Mon 9 April: Stairway to heaven (nearly) at Mutianyu

9 April 2012


A bad night's sleep for both of us meant the wake up call went unanswered and we woke up to an irate lady shouting "wakee upee" at us - not the best start to the day. We had repacked our rucksacks as it was on to the next hotel today and both Lisa and I were appalled to find that despite having used many of our provisions the rucksacks were far fuller and far heavier that when we left Heathrow. . . The nerves about the forthcoming walk (climb) meant that I had to sit on the bus with an Ethiad sick bag and Lisa slept through the journey including a half hour chat about chairman Mao - not the best start to our restart following our original bad start. . . So how do 1000 steps to get onto the wall feel ? Long, unending, painful and thankfully behind us . . . . What they failed to mention was that the 1000 steps were only to get us onto the wall - and didn't include the other 1000+ up and then down again. However we were rewarded for our efforts with a traditional Chinese delicacy - the Subway sandwich (!) We took plenty of photographs (from the back as usual) but it was difficult to capture the fantastic views well because of the haze. We will try to add some pictures later when we can get onto the blog site properly. After climbing some more steps we decided against the 1000 steps down again and opted for the chairlift from further along the wall. By then, our feet were hurting so we decided to hang them below the car. Unfortunately, we hadn't realised that the safety bar was actually kept in place by the pressure from our feet... Cue us hanging precariously above a large drop in something resembling a garden chair with nothing to keep us in... Help!!!

By 4.30 we were back at the bus having been harassed by the many tourist touts - "Hello laydee, you wanna buy postcard?" "Hello laydee, you wanna buy great wall t shirt only $1?". Sadly the bus driver had no beer for sale tonight, so we resolved to buy some later... Which is another story. A quick shower was followed by a trip to another local restaurant where we were treated to some 'hard to identify' meat & veg dishes (all delicious) and some sort of soup made with what appeared to be chicken skin (not so delicious). We sloped off a bit early to get a few cans of beer - and found a lovely selection at the local shop. We quickly decided what to buy and handed them over to a (supposedly) trusty male to carry. He then spotted a 'bargain' size pack which he exchanged for the previously chosen cans and swiftly made his way t the check out. Moments later we had been accosted by a Chinese supermarket assistant who was shouting loudly and pointing at the pack. Dave was convinced he had done something terribly wrong and was about to be arrested by the security guards on the front door. However, a quick investigation revealed that he had picked up a large case of 'pineapple beer' in error - a disater narrowly averted!!!! We did buy a single can to try later... And it was just as revolting as we suspected. Anya quickly used hers to water the tree in the nearby foyer. While we were there, we also managed to pick up some 'numb and spicy flavour, intense and stimulating' crisps, chosen from the vast array of flavours on offer, including cucumber, cheese lobster, Italian red meat and lemon tea... Yum.

Tomorrow's forecast is not brilliant, but we are off to the Black Dragon Pool Park anyway and then onto a 'rustic lodge' (=rough b&b as far as we can tell). Not likely to have Internet access for a few days but will update as soon as we can.., watch this space!