The coach was not very comfortable and the scenery along the way wasn’t very nice either. So I slept for most of the 4 hrs journey. I did wake up occasionally and manage to catch a chio-bu board the bus, who sat in front of me. Unlucky for her, she sat beside a Lau TiKo who kept leaning onto her, pretending to sleep. The bumpy ride made me fell asleep again only to be waken by an SMS. Received a sad news from a friend.
Finally we reached the foot of ErMei, 报国寺车站. Immediately we were targeted by a lady from some hotel who kept persuading us to take her breadbus to her hotel. Then she began chattering non-stop about how to tour Leshan and Ermei, how it would save $ to take her bus and her package, blah blah blah… In the end we did take her bus which brought us to her hotel. We didn’t want to stay at her place because there are so many hotels around. We wanted to have more choices. She insisted we take a look at her rooms first which seemed not too bad, except the price was rather high, 200rmb per room.
After we decided to walk out on her, she slashed to price to 100 and eventually to 80. I thought it was not a bad deal but CCG and Ken decided otherwise. The hotel people showed us face and the situation was rather unhappy. Actually CCG had already researched on this place and found out there is a Backpacker Hostel called “Teddy Bear” which is highly recommended. Upon hearing that, I felt unhappy why they still want to look at the rooms when they already have a place in mind. Why not go straight to Teddy Bear? Ken said no harm just looking and try bargaining, at least now we know we can go as low as to 80rmb per room. For me, I just don’t like to bargain so much and in the end not buy it.
We went to the Teddy Bear place and JH and I both like the place. Truly for backpackers but the price is a bit higher, 100rmb/room. But still we like the environment, a little bit like Sims. But because of the price, Ken rejected the offer before we can discuss about it. At the time, we felt Ken has more say in such things since he did all the research and knows more about finding hotels in China. So we kept our mouths shut.
We continued to walk around but couldn’t find a hotel cheaper than the first one. In the end, we settled for a lousier hotel at a price of 90rmb/room. Come to think of it, the Teddy Bear price of 100rmb per double room, means each person pay 50rmb. Compared to the first hotel whose price is 80rmb/room, each of us has to pay 10rmb more only. Kao, only S$2! Really not worth all the efforts to search and bargain.
This hotel lady boss told us to take her car to Leshan, for 120rmb. She calculated that it is cheaper than to go there ourselves which I not sure how true that is. Still we took the offer and set off with our driver 小王, Wang.
Wang is a young lad and upon knowing that we are from SG, began chatting with us about Sun Yan Zi and JJ. He gave us some info on Leshan as well as Ermei. When we reached Leshan entrance, he said he will wait for us outside and once we are done touring the place, give him a call and he will come fetch us back.
We got the entrance fee for student price and the first place to visit was the 睡佛, Sleeping Buddha. At first I thought it was a natural scenery; a mountain in the shape of a Sleeping Buddha. After eavesdropping on a tour guide’s explanation, it is a big statue carved on the hill during the end of Han Dynasty. After hundreds of years, the place was covered by soil and vegetations. Some 20 years ago, a torrent rain caused a landslide which washed away all the soil and the Sleeping Buddha was discovered.
There wasn’t much to see at the Sleeping Buddha except for statues in the caves and some carvings.
Although not a religious person, I made a prayer in front of Buddha for the well-being of a friend.
We climbed a super long stairs to another big Buddha statue and there I bought a 平安锁 (Peaceful Lock). What I have to do is to engraved my name on the lock, locked it to the chain nearby (there were millions of locks all over the place) and then throw the key towards the big Buddha. Hope my Peacefulness won’t be locked up there forever.
After 1 hrs, we moved on to Leshan to see that gigantic Buddha statue. It was said in the end of Song Dynasty, the river beside Leshan caused floods every year, killing thousands of villages. So a monk (forgot his name. Quite famous one) decided to carve this Big Buddha on the mountain to 镇住 the floods. Miraculously, after the project was completed, every year the flood water never rise above his knees. Well, that’s just a legend I guess.
There were even lesser things to see here than in Sleeping Buddha. But that Giant Buddha by the river did remind me of the movie 风云 (Wind and Cloud). Still the sight wasn’t as spectacular as I would expect, when I looked at it on land.
It was getting quite late but before leaving, there was still 1 thing left to do; to view the Giant Buddha from the river. We found our way to the East Gate and from there took tricycle to the jetty. We told the boatmen we want to 渡河 which was the wrong way to say it! Du He means to cross the river! What we should say is 游河 which means to tour the river. So much so for 10 yrs of Chinese education.
From the speedboat, the sight was very different from what we saw on land. It was magnificent. The Buddha was embedded in the mountain and the tourists at His feet were so tiny. After spending 20min on the boat, we returned to the jetty and Wang was already there waiting to send us back.
Back in the hotel, the lady boss started persuading us to take the tour package to go ErMei. She said the bus will leave at 630am in the morning and at the end of the day bring us back to the hotel. Our plan was to go to the top of ErMei and stay for a night so as to view the sunrise the next morning. She said the hotel at the top is very expensive and when we asked about the monasteries, she said those are under constructions. We felt that if the bus leaves at 630am, we will reach the top around 9am, how to see sunrise!? She insisted we can still see sunrise because of the high altitude, the sun will only rise above the mountain after 9am. Still we want to walk up ErMei ourselves and she still didn’t give up and said that we might lose our way, the paths are of poor conditions and we will have no place to sleep.
We said we will consider and reply her after we return from dinner. At this point of time, we had divided opinions again. JH and I were for the lady boss’s plan while Ken and CCG were against. For us, we really fear that we might not have any place to stay in ErMei. Ken and CCG felt the lady boss was lying. We decided to consult a 2nd opinion and went to Teddy Bear for dinner.
The boss, Mr. Andy came and talked to us and asked why we didn’t want to stay at his place when we came in the afternoon. Later he told us the tour package is a big cheat. If we take the tour package, not only will we miss the sunrise, we will miss all the scenery along the way. And we have no choice but to take the bus down back to that lady boss hotel to stay. It is a common thing for hotel owners to collaborate with such tour packages. He also told us how tour guides would bring tourists to souvenir shops and earn commissions from there.
He later gave us each a map of Ermei and said we can come borrow walking sticks from him tomorrow morning. The walk would be 8 to 9 hrs and the sticks not only aid us in walking, but can be used as weapons against ferocious monkeys. It was a beneficial lesson learnt from Mr. Andy, so when we returned, we rejected the lady boss offer straightaway. Surprisingly she didn’t insist further. I think she saw us coming back in the direction from Teddy Bear. Guess her plot had been spoilt by Mr. Andy before. Although there is a saying 无商不奸, but honest businessman like Mr. Andy will outlast those cheaters who care only for 1 time profit. What Mr. Andy will gain is a good reputation in the end.
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