Path to Enlightenment

Day: 249

Not really waking up, so much as deciding to stand up and shiver instead of lying down; my alarm on my new $20 Casio watch told us it was almost sunrise. Sophie and I wandered up to the summit hoping to find one or both of our friends, only to find instead a plethora of Chinese -Who I could only assume took the gondola up most of the way up to the North Peak- seeing how they were far underdressed for overnight hiking and undershoed for the insanity that was the path to the top.

Now, have you ever noticed that sometimes I start off writing about day, then the story seems to disintegrate? Well this looks like one of those days, but I will explain how it happens. I started writing the beginning yesterday, and now today with my daily blog deadline approaching and new friends asking me to go hike the city walls, I can’t really maintain the dedication to the story to tell it all right now.

Needless to say, I have uploaded a shitload of pictures so you can have a slight idea of how intense this trail was on our way down. Pretty much, imagine 5 miles of stairs that have a 6000ft elevation gain. Now imagine doing it in the dark with a little LED flashlight, and waking up to find yourself on top of a mountain.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning up in our hotel, busing back to Xi’an, getting back to the same hostel again, going to the fountain water show (at which, this girl wanted her picture taken with me), and (of course) drinking beer.