We arrived in Leshan and stored our luggage to go and see the Giant Buddha - he is 42 metres tall and they built him where two rivers meet to try and calm the waters - we walked down a lot of steps to get to the bottom for some piccys and then back up again before we boarded a bus to get to Emei Shan.

Emei Shan is a mountain that is 3099 metres above sea level at the top, we caught a bus up to almost the top in the afternoon and settled into our dodgy hotel for the night - a few beers and a couple of games of s#!t head, with a lot of incense burning, got us through the cold, damp and rather smelly night in the hotel!!! Up at 5am to catch a cable car to the top for the sunrise was definitely worth it - standing that high up at 1 degree celcius waiting fo the sun to rise was magical. You felt like you were standing on the sea of clouds, and for China there were relatively few people at the summit - the sky changed from icy blue to red and then we saw the sun peeping over the clouds and shining on the golden Buddha and golden temple - absolutely stunning. Our guide said that he has never had a group actually see the sunrise as it's normally far too overcast and rainy.

On the way down we bumped into some rather naughty Native Monkeys - Macaques, we saw a lot of baby ones and quite a lot of adults - they don't seem to mind that they are sitting on a very thin branch above a 100 metre vertical drop. You have to put everything inside your pack - especially food and water otherwise the monkeys impose a toll - they won't let you past until you relinquish your food or water - and they get more than a little irritated if you undersell them!! We saw them actually steal food off people and een a water bottle, which it proceeded to bite through the bottom of and drink it all!! Very cute and they don't seem to mind the rain!

Talking of rain, after getting down from the summit and checking out of our "hotel", it was time to walk down the mountain - we were all raring to go and really looking forward to our 6 hour hike. In reality it was 6 hours of walking down a lot of very slippery steps - needless to say that myself and some of the others in the group who have had knee injuries suffered quite a lot, but the misty views and stalls selling local chinese medicine and food were pretty interesting.

After the hike down we stayed in a monastery where the rooms were actually very pleasant - we had some simple local food for dinner and slept like babies!

Overnight we had some ver very unseasonal heavy rain and as went to get in the cable car we were advied that landlides below had closed the roads and we wouldn't be able to get through if we got the cable car - the only option then was to walk down more steps for another two hours - we stopped for breakfast to try and prepare ourselves and our knees and our calves, but by the time we had finished eating, we were told the road was open again and we could pass!!!!! THANK GOD!!!

After we got off the bus we headed to Emei Shan Hot Spring to soak our aching muscles - it was total bliss, we even treated ourselves to some nibbly fish therapy - this is where you get in a pool with thousands of little fish who all start nibbling you to get rid of your dead skin - YUK. We did it more for the experience and the Chinese people all seemed to think it was very normal - how very wierd!!!!!

Then back on the overnight train for a 20 hour stint - we are more used to it by now, but atill not thrilled by the prospect!!!! Next stop Kunming........