27 March 28, 2007
If they don’t shut up soon, I will have to go and
speak to them. The girls were talking in whispers –
the sort of whisper that carries over half a mile. It
was only the effort of getting out of my sleeping bag,
getting dressed and putting my boots on again that put
me off. They went on and on and on … and then I fell
asleep.
The monastery was very peaceful until the kitchen
staff got up to make breakfast, then there was a
chorus of hoiking and snooking and the clashing of
pans. Breakfast wasn’t greeted with any great
enthusiasm, although one or two of the kids are
developing a fondness for the white steamed buns,
taken plain or dipped in thin orange jam. There were
four small brown cubes of what could have been tofu on
each of the round tables. The portion was
exceptionally meagre, considering the size of the
dishes that had been served. My appetite isn’t
terribly adventurous first thing in the morning and so
I ignored its existence. Just as I was about to leave
the table, Xiao Sun, one of the guides, came over and
asked if we had tried it. Saad was with him,
grinning. Something was afoot. Dutifully, I armed
myself with chopsticks and picked one of the cubes up.
“No, just a little!” Xiao Sun said quickly, and so I
took the barest morsel. The intensity of the flavour
was incredible and I pulled a face. Saad, poor chap,
had eaten a whole cube and was still scarred by the
memory.
It was a short walk from the monastery to the waiting
busses. Every so often we had to leave the path to
allow ponies carrying stones and cement to pass by on
their long journey up the mountain to where the steps
are still being constructed. The animals didn’t look
very happy about the steps, but they were even more
wary of the foreigners I their way. As we neared the
road, the stalls selling straw overshoes (for the icy
weather), plastic trinkets (monkey, monkey), snacks
and drinks (water, water) and walking sticks became
more common.
Back at Emei Shan we checked into the hotel, before
walking into town for a local meal in the food
market. Amongst the local dishes we tried were
bull-frog and baby eel. The food here was fresh.
Indeed it has been swimming around as we placed the
order.
In the afternoon we went to Lin Xiu Hot Springs.
After visiting hot springs in Borneo last year, I was
not enthusiastic. There the pools had been dirty and
unattractive. At Lin Xiu though I was pleasantly
surprised. The facilities were excellent – well run,
attractive and spotlessly clean. I think that quite a
few of the students were surprised too. They had been
expecting something quite downmarket and these springs
wouldn’t have disgraced any western spar town.
One of the highlights of the hot springs was the fish
bath. Here hundreds of small fish, between 6 and 12
cm long swarmed over your feet, knees and back,
nibbling off dead skin cells. The sensation was rather
strange, especially when they went for the soles of
your feet or the more ticklish parts of your body.
In the evening the students played games in the local
park before writing postcards home and having an early
night.
