Saturday, November 3rd: Rocks, Mountains, Lakes and Waterfalls= Stairs, stairs, stairs

View from our morning hike in the rain.

Henry, Alicia, Nicholas, Seeta and I all woke up at 6am to leave by 6:30 to start hiking. We ended up leaving at 6:45. We walked for about an hour in the rain. Not only was it raining but it was also freezing. I didn't dress extremely well for the rain and cold. 

We started walking to the highest peak of ZhangJiaJie. The walk was gorgeous. Around 8 the busses started running so we flagged down the first bus that we saw to take us to the top. It was about a 20 minute bus ride so the walk would have taken forever. 

Although it was raining the view from the top was gorgeous. The rain and fog/clouds made the view that much better. Most people would have complained about the rain but at the end of the day it added to the views. 

View from Tianzi Shan (Mountain)

After we were done looking at the views from the peak we stopped for a snack. I discovered 巧克力奶茶 (chocolate milk tea) which tastes like chocolate milk. I also got a bread thing with meat in it. It was great. 

Henry had an extra pair of socks which saved my life because my feet were freezing. 

While we were snacking we saw Amber and Sam who ended up joining us. We walked 5 million stairs up and down to the monkey garden. It was worth it though, the scenery was great and the monkeys were all so cute! 

Henry feeding the monkey an orange.
You can't really tell but their hands were touching.

We then took the park train that all the Chinese were raving about. We definitely saw spectacular views but the walk next to the train tracks would have been just as great, if not better. Next time a Chinese person tells me to do something, I'm going to do the opposite. I'll let you know how it works out.

After the train we ended up splitting up, Alicia, Amber and Sam stayed in the park and Henry, Seeta, Nicholas and I left the park to go see baohu (baohu lake) and waterfall in Wujingli city. We walked 30 minutes through the city to get to the lake. The city was small but great. The architecture was old Chinese. I am so happy I was able to see it. 

Baohu was gorgeous. We were given a tour (in Chinese) on a boat and it was gorgeous. It sort of reminded me of Halong bay in Vietnam (of course on a much smaller scale).

We then walked down a ton of steps to get to the waterfall. I have a thing for waterfalls so I was super excited for this part. The waterfall was great. I've never actually been that close to one. We walked across the waterfall on a suspended bridge. It was sweet. 

Baohu (Lake)

We had to leave the lake so we could get back to the park and to the hostel before the busses stopped. The busses stop at 6 and if we missed the busses we would have to walk 3 hours. We ended up making the last big bus but by the time he dropped us off at the small busses they were closed. Luckily a van drove by and said he would drive us to our hostel for 40¥. A total rip off but totally worth it. We were all freezing and ready to be back.

I never thought I would be so excited to see a hostel before. Right when we got back we ordered dinner. I got fried rice and vegetables. We all actually ordered our own vegetables and all got different vegetables. It was awesome. The boys love eating with me because they always end up eating my leftovers and filling up.

Waterfall

Oh and I have to mention my last shower was Thursday night. The shower at the hostel is over the squatty potty. NO THANK YOU. So I'm waiting for our hostel tomorrow in Changsha to shower. Hopefully it's decent! As long as its not over a squatty potty I am showering.

Tomorrow we are going to leave at 8 and walk down the steps to get to the bottom of the park. When we arrived we took an elevator to the top so we thought it would be fun to walk down.