Huangshan II

we woke at the unearthly hour of 430am to catch the sunrise at 510... but there was no sunrise. everything outside was a white blank

but i took a photo anyway. after all that's what we were up for right:

so here's saturday's sunset instead, since there was no space on the previous post. sunset through the mist and a little pavilion far off.

6.30am: all togged up and ready to brave the mist and rain outside! the winds were so strong we almost got blown off the steps! oops it's blur, i forgot my flash wasn't on! :(

and after this my camera died and i missed out on some of the most gorgeous scenery on the trip! but anyway as you can tell by the unimpressive photos thus far, they don't do much justice to the scenery there! it's all up in my head. and that is why you just have to go there to see it for yourself.

later on, thanks to threats of strong wind and lightning, the cable cars were not in service and we all HAD to trek the whole way down the mountain. i was secretly quite glad cos i wanted to climb down but i knew some of the others had actually wanted to take the cable car down. 1 hr later i wasn't so sure i wanted to climb anymore. it got kinda boring cos you had to concentrate on the steps and staring at grey stone the whole way down wasn't particularly interesting plus there were so many people going up and down, carrying sedans, or even moving steel pipes or other supplies up! (i only dared to take out my camera on the safer steps so this doesn't look so bad. but on some other narrower paths we all got pushed off or had to balance against the stone mountainside.)

the first day we took the cable car halfway up, then climbed for another 4 hours or so, but with frequent stops in between. the second day we climbed for 3 hours straight down the whole mountain. (according to the map it was only about 6.5km; the actual length was probably less, but it felt like more. 6.5km in steps = tired legs)

couldn't have survived without our trusty walking sticks! :P

by the end of it my legs were wobbly.

and by the time we got home i was starving cos we'd mainly been surviving on biscuits and cup noodles since the food up the mountain was exepnsive and yucky and i was dreading the walk to buy dinner.

and this morning when i woke up i cld barely stand! had to plonk back down on my bed and massage my calves before i cld really get up. i think i need a massage later.

“we only have 4 weekends left!”
Said I to jy on the bus yesterday.
And then it hit me that it’s quite sad how we count our life here in weekends.
Welcome to the working world I guess :(
But that said, while we can’t do as much on weekdays, we sure do as much as we can!