Trembling Knees (A Weekend in Shidu, Part 2)

Breakfast is scheduled at 8:00 and we are supposed to be off to GuShanZhai at 8:30. I woke up at 7:00 and suffered through the freezing shower like I did last night. The weather looks promising.

early Sunday morning

We didn't eat that much last night, so we are all expecting a very heavy breakfast (we are going to hike today after all and we will need the fuel). Well, life is indeed full of disappointments... only hard-boiled eggs and mantou are the ones I recognized, other than those, it's a fair game.

breakfast guessing game

It took us 30 minutes to GuShanZhai (Susy said it means Lonely Hill). The place is amazing! Entrance tickets cost 30 RMB and another 20 RMB to cross the hanging bridge. If you want to save 20 kuai, I think swimming is another option to cross to the other side, we opted to stay dry, though.

GuShanZhai (tickets cost 30 RMB)

GuShanZhai

Hanging Bridge to the park (costs 20 RMB to cross)

From the other end of the hanging bridge, we walked a kilometre to another ticket check area. I'm not sure if this cost us extra because all the tickets are included in our package (280 RMB, all meals, hotel, and tickets). If you want to conserve energy, you can ride a horse - we didn't ask for how much because the horses really do smell...

parang Mindoro lang...

horseback riding

Souvenir shops and ice cream vendors has set up stalls along the way (yes, even along the river, and cliff edges). You can buy small dolls, slingshots (tirador), walking sticks, cowboy hats and different flavored ice-creams (actually, ice-drop yung tinitinda nila).

there's no mountain high enough

We walked and walked and walked... I lost track of how many streams we passed (or is it one continuous stream???) and how many steps we climbed. My knees started trembling whenever I stop walking, I lost my breath several steps ago and I still don't know where we are supposed to go (lagi pa akong nagpapahinga sa lilim sa lagay na 'to).

cold, refreshing water (but no, it's not for drinking)

We passed by several mini waterfalls on the way, the sound of water is very relaxing but I kept thinking how far I'll have to walk to get back to our bus...

Then there it was, a real big waterfalls (well, not that big, I just said it's big because it was supposed to be the highlight of the hike). I felt all the exhaustion draining away for a chance to play under the falls (to take pictures, really...). The water's cold pero sulit 'yung nilakad kong pagkahaba-haba!

I thought that was it. We'll be going back now... but no, signs for the "Thin Crack in the Sky" started appearing on the way. I'm not sure what that is but they said that we should go see it since we are already there. Okay... up we went. We walked at the edges of the cliff, followed the signs, climbed several flights of stone steps, followed the signs again, rested a bit, climbed a lot of flights of stone steps again until we saw the very steep climb to the actual place. (I felt my lungs burning, I swear I am going to sleep for several days the minute I got back to the city).

very steep climb

Thin Crack in the Sky or Yi Xian Tian (literally, a strip of heaven) is crack in the mountain top about a meter wide which is so cool! My friends said it's like a place from the new Indiana Jones movie - Kingdom of the Crystal skull.

thin crack in the sky (worth the steep climb)

Watch out for these areas where jokers put twigs on the sides of the cliff. It really looked like the twigs are holding up the mountain!

twigs holding the mountain up (kaya nyo yan?)

After the Susy and Mario climbed the Mountain of Solitude (Mel and I rested and tried to catch our breaths five minutes from the top) we walked our way back. We stopped at this stall that sells de-stinged (or is it de-fanged?) scorpions, which would make really weird but rather unique souvenirs. I thought of buying them for presents but I can't figure out how to wrap them...

live souvenirs

We also took several pictures while on the hanging bridge. We're not able to take photos earlier because people are running when we crossed and they made the bridge sway.

pitong bundok

waterfalls near the hanging bridge

they have bigger rafts here and larger space to play

After the hike, we went back to our hotel for lunch. Unlike the previous three meals, they went all out. The food was very delicious. We had around ten different dishes to choose from. They even served freshly caught fish!

sumptuous lunch (reward for the very long walk)

After the meal, people from the group exchanged phone numbers and email addresses and business cards. I stayed true to my antisocial self and took pictures of drying laundry outside. (I don't have business cards, anyway.)

commercial ng Tide

And then we are off to the city. Believe it or not, I'm looking forward to it. I missed my hot water shower...

one last look and we're off