Luke had apparently tried all the flavours of Baijuo last night and considering that moonshine stuff is over 60% proof - had been very ill during the night. Luckily he couldn’t remember that bit and woke up wondering why someone had puked in his shoes! How he survived the 5-hour hike to the Baguo Si Monastery we have no idea, (900 steps up, through tea fields, a bamboo forest, hundreds of steps down then another 800 steps up) What a trooper!
The Baguo Si monastery, the largest on the mountain, was founded in the 16th century as a place where Daoism, Confucianism & Buddhism could all come together. One of the halls contained seven Buddha – Vipasyin, Sikhin, Visvabhu, Sakyamuni, Kraucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kasyapa. (All weird body colours and costumes and a bit scary-disney-esque if you ask me!)
The place was very busy with pilgrims and the incense burned continually in enormous bronze troughs. Apparently, all pilgrims are given up to 3 consecutive nights free accommodation in the country's monasteries.
The facilities were much better at this monastery and the loos actually had doors on. One of the shower blocks was a concrete bunker attached to wood burning furnace - so rather like standing in a pressure cooker about to explode. Woken again at 4am by the Buddhist chanting and bells, we actually looked forward to the 8- hour bus journey to Chongqing (where you catch the boats down the Yangzi) as a chance to catch up on some sleep.
