A Visit to Leshan Giant Buddha

Day 14 (4th November 2012)

I have still not recovered. As was usual for the last two days, I would take breakfast, go to the loo, wait for the stomach to "calm" down before embarking on any activities and skip lunch.

I was again debating whether I should go to Jinding Peak/ Golden Summit at Emei Shan. Considering the four hours on the road itself to and back from Leidonping Bus Station, I was wondering how I would make it to Leshan Giant Buddha and onward to Chengdu before nightfall. Which was more important for me to visit? The first time I saw Leshan Giant Buddha was on the silver screen in the Chinese series The Storm Riders starring Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng. I was amazed that such a giant exist and when I found that it was in Sichuan, I had told myself that I must visit the place. Emei Shan by contrast did not hold such an attraction. It was there by default and its attraction was as a World Heritage site. In the end, I decided that Leshan Giant Buddha was more important for me.

By the time I made up my mind, it was already 11:00 a.m. I was ready to go. Being a weekend and expecting a crowd there, I was not too enthusiastic of queuing up for hours while carrying a backpack and a camera and climbing up and down Leshan Giant Buddha. I had decided to take a boat to see Leshan Giant Buddha. It is faster and less tiring and I would be able to see the whole Buddha. In addition, I would be able to see the other two smaller statues beside it.

The bus from Baoguo Bus Station stopped momentary at Emei Shan Bus Station before proceeding to Leshan city. On the way, I overheard the driver having a conversation with a passenger about Leshan Giant Buddha. If I understood them correctly, he was saying that she could take a bus no. 13 to see Leshan Giant Buddha. In addition, he was saying there were three bus stations at Leshan now, unlike previously where there was only one. Visitors need to go to a Xiaoba Bus Station to catch the no. 13 bus.

On reaching Leshan Xiaoba Bus Station, the driver pointed to a waiting bus no. 13. A number of passengers went over but I was looking around for taxis. A tout walked up to me and wanted to take me there but I told him to take me to the pier as I wanted to take a boat to see Giant Buddha. He quoted me RMB20. As we approached his car, I remembered I should be more wary of these touts. I hesitated and told him that his was not a taxi. As I began to walk away towards a few stationary taxis, he lowered his price to RMB15 but he kept following me. I told him never mind and continued walking. There was only one taxi left, with a woman driver. I asked her for the price and she quoted RMB30. Umm! I pondered for a while and asked the tout but his price has climbed back to RMB20. The lady driver refused to lower her price. I was standing there unable to make a decision. Finally, I climbed into the taxi, having not wanted to face a tout who would be giving me trouble once I got into his car.

While on the way, I asked her which bus station I should go to take a bus back to Chengdu. She advised me to go to Xiaoba Bus Station.

She dropped me near the pier and pointed to me the direction to the wharf. I went over. Somebody there noticed me going down the stairs without an entrance ticket and asked me to buy one. The ticket office was close by at the pier head.

The price was RMB70 and covered insurance and the cost of the boat fare. A ticket inspector was sitting on one of the boats checking the tickets before the passengers could get on board the tourist boat. On the boat, there were Russians, Cantonese speaking people, Koreans and Chinese. There were not many passengers.

The distant from the pier to the Giant Buddha is very near. I was in the boat by 12:50 p.m. and it left for Giant Buddha at about 1:15 p.m. It stopped in front of the Giant Buddha for about 10 minutes only before returning to the pier.

From the pier, I flagged down a taxi. After waiting for him to make a U-turn, I asked him for the price. He said it was a metered fare. I got into the taxi and in barely a few minutes, arrived at Xiaoba Bus Station. The fare was RMB8.20 and he charged me RMB8 only.

The lady driver took RMB30 from me and made the journey long by taking 15 - 20 minutes to arrive at the pier while the return journey took minutes and costing me RMB8 only.

A Short Trip to Emei Shan

Day 13 (3rd November 2012) 

Click to enlarge

Since waking up this morning, I had been debating with myself whether I should be going to Emei Shan today or not. The motivation to go was really low. I came to Chengdu to see the World Heritage sites, including Emei Shan and Leshan Giant Buddha. If I did not go, I would regret it for life, being so near already but failing to make it. Going meant taking a risk of great consequence to my dignity.

I was still undecided as I went looking for breakfast. As expected, after breakfast, I was having problem with my stomach. I decided to wait for my stomach to "calm" down before making further decision on my plan.

