Get up early and the first thing I do is head to the train ticket office just a little down the road. I need to get a ticket to Guilin around the 1st, I get there just before . I have everything I need written down in Chinese so I can just hand it to the woman working there. They don't have any tickets for the 1st, but there is availability on the 2nd, so I get that snapped up. A whopping 26hours on a train, I can tell you how much I am looking forward to that. Next mission this morning is to head to Decathlon and acquire myself some proper hiking clothes, so that I can be a bit more comfortable, especially as my hike is going to be over 2 days. So by using the map my hostel had given me, I get off at the south rail station, I decide to follow the signs in the station towards Ikea, which is beside Decathlon. When I emerge I am in the middle of nowhere, I have my gps loaded up on my phone, I can see that I am on the far side of this bridge. By looking at the map and my gps I start walking, I have to walk all the way around to the other side of the bridge as I can't get across from where I am. I ed up walking through little back streets and across building sites, it takes me over an hour to get over to the other side and when I get there I see there is another exit from the metro station. What a joke?!?! You think I would have learnt by now that there is no point in following the signs in the metro, they just lead you out in to the great beyond.
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I get to Decathlon eventually, and they have quite a big selection. I end up picking up some t-shirts, pair of hiking trousers with zip offs and some socks. Perfect. Then it is back to the closer metro station home, then checkout just before 12. I sit in the lobby and procrastinate about where I am going to stay in Guilin now that I have a ticket. I end up looking at a lot and booking nothing. Good move. I arrange to stay in this hostel after Emei Shan for the few nights before I get my train, they may not have a room on the last night, but they say it is ok for me to sleep on the sofa, because it is only one night. At least I have somewhere to stay. I txt the Swedes and tell them that I am ready to go and arrange to meet them at the bus station. I ask at the hostel where the bus stop is, pack up my stuff and head out. The bus stop is not too far which is good and I get on. Another crazy bus trip later and i'm at the station. The Swedes come along a short while after and we get out tickets. The bus leaves every 20mins so we go to a local shop to get some supplies before the 2 hour bus journey. The buses are comfortable enough and I had a Chinese woman sitting beside me on the trip. The seat beside me was the last to be filled, because everyone is racist. Ha. Everyone sleeps on the bus, you just look around and everyone has their heads hanging and swinging to the motion of the bus. The woman beside me is pretty much lying on top of me, not that you can actually sleep because the bus driver is constantly beeping his horn. Not in anger, like the way we beep our horns, it is more like the way they drive, they use the horn like we use an indicator; regularly.
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When we get to Emei Shan town we need to get a bus up to the foot of the mountain where we are staying tonight. We get heckled hard by people just shouting 'teddybear, teddybear' Quoting ridiculous prices. The bus is 2 per person and we are being quoted 10 per person. We are just walking money to these people, they will even lie to you and tell you that the last bus has gone, or that they have stopped the bus, just to get you to come with them. Scandalous! We ask in the bus station and the girls are really helpful and have the directions written down in English. We head across the road to what looks like a bus stop, we wait for a while but no bus comes, though there are a lot of touts hanging around, openly laughing at us. Only in China. We work out that we have to walk further down the road where we see a bus stop and get our bus, then with a bit of asking we get to the hostel. The journey should have taken 3 hours, it took us 6. I have now worked out that if you want to so something within a particular time scale it is very difficult, always double the time you think it is going to take you, you'll be closer to the actual time that way. Luckily for me I am not on a strict time schedule.
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We get something to eat and then ask the guys at the hostel what route they recommend. We decide on getting a bus to the first station at 500m and then hiking over 2000m during the day to reach our destination near the top, where we will stay overnight before attempting the final push of about 700m the next morning to the summit for the sunrise. All fairly serious stuff. We have a couple of beers and play some pool and watch a movie before heading to bed. When I get to my room, it is in an a joining building out the back of the hostel, 4 bed dorm. Everything is damp, the bed, the pillows. I'm not particularly excited about this, anyway I get a shower before packing my bag for the morning, then it is in to my lovely damp bed. Great! Rising at 7.