so our story starts as nicholas travels with us by taxi to the bus station to make sure we get on the right bus to emeishan where we are planning to climb 3000 meter high mount emei. we fly in and out of chengdu, but the adventures in this post occur on mount emei.
lastly, before we begin, rather than retell this story from my point of view, my son basil has already recorded an account so i've decided to share his rendition. it's a bit lengthy so i'm dividing it into 5 posts.
ENJOY!
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PREFACE
I’m writing about my vacation to Chengdu. I climbed up Mount Emei (pronounced like oo-may), and saw some things too amazing to describe.
But I’m going to try.
INTRO: LEAVING CHENGDU
So basically what I’ve done is skipped the boring part where we stayed in hotels in Chengdu. Later I may return to my experiences in Chengdu, but for now I’m skipping straight to out arrival.
On the bus, we meet these two nice college kids named Jesse and Chris. They’re American and are traveling China for a year because they study Chinese and want some real experience. Dad and Mom start chattering, and I lose interest.
When we arrive in Emei, this is what I see: basically a dump. There’s trash thrown on the sidewalk, people begging on the street, doors destroyed and stores closed down. Crates are upturned everywhere, and I’m instantly getting the vibe, “this is gonna suck.” I kind of try to stay upbeat, but I’m already sort of wishing we had stayed in Chengdu. We’re pretty much starving from the long bus ride, so we go to get dinner with Jesse and Chris. This part of our experience is so awful I don’t want to describe it in detail, instead I’ll use a few words: Emei is definitely not known for its food. We go to our hostel, all feeling like Emei is lame. We just crash, and the next day Dad is shaking me out of bed. “Come on, we already missed our goal!” Dad had planned to wake us up at 7:10, and it was 8:30. I kind of roll over and almost fall out of bed. I had slept in a top bunk with no railing. My eyes flash open and I sit up quick.
And whack my head on the low ceiling. Yeah, our big hiking day is off to a great start.
CHAPTER 1: THE BEAUTIFUL DETOUR PAVILION
Jesse and Chris left way earlier to get an early start on the mountain, so we walk alone to the base of the mountain. Chinese people start laughing at us like, “Haha, the Americans are trying to climb the holy mountain. Haha. Suckers.” I’m just going to tell you now that we passed all of them by day 2 and were some the only people at that base that reached the top.
Haha. Suckers.
So, feeling kind of annoyed, exhausted, and bored, we walk to the trail head. Mom and Dad start taking tons of pictures of a big stone wall.
Thanks, Mom and Dad. You guys couldn’t look more like tourists if you tried.
Wait, yes you could.
I turn around to see my Dad talking to a bunch of Chinese people. Well, not talking exactly. He’s trying to say something in Chinese and utterly failing. I think he’s just putting Chinese words he knows together in a random order. The Chinese people look confused. What a surprise. I guess I should be thankful that he’s not saying “Chugga chugga chugga chugga choo choo si nar?” He did that once. I’m serious. In a taxi. Trying to ask where the train station was. Now he’s pointing at me and saying “Wo ta erzu.” In Chinese, that means ‘my son’. Oh, no no no no no. That creep is not my father. I shake my head vigorously. Kayl’s yelling at Dad now, telling him that we have to go. I just kind of walk over into an open space and started breakdancing. A crowd of twenty people has gathered in two minutes. God, are these people desperate for entertainment. They’re cheering now. I feel kind of awkward. Even the people Dad was humiliating himself in front of are coming over. Now the crowd is yelling something random in Chinese over and over. O...k. Right. This is so weird. I sort of awkwardly get up and walk over to the trail head. We start hiking. About three minutes in, a crowd of twenty-year-old girls gathers and starts asking to take their picture with Dad. Sure, of course! Dad is always happy to oblige a group of random strangers.
I’m writing about my vacation to Chengdu. I climbed up Mount Emei (pronounced like oo-may), and saw some things too amazing to describe.
But I’m going to try.
INTRO: LEAVING CHENGDU
So basically what I’ve done is skipped the boring part where we stayed in hotels in Chengdu. Later I may return to my experiences in Chengdu, but for now I’m skipping straight to out arrival.
On the bus, we meet these two nice college kids named Jesse and Chris. They’re American and are traveling China for a year because they study Chinese and want some real experience. Dad and Mom start chattering, and I lose interest.