At about 11:00 a.m. I decided to go to the bus station to get a ticket to Leidongping Bus Station and from there, to Jinding Peak/ Golden Summit. As I walked out, I noticed it was drizzling. Dark rain cloud was still hanging up there and the road was still wet. It was very cold. I decided to wait before going out. It would be foolhardy to get my jacket wet in the rain in this very cold weather.

At 1:00 p.m., the situation seemed to remain the same. It looked like there was not going to be rain. After checking with Bella, I was told that going to Leidongping Bus Station would take two hours up and two hours down. It was already 1:00 p.m. and that made going there impractical as the last bus down was 5:00 p.m. I checked with her where the best sight was and was told that the region around Wannian and Qingyin Pavillion was the best. This would require taking the bus up to Wannian Bus Station, taking the cable car further up to Wannian Temple then, taking a trek of two hours down from Wannian Temple to Qingyin Pavillion and another hour or so to Wuxian Gang Bus Station. I knew I was not fit enough for the mountain walk. So I decided to go to Wuxian Gang Bus Station instead, being the nearest to Baoguo Village.

There was nobody in the queue in the Wuxian Gang ticket counter. The ticketing officer at another counter asked where I was going and I said Wuxian Gang. She waved me over and sold me a ticket for RMB40. The bus was leaving and I followed the rest of the passengers to the bus.

In the bus, there was a guide giving her commentary on Emei Shan. I heard her saying something to the effect that the bus tickets should not be thrown away as they would be needed later on. I was not sure whether I understood her correctly. Less than 10 minutes later, it made a short stop at an unknown (to me) bus station to pick up some passengers before moving again.

When it finally reached the bus station, it was not Wuxian Gang Bus Station. It was Wannian Bus Station. On hindsight, could the bus station that we stopped to pick up some passengers be the Wuxian Gang Bus Station? Having reached there already, I have no choice but to buy the Emei Shan entrance ticket and the cable car ticket to Wannian Temple. I have read that the Emei Shan ticket was good for two days and I could as well use it for the Jinding Peak/ Golden Summit the next morning.

At the Wannian Temple, I have to pay another RMB10 to enter.

After exploring the temple complex, it was time to return. At the Wannian Bus Station, the driver asked me to get on board the bus as I approached. I asked him whether I needed to buy a ticket and another gentleman went into the ticketing office and promptly sold me a ticket for RMB20. However, I noticed other passengers coming after me were showing old tickets to the bus driver and getting on board the bus. I thought that strange and related that back to what the tourist guide was saying in the bus. At the hotel, I checked with Bella and she confirmed that the RMB40 ticket that I had bought was a return ticket and I had wasted RMB20 for another new ticket.

Arriving at Baoguo Village, we were dropped off at the Baoguo car park, not at the bus station. As it was only about 4:00 p.m., I decided to stroll around the area. I noticed people coming from an unknown direction. A few seemed to be going there. I decided to follow suit and found from the signage that the road leads to Baoguo Temple and Fuhu Temple.

I dropped by Baoguo Temple and paid RMB8 to enter. After a few snapshots, I walked over to the opposite side of Baoguo Temple to see the Shengji Bell before returning to the village.

I had wanted to continue to Fuhu Temple but had forgotten where I had seen the signage showing the direction to the temple. I did not bother to find out and strolled back to the hotel for dinner. It was 5:00 p.m. already.

Misery in Chengdu

Day 12 (2nd November 2012)

There was no pain, just the urge to go to the loo. Since last night, I have been to the loo about four times already.

My original plan was to go to Leshan Giant Buddha in the morning on a weekday, like today which was a Friday because I have read how crowded the place could be during weekends. From there, I would proceed to Baoguo Village in the late afternoon and stay overnight there. Then, I would go to Emei Shan on Saturday and return to Chengdu in the late afternoon.

Now, my plan has been disrupted. I could only pin-point Bon Bon Chicken as the cause of my misery.

With this new development, I began to have doubt whether I could visit the places that I have planned. What would happen if the urge comes while I was on the way? There would be terrible consequences! There was a sharp drop in my mood to go out or to move around.

Hence, I decided to stay another night in Chengdu. I tried to book another night but was told that the standard twin and double rooms were fully booked. Only the dorm beds were available.

