January 21: Death at TLG.. please not me!

This morning I woke up early to have mama make me egg and toast. It was delicious. I haven't eaten breakfast on this trip so this was awesome.

We took the 8:30am hostel bus to TLG. With us were 5 other people. 4 Koreans (one American-Korean from California) and then 1 guy from Belgium, Lucas.

We ended up hiking with Lucas, which was probably a great break for Henry. However, hiking with two guys... Not so great for me. I was dying.

Let me "start" by saying, Lonely Planet told us that there have been deaths at TLG, including a few foreigners and to follow the red arrows to stay on track. The first day would be difficult and we will walk along a few cliffs but after the 28 bends its easy. WRONG. I totally got the whole "Death at TLG" And make sure you follow the red arrows. But the entire hike was in the side of the mountain and at any point, any misstep, you were toast. Comforting? Especially when I had two guys who were super fast and hiking like it was a straight path.

After hiking for three hours we realized we missed an arrow somewhere along the way because we ended up on the road. At that point I was ready to give up. I just wanted to see the gorge; I didn't necessarily care about the hike? I actually was excited for the hike until it was all on the side of a cliff!

Walking on the side of a cliff

Anyway... Some dude drove us back to the beginning of the hike and said we should start over. Yeah right. I already risked my life once in that part, not doing it a second time. Eventually we got him to drop us off on this road and another guy drove us up to the nearest red arrow. The one we missed!

I was under the impression we already did the 28 bends... Wrong. I seriously wanted to quit at this point. I told Henry that I was slowing them down and I would turn around and he said nope. You're doing it.

Halfway up the 28 bends I gave up and decided to take a horse up the rest of the way. 3/4 of the way up... the horse was exhausted and almost fell off the mountain. I jumped off that horse so fast the guy leading the horse was confused. So in the end, I ended up doing the 28 stupid bends and I was exhausted. Thankfully the guys were waiting at the end. They had a good laugh.

Halfway point guest house

At 3:30 we were told it was another 4 hours to the halfway point. I was so nervous we were going to be hiking in the dark. So I decided to lead and we got there in 3. The only reason I was walking fast is because it was a pretty flat path at this point, still on the side of the mountain though. And the stupid boys kept getting close to the edge and saying "ah man we are so high up"!

We got to the halfway guesthouse at 6:30 and ate a feast. My legs felt like jello. I was asleep by 8pm.