OMFG!!!

So I went to class. In class I was standing at the back, because I always stand. The Professor asked why I was standing and I told him about the various maladies of my back. He said that I should go for a blind massage. We had heard of people getting... ransomed... at these blind massages for more money, but one of our crew had already gone and that seemed ok.

We went. There was a bunch of us and we went downtown and somehow managed to find the massage place. It was tough since the map didn't seem to line up with the street names, but after asking enough people we were there. The six of us lined up for massages and for 50 Yuan a person we got an hour of massage each. That is a little less than 10 CAD.

Half of the masseuses were blind, but the others could see. It did not matter. Mine could see, but he was a massage god and wow. It was so painful but so good all at the same time. I have heard similar accounts from the other massagees.

A trip to McDonalds and we were on our way home.

Remember that we tried to climb the hills behind campus and didn't make it? Well, this time we did.

Some people have called me an Indiana Jones wannabe, but after this adventure, Indiana Jones wanna be me!

It started behind campus the same way the other hike did. There were only two of us this time so we powered up the first hill no problem. We made it to where we were stuck before in only 20 minutes and then continued upwards. There were some pretty hairy situations as the path faded and all that was left was the steep face of the hill, but we made it. 35 minutes in and we were at the top of the hill.

It was a great feeling, but we could see that the ridge continued upwards, and while we were here we might as well have climbed to the top of the ridge too. So. We did. We climbed and climbed and then made it to the top. We found a big boulder climbed it too and then sat atop it for a break, and the view. That was a great feeling...

Oh what a feeling...

It was not until after our break that we really looked behind us. There we saw the concrete path that was the same path that we had taken to get to the top of the same ridge before. This was not new land and new terrain... but another path to the same place. Crap.

The sun was still high and we had lots of water so we were not in a hurry to climb back down, not to mention that we did not know how to get down from there without taking the concrete path. On the far side of this valley, so down the ridge on the far side and then up another there was a platform on top of the next ridge. That became our destination. We were now inside temple grounds and were able to use the paths to climb down and up in another 20 minutes.

Now we were looking down at the temple and back to the ridge that we had first climbed. Standing on the platform it just so happened that on the next ridge over there was a point higher than we were. This would not do.

Stairway to Heaven

We hopped on another path and were down that ridge in no time. There was another temple there that was under construction and it really didn't seem like we were supposed to be there... Oops.

Temple Map

I don't think we are supposed to be here...

Temple Under Construction

Me and the Man

Anyways, we had seen the path to the highest point so we walked through the construction area and to where the path should have been. It was there. We took the stairs cut into the rock and climbed to the top. We reached a plateau type structure with large boulders sitting on top of it. Attached to the boulders were ropes and attached to the highest boulder was bits of rebar making a ladder... so to speak. At the very top was a Chinese flag held high in the wind.

My fellow explorer took to the ropes and climbed the first boulder where she resolved to stay. I followed her but was not satisfied with that resting place. The final boulder awaited me and I had to keep going. I climbed to the top.

I cannot express this in words so I encourage you to watch the attached movies. It is said so much better there.

Top of the World Part 1

Top of the World Part 2

I love this country!!!

Shannon's Epic Victory

My Epic Victory

Our Epic Victory

Afterwards I climbed down. I do not know how.

The Mountain

We were down and on the road back home. Sunset was behind us as we made our way out of the mountains and out of two temple gates on the way back to the university. Back at the East Gate we were absconded for a good-bye supper.

After that... it was time for bed.