When we arrive in Emei, this is what I see: basically a dump. There’s trash thrown on the sidewalk, people begging on the street, doors destroyed and stores closed down. Crates are upturned everywhere, and I’m instantly getting the vibe, “this is gonna suck.” I kind of try to stay upbeat, but I’m already sort of wishing we had stayed in Chengdu. We’re pretty much starving from the long bus ride, so we go to get dinner with Jesse and Chris. This part of our experience is so awful I don’t want to describe it in detail, instead I’ll use a few words: Emei is definitely not known for its food. We go to our hostel, all feeling like Emei is lame. We just crash, and the next day Dad is shaking me out of bed. “Come on, we already missed our goal!” Dad had planned to wake us up at 7:10, and it was 8:30. I kind of roll over and almost fall out of bed. I had slept in a top bunk with no railing. My eyes flash open and I sit up quick.
And whack my head on the low ceiling. Yeah, our big hiking day is off to a great start.
CHAPTER 1: THE BEAUTIFUL DETOUR PAVILION
Jesse and Chris left way earlier to get an early start on the mountain, so we walk alone to the base of the mountain. Chinese people start laughing at us like, “Haha, the Americans are trying to climb the holy mountain. Haha. Suckers.” I’m just going to tell you now that we passed all of them by day 2 and were some the only people at that base that reached the top.
Haha. Suckers.
So, feeling kind of annoyed, exhausted, and bored, we walk to the trail head. Mom and Dad start taking tons of pictures of a big stone wall.
Thanks, Mom and Dad. You guys couldn’t look more like tourists if you tried.
Wait, yes you could.
I turn around to see my Dad talking to a bunch of Chinese people. Well, not talking exactly. He’s trying to say something in Chinese and utterly failing. I think he’s just putting Chinese words he knows together in a random order. The Chinese people look confused. What a surprise. I guess I should be thankful that he’s not saying “Chugga chugga chugga chugga choo choo si nar?” He did that once. I’m serious. In a taxi. Trying to ask where the train station was. Now he’s pointing at me and saying “Wo ta erzu.” In Chinese, that means ‘my son’. Oh, no no no no no. That creep is not my father. I shake my head vigorously. Kayl’s yelling at Dad now, telling him that we have to go. I just kind of walk over into an open space and started breakdancing. A crowd of twenty people has gathered in two minutes. God, are these people desperate for entertainment. They’re cheering now. I feel kind of awkward. Even the people Dad was humiliating himself in front of are coming over. Now the crowd is yelling something random in Chinese over and over. O...k. Right. This is so weird. I sort of awkwardly get up and walk over to the trail head. We start hiking. About three minutes in, a crowd of twenty-year-old girls gathers and starts asking to take their picture with Dad. Sure, of course! Dad is always happy to oblige a group of random strangers.
After we pass the giggling girls, we basically get into a routine of just walking and
walking. We take occasional breaks, and Dad talks to Chinese people. At one point we
stop to get lunch and almost go the completely wrong way. a bunch of Chinese people
luckily spot us and point us in the right direction. Of course, Dad has to practice his
Chinese.
A little later, we notice something kind of strange. We’ve been walking up the whole way, but now we start walking down. See, the way that this mountain works is you go up one peak, down the other side, and the so on and so forth. But as we’re walking down, it strikes me how slippery it is and I turn to see how far we’ve come already, and my foot sweeps out from under me. I go crashing to the ground and fall off the path. Mom screams, and I see how bad it is. There’s a ledge, but thorn bushes below me. My foot slips into a thorn bush and I spin to see my situation. I’m falling.
I’m falling and if I don’t do something quick I’m going to keep falling. These are the only thoughts going through my head, but they’re enough. I shoot my hand up and reflexively catch onto the ledge, my foot buried in the thorn bush. Two Chinese guys reach down and pull me up, but I’m too shocked to even thank them. Dad says something, and I snap back to reality. Dad looks half mad and half scared. I don’t even notice my physical condition, but Mom does. She starts getting out the first aid kit, and I look over my body. I’m so shocked I can’t even feel any pain. but then I see. There’s a gash in my ankle and my hand is sliced open. Mom’s as white-faced as me. We have almost nothing to fix it with. Then the pain hits me. I wince and roll over as my hand starts aching. I bury it in my shirt, but all that’s doing is making my white shirt stained red. Blood is gushing out of my hand and I’m starting to get scared. Mom gets out a wipe, and I bite my lip to keep from screaming. It stings, but then Mom takes out tweezers and says that she has to get the dirt out. I’m terrified at the thought, and I protest. “No, Mom, please, no...” Kayl is screaming for her to stop, but I realize it has to be cleaned. I wipe my eyes and clench my other hand into a fist to hold in my pain. The tweezers penetrate the wound and the pain is almost too much. I see stars, but then it’s over. Kayl is so scared he’s almost crying, and I just hold out my hand so Mom can wrap it. Once it’s wrapped, I get up. I kind of wince as I grasp my walking stick, and I realize how close to death or a bad injury I came. I go from feeling like my luck is nonexistent to the luckiest person on earth. After we walk in silence for a while, we approach a monastery. A monk is in a field farming. He hails us and calls me over. I think this is kind of weird, but go over. He grabs my staff and slams it into the ground, and I think he’s going to break it. But instead he knocks it on the ground a few times and says “Ho zu.” Dad takes out his phone and learns that it means ‘monkey’. I guess he’s saying whacking our stick on the ground will scare off the monkeys. We thank the monk and continue. Somewhere along the way, Dad has this idea that we should totally detour off the trail to see the Beautiful Sound Pavilion. Me and Kayl argue with Dad for a while until he agrees that it’s silly to totally detour. I think we only win because Mom’s on our side.
