Sunday, January 31. Joe calls at 7:55 a.m. with the exciting news that it is clear outside. "Clear" in the sense of "not foggy", the sky is still overcast. But at least we can see the mountains and peaks. We have a quick breakfast (coffee like mud!) and hurry outside. Clouds are blowing in and out of the mountains so the view is constantly changing. We walk to Beginning to Believe Peak. Then back to hotel to check out. Leave bags at front desk. Then walk to Monkey Gazing at Sea of Clouds. As we are there, the fog comes in again and it begins to drizzle so we pack it in. Back to hotel, pick up bags, head out to cable car station. If all this sounds easy, believe me, it isn't! Everything involves hiking up and down (but mostly up, it seems) an endless line of steps. We are down off the mountain and in the car at about 3 p.m.
Back in Tunxi, we pick up the rest of my luggage at the Huangshan International and load it into the car. Then the driver drops us off at the beginning of the Tunxi old street. We wander down the small street, taking our time and looking at lots of things. As we are doing this, it starts to rain in earnest. Finally, we fall into a tea shop where we sit down and warm up by drinking a thousand tiny cups of different kinds of tea: "monkey" tea (green), green tea with chestnut flavor (my favorite), black tea with rose, royal chrysanthemum tea and on and on. I end up buying some of the chestnut tea and the monkey tea (as a gift). While we are in the tea shop, it begins to rain very hard - so we just keep drinking more tea!
At last, the rain lets up a little so we continue down the street to the Mei Shi Ren Jia restaurant (where we ate two nights ago). This time, I know I want to try the pumpkin dumplings - and they are fabulous! I eat three of them (and they're huge!). Also, I have again the mushroom soup with at least three kinds of mushrooms in it. We also try some other things - flatbread and noodles and some crispy fried dough things, one with a spicy flavor - and then i order another one that has chocolate and sugar added to it.
We leave the restaurant after 8 but we still have almost three hours to kill before my train. So we walk back up the street to look at two of the hostels and check out their prices and the rooms. The second one is more expensive (145 yuan per night in high season) but it is also really nice. A huge room with a bathroom carved out of one corner - but it has glass walls so it feels very spacious and open. the bathroom is really cool too. I would like to come back to Huangshan in April when some of the flowers are blooming and maybe the weather will be a little better. of course, it will also be more crowded. this time, we almost had the mountain to ourselves (relatively speaking, of course!)
We stop off at an Internet cafe but it is very busy and quite smoky. So we go to a nearby hotel to use their "business center" - 15 yuan per hour and no smoke! So I'm doing this there. Now it is 10:40 p.m. so almost time to go to the train station. My train is scheduled to leave at 11:44, arriving in Zhuzhou at about 10:30 tomorrow morning. We'll see how it works out.
Back in Tunxi, we pick up the rest of my luggage at the Huangshan International and load it into the car. Then the driver drops us off at the beginning of the Tunxi old street. We wander down the small street, taking our time and looking at lots of things. As we are doing this, it starts to rain in earnest. Finally, we fall into a tea shop where we sit down and warm up by drinking a thousand tiny cups of different kinds of tea: "monkey" tea (green), green tea with chestnut flavor (my favorite), black tea with rose, royal chrysanthemum tea and on and on. I end up buying some of the chestnut tea and the monkey tea (as a gift). While we are in the tea shop, it begins to rain very hard - so we just keep drinking more tea!
At last, the rain lets up a little so we continue down the street to the Mei Shi Ren Jia restaurant (where we ate two nights ago). This time, I know I want to try the pumpkin dumplings - and they are fabulous! I eat three of them (and they're huge!). Also, I have again the mushroom soup with at least three kinds of mushrooms in it. We also try some other things - flatbread and noodles and some crispy fried dough things, one with a spicy flavor - and then i order another one that has chocolate and sugar added to it.
We leave the restaurant after 8 but we still have almost three hours to kill before my train. So we walk back up the street to look at two of the hostels and check out their prices and the rooms. The second one is more expensive (145 yuan per night in high season) but it is also really nice. A huge room with a bathroom carved out of one corner - but it has glass walls so it feels very spacious and open. the bathroom is really cool too. I would like to come back to Huangshan in April when some of the flowers are blooming and maybe the weather will be a little better. of course, it will also be more crowded. this time, we almost had the mountain to ourselves (relatively speaking, of course!)
We stop off at an Internet cafe but it is very busy and quite smoky. So we go to a nearby hotel to use their "business center" - 15 yuan per hour and no smoke! So I'm doing this there. Now it is 10:40 p.m. so almost time to go to the train station. My train is scheduled to leave at 11:44, arriving in Zhuzhou at about 10:30 tomorrow morning. We'll see how it works out.
Note: arrive in Zhuzhou at about 11:30 a.m. on Monday, February 1.
2 comments:
Enjoyed reading about your trip! Enjoy SE Asia!
Enjoyed reading about your trip!
Enjoy SE Asia!
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