Leaving paradise!

16^th

  It was our last day in the Lushan Mountains and in the early mornings Jin Wei and I began to pack.  We both did not wish to leave Lushan. There were many reasons. The food for one was similar to the food at home in Singapore, nothing so oily like Wuhan’s. The second was the serene scenery and the hotel that we stayed in as Jin Wei and I both adored the heated beds that kept us toasty warm when the nights were cold. We stopped by a teahouse in the morning to savour the tea that was grown up here in Lushan. The tea was a tad strong for my taste and it smelled surprising fishy too. Perhaps its because I don’t often drink tea and also I did not take a liking to the bitter taste.

 We made a move towards the temple, where we stopped to pray before making a move to the three tree ancient trees.

One ancient tree that caught my attention was a tree called “Qian Shou Guan Ying”. The surprising thing about this tree was the its branches were sloping down. One can imagine the branches as hands and thus the people gave it the name due to its unusual branches. I knew that one of the tree were ginko however I did not know what type the other two ancient tress were.  We also went to dip and wash our hands near a small river. It is said that the first wash means wealth, the second wash means health, and the third meant to have luck in gambling.  It was soon 12 and we had to make a move back to the hotel. We checked out from the hotel and down Lushan Mountain we went. 

Lunch was quick and I tasted a slice of ham (at least I thought it was ham) only to discover that it was ducks blood. It did have a particularly weird aftertaste and had a jelly texture.  The interesting thing about the restaurant that we dined in for lunch was that it’s first floor was actually a merchandise shop. The place had pretty much everything a tourist would like to buy; delicate pottery, fine china dining plates, numerous types of food and beverages, toys and bags of all shapes and sizes and enough candy to feed a classroom of children for 2 months.  Many of the OIP members bought food and chips for the long journey back to Wuhan. We were ready to set off and after a head count we shuffled up the bus and said goodbye to Jiu Jiang.

Back at Wuhan!

Dinner was quick and my famous motto, I live to eat was discarded as I quickly gulped food down and started on work and chores.  The day was exhausting and I soon found myself crawling to bed, praying that tomorrow would be less eventful.