It was already 10:00 a.m. By now, I also realised that if I don't take any food, my condition would be more stable. I decided to take my risk of travelling out but instead of Leshan, I would be going to Baoguo Village, the starting point for Emei Shan. I did not want to carry a backpack climbing up and down Leshan Giant Buddha.

I went off to Xinnanmen Bus Station. I asked for a ticket to Emei Shan and the ticket price was only RMB30, not the RMB44 or RMB47 I was expecting. Strange! Has the ticket price been reduced? Not likely because the price of everything has gone up, not down. I decided to check to see whether I was indeed given the Emei Shan ticket. Emei Shan has three characters to its name, but the ticket has two characters for the destination and the writing for the two characters was the same for the last two characters of Emei Shan. I thought maybe, they decided to use two characters for Emei Shan instead of three characters. This was a possibility. Nevertheless, on boarding, I still asked a fellow passenger whether that was the bus to Emei Shan and he nodded his head. Great! At about 11:00 a.m., we were on the way.

The direction signs on the road all seemed to indicate that we were going to the correct destination. We reached there in one and half hour. The time taken should be two and half hours to reach the destination. Something was not right!

After alighting, I decided to take a taxi to Teddy Bear Hotel. The first driver shook his head and ignored me after I handed him the business card of Teddy Bear Hotel for my destination. It was the same for the second and the third drivers. I knew by now I was possibly in the wrong town so I asked the third driver whether this was Emei Shan City. No! It was Mei Shan. He offered to take me to Emei Shan but I declined and went back to the bus station and bought a ticket back to Chengdu Xinnanmen Bus Station.

Not knowing what time the bus was departing, I asked a young man for help to explain to me the gate and time of departure. He understood me but just could not explain it in English to me. In halting English, he said it would be announced over the public address system. As we were talking, he said he would ask for help from the staff at the station, and he walked over to the two ladies manning the X-ray machine (and they were not in police uniform like everywhere else). One of them helped and guided me to the gate and said the bus would be leaving immediately. It left at about 12:50 p.m.

At about 2:30 p.m., we reached a bus stop near Xinnanmen Bus Station and everybody was asked to alight. Oh no! I didn't know the place and I thought I would be wasting precious time to get to Xinnanmen to buy the bus ticket to Xinnanmen. With my Garmin, I got the direction right and within a few steps, I realised that it was actually just across the road from Home Inn, a place which I knew was close to Xinnanmen. I had seen it during my exploration of the streets near Xinnanmen Bus Station.

At Xinnanmen, I emphasised the "E" when saying the destination of Emei Shan. This time, the price was RMB44. The bus was leaving immediately and I had no time to check the ticket nor took a photo of the ticket before it was collected (and not returned). I was sure I had bought the correct ticket this time. We left at about 3:00 p.m. and the bus was expected to arrive at Emei Shan by 5:30 p.m.

We arrived early at Emei Shan bus station at about 5:00 p.m. The Teddy Bear Hotel brochure has an instruction advising guests to take a taxi from there straight to Teddy Bear Hotel. In this particular bus, there were a few tourists, including Chinese and westerners. While most of the passengers alighted, the few of us seemed to hesitate, not knowing where to go. One of these Chinese tourists was talking to the driver and the driver later asked us where we were going. He then pointed to us the direction of two waiting vans. I asked a Chinese tourist, whom I heard speaking English to her western companion in the bus, whether the vans were going to Baoguo Village. She said yes and told us to pay RMB5 per person only to the van driver.

I showed the driver of my van the Teddy Bear Hotel and he seemed to ignore it. After about 10 minutes, we arrived at Baoguo Village but there was no Teddy Bear Hotel in sight. I have again not followed the advice given in the brochure. The driver brought us to a hotel where he could possibly be earning commission for doing so. I declined to accept the offer of a hotel tout there. I was lost and decided to call Teddy Bear Hotel for help while taking a random direction. Actually, Andy, the owner of Teddy Bear Hotel made a declaration in the brochure saying that he would come and pick up guests who could not find the hotel. The lady who answered the phone could not understand me and asked me to give the phone to a passerby to describe to her my location. By that time, I was already on the main street. The passerby was of course puzzled by my action but took the call anyway when I pushed the phone to her and asked her to talk to the person on the other end of the line. I told her to tell the other person that I was wearing blue, while pointing to my jacket and saying blue.

