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One thing I've learnt is that whilst travelling, as in all life really, you need to be quite flexible. And importantly you need to know that you cannot always plan ahead, you cannot always get what you wanted and most of the time that's not such a bad thing.
Our trip, but especially my trip, to Emei Shan really drove home that message.
It started with the weather.
We had big plans that day.
At 7:10 we were to leave the monastery we'd arrived at the day before and catch a bus to a point much higher on Mt Emei (Emei Shan). From there we were to catch a cable cart to the peak from where we would see the golden Buddha statue.
After that we were going to catch another bus downhill and then trek for 2-3 hours till we reached another monastery, much higher up in the mountains than the one we'd already stayed at and much less crowded by tourists.
As planned we got on the first bus towards the peak of Emei Shan. Lauren, Sherri and I were sitting up the back of the bus. We got a face full of fumes and Sherri especially started to feel a bit queasy. My sniffle from the day before had transformed into a full blown cold overnight. At the very least it meant I couldn't smell the fumes very much.
After two long hours we reached our destination. It was cold, it was incredibly foggy and we were all shouting at each other because our ears had pressurised from the change in altitude.
It was so foggy that Dragon and Nathan, our local guide, rang the hotel at the top of the cable car and found out we wouldn't actually be able to see the Buddha.
So we changed our plans.
Instead of catching the cable car to see (or not see, in this case) the giant golden Buddha we caught another bus downhill to a different location from where we would have a 5 hour trek to our destination - the idea being that the temple we would pass on the way would make up for not being able to see the Buddha.
On the bus ride down I started feeling incredibly motion sick. Not to mention our ears were still pressurised and the fumes at the back of the bus were still making us feel sick.
I switched seats with David who was sitting at the front of the bus to try and help with the motion sickness. I'm not sure if it helped. Honestly I was too distracted to notice. Chinese drivers have a way of looking like we're about to crash every five seconds. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack.
When that tortuous bus journey finally came to an end, my stomach swirling, my heart racing, my ears blocked, nose running, I felt like I just wanted to lie down.
Everyone else felt pretty much fine after we alighted, except a couple of ears still pressurised. I thought I would be fine given a couple of minutes sitting down but I just wasn't.
We walked around some over the most beautiful scenery I'd ever seen. I was busy blowing my nose.
We stopped at an old traditional house. All I wanted to do was sit down.
The others were searching through their bags for their cameras. I was trying to find my Panamax.
They went on ahead. Dragon waited for me. Slowly walking with the continual clunk clunk of my bamboo walking stick, the only thing keeping me upright.
I slowly dragged myself up to the temple we eventually stopped to have lunch at, every breath laboured between my blocked nose and my clogged up ears.
We had half an hour to visit the temple before eating lunch. It was beautiful, stunning - or so I'm told.
I spent the time clutching my stomach trying not to be sick.
On the way downhill from the temple David offered to carry my bag.
Even so I was slow, out of breath and worn out easily.
Dragon offered us the option of catching the bus back to the base of Emei Shan to stay at the same monastery we'd stayed at the night before.
I didn't want to. I'd really been looking forward to staying at this other monastery up higher.
But it wouldn't have been fair on the rest of the group. I was lagging too far behind. I couldn't carry my own bag and it wasn't fair to ask someone else to carry it.
When I joined the gym several months ago one of my goals was to be fit enough to do everything I wanted to do on this tour through China. I think I got to that level.
But I didn't anticipate having to do it with a cold, with blocked ears, with a headache growing, with a queasy tummy and possibly even with a fever.
And just like that moment at the gym when you decide that rather than risk an injury that would stop you being able to do anything else for weeks I quit whilst I was ahead.
But even this wasn't all bad.
Mel and David also decided to come back, for different reasons.
We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant before I headed off by myself to some hot springs. The hot springs were lovely at night. And it was good going without everyone else from our group because then I wasn't self-conscious.
And even the next day, if I hadn't been sick in bed all day I would never have read a story on my phone I had once started reading but decided was boring but turned out to be great.
And I would have never watched that Chinese movie with English subtitles that was so delightfully reverential of the Chinese Communist government.
So although I would've preferred to not have been sick and would've liked to have gone to the second monastery it wasn't all bad. It just serves as an extra reminder that when I finish this tour I still haven't seen everything in China, including but most definitely not limited to the second monastery at the top of Emei Shan.
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