Day 11 - October 15th

3am wake-up call!!! Didn’t get that much sleep last night. The boys were snoring, I was really cold and there was a mozzy buzzing around. I don’t know how mozzys survive in this cold. If I was them, I wouldn’t bother coming up here to feast!

We climbed the rest of the way up to the peak of the mountain. It was really cold and we did it in the pitch black. It took another three hours hike up some real steep steps. Saw the sunrise… it was beautiful!

I dunno why, but there’s something about cute Chinese girls in big army jackets! And as usual, they’re with their douchebag boyfriends! I catch a cold on the peak as I sweated so much on the way up and I don’t think the Bai Jui (rice wine) we had last night helped at all!

I treat the boys to more slurp at the peak even though they thought it was a bit too expensive up there… I was hungry! Coming down was harder then going up. Though physically it wasn’t as demanding, I really had to concentrate on my footing as my boots were too big for the steps! We walk to the midway point again and decide to take the bus down as we were all knackered. I leave Tai Shan a little Shan (mountain) of my own in the toilet! Maybe that’s why I’m ill! I have angered the gods with my poo!

Arrive in town and then leave the boys as they want to stay in Tai'an for another day whilst I want to go to Qufu (hometown of Confucius). We decide to meet again in Qingdao in a few days. The bus to Qufu was playing the same film as from Luoyang. Something about the Japanese and guns… I don’t get it!

I arrive in Qufu around midday. It looks like a real old town and the walls are still intact around it! I can’t see a single tower block. I’m guessing that would interfere with the feng shui (apparently the train station was built a few miles away from the town for the same reason). The cab driver takes me to a hotel (one that I didn’t ask to be taken to) but I was too tired and ill to argue. I haggle the room from Y120 to Y70 a night, not bad I think! I have a shower and then chat to Lisa on the phone. The first time I’ve spoken English in 3 days! I sleep for an hour!

In my wanderings around the town, I don’t know how I understand the people. I ask them a question, but then they talk at me words I just don’t know (must be Shandong dialect or really accented) but I seem to know what they are on about! I really like the look of this place, very peaceful for China! I spend the rest of the day on an internet bar and still not manage to get all my first days pix online!

Eat at the food market. I think this is the nicest place I’ve been so far… maybe it’s the drugs talking! But all the trees had fairy lights on and it looked like Christmas! I retire to my room around 8pm. Watch Bewitched in Chinese… did the trick for putting me to sleep!

Miles walked: 76.155m
Steps taken: 93,779

Day 10 - October 14th

Not a great night’s sleep. I kept on being woken up by knocks on the door and phone calls asking if I needed any ‘special services’. By the time it was midnight I get pissed off and tell the lady on the phone to fuck off! Dodgy dodgy dodgy!!!

I wake up in a windowless room. First time I’ve ever slept in a windowless room. It’s strange because you just don’t know what time it is. It’s just dark! I also have to let you all in on a secret. I’m afraid of the dark so whenever I stay in a hotel on my own, I will always leave the TV on. My TV was turned off this morning and I don’t remember waking up to turn it off (it would have been a mission as the remote didn’t work so I would have had to get off my arse).

I go to a book store to pick up a few reads for my journey. The selection in the biggest book store in town was pretty lame. Just kids reading books or business ones! I take a two hour bus journey to Tai'an, the town at the foot of Tai Shan (the most sacred Taoist mountain in China). They show a Bollywood MTV on the journey.

I’m greeted in Tai'an by a taxi driver who almost convinces me to stay a night in a hotel in town and climb tomorrow morning. He argues that it will cost a lot tonight (weekend) and that there will be many people on the way up. He almost had me, but I was sticking with my guns. He still seemed awfully nice and I gave him a nice big smile and wave when I drove past him on a motor taxi! He wouldn’t take me to the place I wanted to go even though I requested he take me!

I decide to leave my backpack at the bus station and then do the traditional route for climbing Tai Shan. This started off at a temple at the foot of the mountain called Dai Temple where I brought some incense for my journey up. I wanted to retrace the steps of the old emperors and leave offerings at every temple I pass on the way to the top. I buy a ticket for the first temple and I give the lady in the ticket booth a big smile. Her face changes and she has an even bigger smile back! I doubt she has had anyone smile at her in a long time.

At the foot of the mountain I also meet two Chinese students. They turn out to be the soundest people I have met. They were so hospitable and offered me everything they had like a friend. I am so pleased to have met them on the journey up the mountain! We walk four hours up to the midway point where they negotiate a stay in a room for Y100 between the three of us. I was probably going to go to a hotel for Y200 upwards! The original plan was that we sleep outside… okay for me, as I had a sleeping bag, but I don’t know how they would have survived! I decide to buy them some Tai Shan baijiu (rice wine) for us to drink. First impression… not bad! Second shot… hmm?!?! Third shot… get that shit away from me! I end up having to leave the bottle outside out room as even the smell of it made me welch!

We head to sleep around 9pm. I forget my toothbrush!

Miles walked: 66.446m
Steps taken: 69,076