We had already made up our minds to climb ErMei Shan instead of taking the coach. Time is of the essence as we need to reach 雷洞坪 (LTP) before night fall or else we will have to sleep in the wild. While waited at the bus terminal, I was disgusted by the sight of a guy smoking in front of a no smoking sign. And the most ironic part is, there was a banner above which reads: 人人都是文明形像，处处都是和谐环境. What rubbish! Well, this is just the beginning. I would witness more of such “civilised” actions throughout the trip.
The coach brought us to五显岗 which is actually still at the foot of ErMei. From there we would begin our ascend and according to Mr. Andy’s map, our 1st stop would be清音阁, a small monastery. It was a nice cooling walk from Wu Xian Gang (WXG) to Qing Yin Ge (QYG), greenery everywhere.
We took 5 at a small pavilion and in front of it there was a big brown stone (looked like shit) with words carved on it. Reminds me of the Rosetta Stone in British Museum. Anyway, JH and I read 2 lines of it and decided we couldn’t understand the Chinese. And so we moved on.
We reached QYG at a very good pace and from then onwards it was just boring climbing the steps. But still it wasn’t that bad, though we were starting to perspire a bit. Our next check point was a monkey reservation area, which was named as “Joking Monkey Zone” on Andy’s map. These monkeys were larger and stronger than those in my NS unit last time and we were warned to keep our plastic bags of food in our backpacks. For some of us with small backpacks, we used our jackets to wrap around our food.
From the Joking Monkey Zone, seemed like we entered Hell (at least for me). Not that we were attacked by monkeys. What we saw from then onwards was steps, steps, and… tons of steps. Infinite number of steps! We can’t even see the top as the steps wound round the mountain. Doomsday arrived for me from that moment on. Our next destination was another monastery called洪椿坪 which never seemed reachable.
The moment we reached Hong Chun Ping (HCP), we thought the worst part of the climb was over. What we saw next was another flight of steps leading to moon. This is just the beginning of our nightmare. By then, being the fattest and least fit, I had to asked JH to carry my backpack while I hand carry his plastic bag of food. I wondered if I could reach the next monastery仙峰寺 (XFS)alive.
We began to take breaks more and more often, sometimes at those小茶栈 (like in Chinese Kungfu show), sometimes at pavilion. Every time I would be the last to reach, and hence had the least amount of rest time. By then I was feeling paiseh for slowing down the team. I was the weakest link. It was during one of these breaks that I realised something which I told the rest:
为什么我们会来爬峨嵋？因为有个叫Andy的人说爬峨嵋风景比较美。 其实是因为我们没有住他的酒店，他为了报复所以dua我们，教我们爬这死人山。
所以，无商不奸，还是对的。最后祝Mr. Andy: 生意兴隆，财源广进！
Even though being the weakest link, I still will not fail to搞笑. To entertain them as well as myself so that I can keep on going.
After climbing for 4.5 hrs, we had not reached half of the journey yet. And by this time my left knee and left side of my pelvis were aching. The rest of the guys were just as tired but they had more endurance than me.
Around 1pm plus, we finally reached XFS which was covered entirely in mist. Visibility dropped to about 20 to 30m. From the map, the path between XFS and our next destination遇仙寺(YXS) is a flat straight line. Meaning: No more climbing! But what we saw thereafter was more disheartening. There were more stairs which by then we had already grew numbed. What destroyed us was the fact that these steps were leading us DOWN. Which means we are going to return all the altitude that we accumulated so far and what comes down must go up. This will only lead to more climbing later.
As expected, we reached YXS quite easily but I was already on the verge of breaking down. Just when I was thinking of giving up, I heard chanting of prayers nearby and knew YXS is just inches away. Buddha saved me, haha.
We decided to take a longer rest there to prepare for our final burst to洗象池 (XXC). This is going to be one tough challenge not just for me but all of us because by now we were all exhausted. Even the fastest Kenneth was going crazy when he saw more steps.
Finally we reached an eatery shop called 洗象池小吃 and knew that our painful times will be over soon. While resting and eating our LaoZao (I don’t even know how to spell in Chinese. Pronounce as 劳糟. It is like dumpling made from 糯米), we saw superhumans carrying loads of supplies down the steps. Really amazing.
When we reached XXC, everyone felt relieved. We were definitely going to reach our final destination in time. Well, even if we got extra time, our bodies are not going to take it eventually. Besides being exhausted, me and CCG were feeling harder to breathe due to the higher altitude. Though the difficulty was very mild.
From then onwards, we suddenly felt energised and quickened our pace. 皇天不负苦心人! We finally reached LTP at around 7pm. 10 hrs of freaking climbing! We found a hotel and settled down for the night.
By then my legs were like not part of me already and JH and I soaked our feet in steam hot water. Wooooo…. the feeling was plain shiok.
But I had the shock of my life when the moment I took out my feet from the hot water. It was pretty cold now at night at such high altitude. All of the sudden, coldness rushed from my feet straight to my brain and I was shivering like mad. It was the worst cold attack I ever encounter, consider the fact that I stayed in France for 6 months before. Even under the blanket and with jacket on I was still shivering. I thought at that point in time my heart would perhaps freeze. JH thought I looked ridiculous and exaggerating and kept shooting me with the DV.
After like 15min of non-stop shivering, I began to return to normal. That night, we all slept extremely well due partly because we were all exhausted, and partly because there was a thunderstorm that night. We were lucky we made it before nightfall. Tomorrow we had to get up before dawn to catch the sunrise and hopefully some 佛光. Though I was the slowest, I still felt that I had achieved something after 10hrs of climbing.
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