China Entry the Ninth: The Sadistic Hike of 1000 Temples

This entry is mostly photos. I know that you prefer that anyway. You're not fooling me.

So, the next day we kick it at breakfast at a chirpy SEVEN IN THE MORNING and then we're off. First stop - Bamboo Temple. This is a Budhist temple up in the hills outside of Kunming. It's incredibly lovely, as is the green and scenic drive up there. An A+ experience. Actually, this is an A+ day. It's one of my favorite days of the trip.


Translated, this means "temple".











From there, the Ho Lin Sadistic Hike of 1000 Temples begins. To be fair, I loved this hike and every temple we stopped at, as is evidenced by the many, many photos I'm throwing at you now. That said, the hike goes aggressively up most of the side of a mountain, and includes many steep stairs. At one point, I'm quite sure we climb over 250 stairs straight up. It's exhausting ... for Lisa and I!!!! Ho jumps on up the mountain like there's no incline at all and waits for Lisa and I at the top. It's cool though, because wondering through all of the temples on the way up makes it worth it.














Tea seeping during out tea break.


Tea - ready!


Ho and I enjoy a tea break.

At the top of the mountain, we get on a cable car and ride down the side. I don't love that given that I don't love heights, but it's all good. From there, it's a minority population cultural museum, a stop at a food vendor for eggs and prawn right from the river and a trip back to the city to wander around and get some food before we board the all night train.

We go American style for dinner at the highly recommended Wei's Pizzeria. It's a delightful dinner full of food (noodles, dumplings, pizza, old recipe coke) and we start to teach Lisa to play Texas Hold'em. Then, back to the hotel where we grab our luggage and play cards until it's time to head to our overnight train. Ask me tomorrow about the overnight train.