Two days, 40km and 3077m elevation ahead of us.
That is called pain. 
After Chengdu we (Pig with the ass & Coloured pig) decided to head out of the big city to Mt. Emei. One of the five holy Buddhist mountains in China.

We started the hike on Thursday 3rd of August at half price using our drivers license as "student cards" hehe and after the heavy first day we arrived at the half way point, Magic Peak Monastery. We spent the night in the monastery at 1700 meters and as soon as we got to our room the clouds and dark filled the air. We could not see farther than 15 meters in every direction. It felt fresh and moist. So literally we were in the clouds (pilvessa) :D Eating and sleeping on the mountain is a bit more expensive than in the city but nevertheless we stayed below our daily budget wich is approximately 20 euros per day. Sleeping in a Buddhist monastery was totally new experience for both of us.

The next day we woke up at six in the morning and continued our hike in cloudy weather and there was no chance of seeing any beautiful views. We visited a cave on the mountain wich had some sleeping bats in the dark. We went quietly on our way 'cos we didin't want wake up those little furry guys. At that moment we had a party of three. Joshua from Luxenburg had joined us from the monastery. We kept talking about ultimate frisbee and sports generally so the steps felt lighter for me. Miki was concetrating on his pain :D Along the way we saw some Tibetian macaques. Some were wild and some abit more friendly to humans. One succeeded in stealing my bottle of water from my hand! Cute creatures anyway:)

The way up was made of rock and steps so suppose it was easier than in rough grounds. We were fortunate 'cos walking with basic shoes would have been tough without the path made for tourists. :P

Finally after two exhausting days we arrived to the Golden Summit where lies a gigantic golden statue of Buddha. The view was breathtaking. The mountains surrounding Golden summit look like they are floating in the sea of clouds and for a long time we got to enjoy the blue sky and sunshine. We didn't enjoy a chilled atmosphere 'cos the summit was full of chinese tourists shouting and taking pictures of everything. Nearly everyone of them had arrived with a bus transportation to the summit. We think it takes the value out of the mountain 'cos it's so easy to get there. "fuck u samsonite tourists, u have done nothing" That was the thought running on our minds.

But the scenery, ahh. It was so amazing!  Hard to imagine that we were sitting above the clouds looking to the horizon and saw nothing but a few mountain peaks among the endless sea of clouds. Sun was shining and it felt like the Buddha himself was smiling at us.

Be patient my friends, we'll add some pictures in time. ;)

In the evening we saw the sunset but it was not as cool as we had expected. Too cloudy :/
The altitude was getting to us. Small headache, harder to breathe and heart pumping faster than usually. Fortunately we didn't suffer from the mountain sickness which affects after 2600meters. Worst case scenario is death.

The next morning we got up early to see the sunrise and we had to wait for a while but it was definetly worth every penny! The sun lit the clouds in the horizon with mixture of red and yellow. Suddenly the sun sneaked among the clouds rising like a bright red egg until it got above the horizon changing to bright yellow sharing its warmth.

After the sunrise Joshua decided to head down. He was heading to one of the most beautiful natural parks of China in the north of Sichuan province via Chengdu. Hopefully he is now enjoying his time there :)

Me and Miki found a nice spot to chill away from the crowds. We enjoyed the sunshine and read our books. (Siddhartha & Hare brain, tortoise mind) After a while a thought crawled to our minds: " lets walk to Wanfu summit" (Wanfu summit was connected to Golden summit by ground and there was a monorail link.) Unfortunately the monorail had been closed for a year so that was out of option. But as one of the laws in the universe, something good comes after some bad. We saw our chance and we took it so we climbed ower a stone wall and headed towards Wanfu summit, balancing on the monorail track. I think there's one little piece of us which desires illegality :D The weather was in favour of us. maybe abit too much 'cos after few hours in the sun we realized that the sun this high from a cloudless sky is very strong!
Well we thought that a little too late 'cos now we both are badly burnt and pink/red like two little pigs! Pink pigs..

We got to the Wanfu temple and started talking about life in general. It's funny how similar our way of thinking is. Expanding our view of life, living in new countries, chasing our dreams and that we're both free as a bird. No obligation what so ever and that anything we want in life is possible if we truly want it.
We also went inside the temple and drank tee with few monks and persons working on the mountain. "Now we should know chinese" we thought.. it would have been really nice to chat with them. Me wearing white clothes tasting delicious berries along the way, Miki said that i look like Jesus. :D Hippie life is wonderful :) We enjoyed ourselves especially 'cos we got off the beaten trail.

It was time to get down the mountain and we thought that bus is lame so why not hitchhike? Yeap, we did it. Walked down the mountain for one hour along the bus trail and one nice chinese couple offered us a ride down. Tasted also a weird but juicy fruit from the lady : ))

In the end we got a bit more pain than we bargained for (the sunburn went over the limit) but once again you could say that we did it our own way and the result was surely more interesting and fun than joining one of the many guided tours with "everything included in one price" that we saw.. and that is called Gain with a big "G".

Oh yes.. In the mean while our visa extensions have been marinating in Leshan so tomorrow all we gotta do is pick them up and we're ready for the backdoor.. (No you perverts not that one!) Its the scenic route to get to the beautiful province of Yunnan!