Wednesday, July 25, 2012

乐山大佛 - LeShan's Giant Buddha (and a giant headache)


This day started without a western breakfast or coffee like the hostel promised us.  This wasn't that big of a deal but since we had been looking forward to it we were disappointed.  If our day wouldn't have continued like that I probably wouldn't have thought about it again but it was one thing after another.  We couldn't find the bus (our hostel was the worst), stood in line at the train station and not the bus station, got off at the wrong bus stop, no one could tell us how to get to the Buddha (SERIOUSLY?! it's the main attraction),  all the maps at the bus stops said we were in exactly the same place, finally found a taxi but was dropped off at the wrong entrance, paid way more than what we should have paid because we were at the wrong entrance, walked sooo much more in the heat than we needed to, too many Chinese tourists, an eye infection, etc.  I know this stuff happens when you're traveling but at the time that didn't help.  Being around Chinese tourists is very trying towards your patience -especially when you live in China.  There's just too many people and the impatience and pushing is at it's worst.  Plus people staring at us, wanting pictures with us, having no sense of personal space, etc.  Sometimes it's just too much!  Of course, looking back it wasn't as bad as it seemed at the time.  I think the heat really put us in a bad mood and getting lost so many times in the heat didn't help.  

This experience combined with the rest of our trip has brought forth a new goal for my time in China.  I'll write about that soon.  Our day WAS successful - we made it there, we saw what we came to see, and got some exercise in the process.  It was very impressive around, 1000 years old, stands 233 feet tall, and is carved out of the hillside.

The staircase along the side of the Buddha was very narrow and there were too many people on it.

I was happy that Simone used her umbrella for the sun.

We did get some nice pictures of the big guy.





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