I stood there and waited. I was expecting a car to come to fetch me but instead, a young woman approached and greeted me as though she knew me. I knew instantly she was from Teddy Bear Hotel. What a great service, sending someone on foot to show me to the hotel. We walked back to the hotel and chatted a little. The hotel was possibly about 150 meters away only.

On reaching the hotel, I was shown to my room but it has not been cleaned. Bella, the receptionist who came to fetch me earlier apologised and requested me to wait 30 minutes for the room to be cleaned. I told her there was nothing to apologise for she has given me such great customer service already. For the whole of this time, my stomach has been relatively calm. I have not taken any food or drink, so I decided to order dinner while waiting.

As expected, the food and drink were expensive at the hotel. Later, I realised that the prices for everything was expensive in Baoguo Village, just like Jiuzhaigou or Luodai or other tourist spots but the hotel room was cheap. Food price was actually not more expensive than outside.

The room was even better than Starway Snow Lotus Hotel in Jiuzhaigou at RMB188/ night (more during high season) versus Teddy Bear Hotel which was only RMB80/ night. Traffic Inn in Chengdu, with no private bath went for RMB110/ night.

After dinner, my stomach started to give me problem again. I later approached Bella to ask whether the hotel has medicine for upset stomach but was advised that there was a pharmacy close by. I asked her to write me a note which I could show the pharmacist my problem.

I soon found the pharmacy. Luckily, the pharmacist speaks some English. I paid, if I remember correctly, over RMB70 for the oral rehydration salt and two types of medicine. On the way back, I bought some wild kiwi fruit and oranges from a street vendor.

I was tired. My butt needed a rest after the long journey from Jiuzhaigou and another five hours today. I was in no mood to do anything, to take photos or to stroll around. Lying on the bed, I fell asleep and did not bother to brush my teeth even after I woke up an hour or two later. It was really a bad day for me.

Back to Chengdu

Day 11 (1st November 2012)

I woke up early. Before 6:00 a.m., I was out on the street to look for breakfast. I was too early. The shop where I had steamed buns two days earlier has not fully opened. Others were still closed. Departure time to Chengdu was 7:30 a.m.

I returned to the hotel before 6:10 a.m. I had arranged with the taxi driver who drove me to the Jiuzhaigou National Park entrance a day earlier to pick me up at 6:30 a.m. He never came. Instead, another taxi driver who came to pick up a couple drove me to the bus station beside Jiu Tong Sunshine Hotel (Jiu Tong Yáng Guāng Chē Zhàn). He charged me extra by quoting RMB15, instead of the standard fare of RMB10. I did not want to be late so I accepted the offer. I was at his mercy.

It was very cold. On arrival at the bus station, I saw a stall selling food in front of the station. I bought a piece of pancake and it was RMB5. Expensive for a piece of plain fried pancake!

At 7:30 a.m., we were off. Along the way, I realised why it was so cold. Winter has set in. Snow was seen everywhere. Seen but unfortunately, not experienced by playing in snow.

The bus driver was a real hell-driver. He overtook all vehicles, except other hell-drivers on sedans bent on dying in road accidents. He took 9 hours, 15 minutes to reach the last bus stop near Xinnanmen Bus Station where we were dropped off at about 4:45 p.m., despite making four stops on the way from Jiuzhaigou.

That evening, while strolling to the back street, I again noticed people walking in and out of a gated alley. I was curious. I went over and it was a market and there were a few shops selling local delicacies. The genuine street food which I have been trying to find has been found. I promised myself I would be back on 4th November on my return to Chengdu after visiting Emei Shan and Leshan Giant Buddha. In the meantime, I must have the Bon Bon Chicken tonight at a small shop I found while searching for the Huaxiba Metro Station on 28th October to go to Wenshu Monastery.

Alas! Bon Bon Chicken is not freshly cooked food. It is cold food and has been prepared and left there for God knows how many hours already. It is takeaway food and I brought it back to Traffic Inn. Luckily, I have with me an unused disposable fork from an instant noodle cup which I brought back from Jiuzhaigou. The Bon Bon Chicken portion was small and the taste was not bad, just overflowing with chilly oil. Left with half a stomach empty, I went out again for Dan Dan Noodle.

That same night, I called Teddy Bear Hotel to make a booking for a night's stay.

 After the Dan Dan Noodle, it was the start of my misery for the next three days. My belly started grumbling.