A little later, we notice something kind of strange. We’ve been walking up the whole way, but now we start walking down. See, the way that this mountain works is you go up one peak, down the other side, and the so on and so forth. But as we’re walking down, it strikes me how slippery it is and I turn to see how far we’ve come already, and my foot sweeps out from under me. I go crashing to the ground and fall off the path. Mom screams, and I see how bad it is. There’s a ledge, but thorn bushes below me. My foot slips into a thorn bush and I spin to see my situation. I’m falling.
I’m falling and if I don’t do something quick I’m going to keep falling. These are the only thoughts going through my head, but they’re enough. I shoot my hand up and reflexively catch onto the ledge, my foot buried in the thorn bush. Two Chinese guys reach down and pull me up, but I’m too shocked to even thank them. Dad says something, and I snap back to reality. Dad looks half mad and half scared. I don’t even notice my physical condition, but Mom does. She starts getting out the first aid kit, and I look over my body. I’m so shocked I can’t even feel any pain. but then I see. There’s a gash in my ankle and my hand is sliced open. Mom’s as white-faced as me. We have almost nothing to fix it with. Then the pain hits me. I wince and roll over as my hand starts aching. I bury it in my shirt, but all that’s doing is making my white shirt stained red. Blood is gushing out of my hand and I’m starting to get scared. Mom gets out a wipe, and I bite my lip to keep from screaming. It stings, but then Mom takes out tweezers and says that she has to get the dirt out. I’m terrified at the thought, and I protest. “No, Mom, please, no...” Kayl is screaming for her to stop, but I realize it has to be cleaned. I wipe my eyes and clench my other hand into a fist to hold in my pain. The tweezers penetrate the wound and the pain is almost too much. I see stars, but then it’s over. Kayl is so scared he’s almost crying, and I just hold out my hand so Mom can wrap it. Once it’s wrapped, I get up. I kind of wince as I grasp my walking stick, and I realize how close to death or a bad injury I came. I go from feeling like my luck is nonexistent to the luckiest person on earth. After we walk in silence for a while, we approach a monastery. A monk is in a field farming. He hails us and calls me over. I think this is kind of weird, but go over. He grabs my staff and slams it into the ground, and I think he’s going to break it. But instead he knocks it on the ground a few times and says “Ho zu.” Dad takes out his phone and learns that it means ‘monkey’. I guess he’s saying whacking our stick on the ground will scare off the monkeys. We thank the monk and continue. Somewhere along the way, Dad has this idea that we should totally detour off the trail to see the Beautiful Sound Pavilion. Me and Kayl argue with Dad for a while until he agrees that it’s silly to totally detour. I think we only win because Mom’s on our side.
We keep walking, and then I hear a loud roaring noise and suddenly can’t hear my own
thoughts. I’m like, “where the heck are we?” It sounds like a construction site. Dad
speaks up. Or yells up. Because of the noise. Whatever. “What a surprise!” Is his
beginning line. “It’s the Beautiful Sound Pavilion! We totally just stumbled off course!”
Of course we did, Dad. You have no clue how to lose an argument.
After Dad’s incredibly convincing excuses, we continue on. No point in wasting an hour without seeing the pavilion. As we approach, we can hear, among the roaring (which I now see is a waterfall, a crowd of about a hundred and fifty people yelling and taking pictures and running around.
Yeah, real beautiful.
After Dad’s incredibly convincing excuses, we continue on. No point in wasting an hour without seeing the pavilion. As we approach, we can hear, among the roaring (which I now see is a waterfall, a crowd of about a hundred and fifty people yelling and taking pictures and running around.
Yeah, real beautiful.
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