Trip to Lushan

It is 3:45am and I'm done sleeping. We do not quite have alignment with the new time zone yet. Wasn't feeling real well last night so I went to bed early. Yesterday we took a guided trip north to Lushan mountain. The guide picked us up with his driver at 7:30am yesterday at our hotel. The drive to the mountain was a little over 1.5 hours, with the last half hour being this nauseating weaving road up the mountain itself. We drove through heavy fog (or should I say "cloud"?) on the way up and emerged from the fog at the top. The fog gave a very surreal feeling to the whole trip as we hiked around this tall mountain without ever being able to see the ground below. The first hike was to five small peaks along this quaint cut stone trail. At each peak there were lots of photo ops as well as the locals selling Chinese food, souvenirs, and roller dogs (yes, the same ones found at super america).

We had lunch at a nice 4 star restaurant on the mountain. Lunch featured an array of soups and dishes, one of them a local specialty of sweet and sour pork, which was very tasty. Entertainment during lunch was a wall mounted large screen TV showing American MTV videos with Chinese subtitles. I would have thought a video featuring more of the local cultural history would have been a better fit with the ambiance, but who am I to judge.

After lunch we did a little more hiking to a collection of neat sites each with their own historical significance. We were back in the fog again, making the locations feel even more mystical. One stop was a Tao temple, complete with burning incense, incredible statues, wood carvings, and massive bells. The only thing missing was the chanting, which I elected not to add myself for fear of ruining the whole thing they had going. Another stop featured a local calligrapher who, for a price, would compose a poem for you and write it using Chinese characters on a scroll you could hang on your wall. We watched him draw Chinese characters for a while in utter amazement. I kept thinking back to a boy in my 4th grade class who had terrible handwriting and the nuns kept making him write sentences over and over in a futile attempt to improve his penmanship. Learning to write in Chinese would have killed him.

The trip concluded with another nauseating ride down the mountain and Marnie and I both falling asleep for the remainder of the ride along the freeway. We retreated to our hotel room to relax and catch up on emails and things. For dinner we had another local delicacy where they bring a small pig to your table, light it on fire, and then give you sticks which you use peel of little chunks of smoking meat. Just kidding. Actually, we just had pizza in our hotel room. I was still feeling funny from the car ride and Marnie was not very hungry. It was not particular good pizza, but it was easy and comforting.

Today we finally get to meet Neela. They are going to bring her to our hotel room at around 4pm. It will be a long day waiting for this moment to arrive.

Dave