she is a goddess, as they don't have gods. Wikipedia might be required for today's post). We barely paused for this, we were here for the big Buddha, not some little temples!

She has a fancy statue, I'll give her that!

And a fancy bell too.

Walking down from the top to the feet of the Buddha was basically a queue. William warned us about Chinese people pushing us off the cliff, but they weren't pushy at all, though Del and I got stuck behind an old couple who wanted 15 photos each at every bend, and could only operate the phones they were using for cameras at a prehistoric pace.

I don't normally do pictures of signs, but this one was just too bad. What the hell is "shyphinx L&P"?!?

He looks a bit shifty if you ask me!

The student has become the master. I am pretty much half Chinese now that I have mastered their photo pose

One without me in. Disappointing I know but I needed a break to sneeze 10 times in a row!

The driest haircut.

Afterwards, those of us who had climbed the Buddha went to the east gate to meet up with the others as planned. They were not there, but the Buddha queue was unusually short, so not to matter. We grabbed lunch (I had pork with mushrooms, it was a type of mushrooms we have had a few times, which is strangely similar to seaweed. It's ok but not ideal), then went back at the proper time. Still nothing. 

William was panicking; apparently Chengdu traffic can get awful, so if we arrived there late our 2 hour journey could extend to 5! Not to worry, I checked for wifi, and Buddha had our back! Leshan Great Buddha wifi to be exact: free to access and pretty fast, I am hoping it is beamed out of the Buddha's head. I messaged Alfredo, and he told us they too were at the east gate. Odd. He sent me a picture, and William had never seen it before, so he asked a local: it was about a kilometre up the road, and the east gate of a completely different thing! 

William was clearly in crisis mode, he tried to hail a taxi, and when that failed he rushed over to one of those bikes with a bench on the back, and had someone cycle him up there! They walked back... then we all walked about three quarters of the way back to where the other guys started to get the bus... why didn't we all just walk there together William?!

Luckily we skipped the worst of the Chengdu rush hour. It is a city  of 11 million people, the former capital of the Wushu dynasty in the 5th century, current capital of the Sichuan region, and our home for the next 2 nights. The hotel is lovely (albeit it looks bad from the outside), and we went out for a really nice buffet style dinner. Up early for pandas tomorrow, if I survive the night!

Editor's notes: 

The Goddess of Mercy is just the common English name. In actual fact she is not a goddess but a Bodhisattva (an enlightened being). 

Misty Pic of the Day

Misty is making sure I can't steal her toys by wrapping them round her leg and then putting her head on them..