Today we had the grand plan to get the 7.58am train to Leshan so we woke extremely early, it was still dark, and went to Maccas because the hotel breakfast hadn't even begun. Now here is a feat to commend. Adam looked up the South Chengdu Train Station and wrote down the words in Chinese and our cab driver understood! Top marks. He was going on all the way after I told him "Women zuo Leshan Da Fo" (which I mangled, and he corrected) [we go Leshan Big Buddha] and he was on about 2 hours on the train. I didnt understand if he was saying we should drive with him or what... so I just had to say, duibuqi, bu ming bai (sorry don't understand).
And here starts our stress. We look at the locked up station, and go next door to an old woman selling cigarettes and water, and I say: qingwen, mai piao (excuse me, buy ticket). She points two doors down at a big booth marked in English TICKETS. Like, these letters are half a metre high. Hhahahha... ok, so we go in and discover the timetable has changed and the train left at 7am. the next one is not until 4pm.
So we look at the km's and make a choice how much we are prepared to pay. Hail a cab and tell him 400 yuan to Leshan. He rolls his eyes and says no. Then he puts down 600 on his calculator. We say no way!! We are busy talking about where else to go instead when he gets out and says ok to 400. But driving around 20 mins later we have heard him call people on CB and phone and yell loudly into the receiver and adam says I don't think he knows how to get there. Then he pulls over and is yelling at a woman, and she is gesticulating and we are like... are we getting robbed? we pull into a lot where there are a random mix of cars and people and there is much haggling then gesturing to get out, all the doors are opened. Spud says I am not getting out. But we all do and we are pushed towards some other car and then the cab driver is rubbing his fingers - pay me - I am a bit confused by now! Finally with much broken chinese and english, gesticulating I figure out the cabbbie wants a 200 cut for the intro and the driver will get the other 200, but adam and spud are refusing. Spud says: no, you pay him and we will pay you 400 when we get to Leshan. AI YAAA says the guy and finally dancing like a monkey he makes a huge show of pulling 4 x 100 yuan from his wallet, even extracting one from a hiding place and waving it and saying ok ok, 400.
So we get into this other car and there are two people in the back... i wonder are they passengers or friends? So this was even creepier now. This driver knows even less English, its hilarious. I start thinking... have I left enough clues for my friends to know where I am if we end up murdered in a forest??? Spud says this happened to him in Thailand, that he was passed from driver to driver.
It is meant to be a 2 hour drive, and it was long, long enough for me to nap. They played Chinese ballads all the way there. There was also a lot of back and forth communication and saying Chinese louder and slower in an attempt to make us understand. Ha! There were two calls to me - one by a guy who knew a little bit. He wanted to know what time we wanted to come back. I said will it cost us more? He didn't understand. Then a woman, who said it would cost 400 again. I said no, we will just get a train. Then she said extra 100 we can take you to Mt Emei. I said no... Emei in the guide books recommend you stay over night so I wondered what are you going to see for half an arvo? Its all dealing here, everything is a possibility to make more money.
Finally when we got there, between me, the phrasebook and the driver, we struck a deal that he would take us back for 300. I could even knock out a meeting time: san dian, san shi fen. (3.30) Go phrasebook!
I should comment that the backseat had no belts and each time we reached a toll or saw a police our driver pulled his belt over (not buckled). Ha!! Strangely I also saw a shop marked "New Zealand and Australia Souvenir Shop". ????
So Leshan's giant buddha is heritage listed by UNESCO. There are surrounding parks totally filled with temples and buddhas and caves. Its really something you may need a day or two if you want to see everything. We would wander off the main path to look at some things, but had to sacrifice a lot to get to the buddha. The first thing we tackled was a huge and steep flight of steps. I think Adam counted but I didn't ask. I just thought, ok, don't look down. And the steps were little. There are padlocks locked to some chains all the way up. I think that when someone dies you can etch a padlock and add it. Up the top was a central big buddha and some smaller ones, and then either side were grottos, each with another buddha or stone wall carving of a scene.
We went through a cave and in it were more wall carvings and statues. One room had lots of little buddhas in hollows on the wall. There was water running down some of them and a lot of the area was very mossy. There was a shop selling jade and stone bracelets for buddhists and some really ornate wall carvings. Then there were many stairs... oh so many... and lots of forest and open cliff faces, seats to admire the view... We had come across a small boy who kept yelling Meiguo ren!! (americans). I corrected him Aodaliyaren (australians) and gave him a Caramello Koala. Later we came across the family again and he ran over and gave us a handful of roasted sunflower seeds. I felt like a parrot. So tasty. Cracking open the shell to extract the tasty nut. Yum yum! Did I mention... so many stairs.
Oh... I had a cracker of a toilet today - it was just a channel - no flush... your wee just drains away and I guess sometimes they throw a bucket of water in there.
I realise this is a bit wordy so lets cut to the chase. We followed the signs and started decending many many stairs down a cliff face. Some steps were nuts, half a metre tall. We started encountering lots coming up... we were later to realise we had gone down the wrong one!!! this is the upwards exit! But lucky, because there was a MASSIVE queue on the other side to get down, we would have waited an hour. Woops!!! Only 2 people said anything and one was all in chinese. It was so misty we couldn't see to the other side of the river. They have a boat you can go on too, that gets out a few metres to you can look at the buddha in all its glory. We didn't do that one. It seemed like an extremely long time to get down but I can tell you coming back up was almost nothing. I was surprised.
So how big is this buddha? You can fit several people across the span of its feet. Its truly a marvel. We took lots of photos and then Adam and Spud wanted to go up the wrong way. I said nope and headed back the right way. Apparently they got halfway and then decided it was too hard and came back down.
From above we circled the head and took more photos. There are plants growing out of his ears. Heh heh... ear hair with age. Then we began the decent back to the exits. More stairs!!!! If you worked here you would have calves like Thor. On the way down there were holes in the side of the hill with various statues. One was a tiger and another was a dragon weaving in and out of the stone. We went into a temple as well where they burn these thick metre long incense poles and light oil lamps and candles. Really great carvings on all the doors.
So buggered by the end. We went back to Chengdu and decided to go to Pizza Hut, which has things on the menu more like Sizzlers. Spud had steak and a baby pizza. i had spaghetti American style (who would have thought... ground beef, pineapple, chilli and tomatos??). Adam had risotto.
OMG... huge day... tomorrow we have designs on one of the "ancient towns" either Luodai or Huanglongxi.
No comments:
Post a Comment