It was very silly of me to call the hostel and told the receptionist that I’d like to talk to those 2 laowai right after 11pm. The receptionist wouldn’t let me though, haha, she insist they were sleeping already. So in the end I left a message with my Chinese mobile number to Kyle and Shane. Did they ever get it I never asked. May be they did, may be they didn’t, but it isn’t something I care anymore.
Anyway, Shaolin here I come!
It wasn’t all that difficult to get to Shaolin Temple. I went to the main bus station at around 9 and bought a ticket to Dengfeng (I didn’t know Shaolin was in Dengfeng then :p had to ask around a bit!) I almost missed my bus because I was waiting in the Waiting Area rather then going out to look for my bus (I was too naive and too innocent of course); funny thing was, I was the first one to get on the bus, no one else was there, so suddenly I wasn’t sure if I got on the right bus. There, back then, was a young guy on the bus and crazily I asked him if I was on the bus to Dengfeng, he was dumbstruck by my question. HAHAHAHA!
It was such a harmonious place, this Shaolin Temple, though I still can’t believe I had to pay 100 kuai to get inside. Student card is of no use! The landscape was breathtaking. I felt like I was in the Utopia…
Wait, wait, wait, stop right there, I lied.
This is not something you would see in Utopia, or…? Did you even see those clothes?! How could those monks use the Martial School as clothing lines to dry their clothes?! No matter how sunny it was, that was crazy!
Seriously I really liked this place, but…. what is that? I even went uphill to check this place out, as RED was my colour last year (it also is my colour this year :p). Nothing was inside….. Hm.
I started to really miss Kyle and Shane. I missed having companions to travel with; I missed my family; I missed my cousin; I missed my best friends; it was Christmas Eve but I was all alone, in a beautiful place without knowing anyone; and I was missing… someone. I felt like shit. And there weren’t many monks to be seen! THIS WAS SHAOLIN, DAMN IT!
Excuse me but I’ll skip the part when I felt like shit and jump to the part when I felt alright again. I sought solace in the Talin (塔林), wah, that was how sad I was.
I saw there were 2 monks playing Chinese chess in Talin, hahaha! Monks just don’t care about the rules of this earthly world anymore, do they? I didn’t play, I didn’t even say anything, I just watched and shot.
Ay. I can’t remember how upset and lonely I felt back then, but I paid the car driver, he took me to see this small waterfall. It was really funny because you could hear the sound of the waterfall though the surface of the stream was frozen. There was no one, absolutely no one around. Could you even imagine how I have felt? Then I called my friend. He was sick but even so he asked me to enjoy everything. ENJOY EVERYTHING!
So in the end I didn’t see Kyle and Shane again.
I liked this place, it was so undisturbed (weren’t many tourists) and quiet, my mind was rather peaceful in the end, but my limps numbed. I think I will come back one day, only the next time I won’t be there alone.
This was not a really good shot but that was how I remembered Dengfeng. Very beautiful. I left at around 5pm and got on the last bus back to Zhengzhou, and guess what, I bumped into this young guy who I met this morning. Haha, he told me he was totally shocked to hear me asked him THE question :p We talked and talked (he had to type all he wanted to say on his mobile because he has super strong Zhengzhou accent and I totally couldn’t understand him!!!) till we got off. I lied about where I was from though… let’s just say I don’t really trust people in China. He told me where to go in Dengfeng, and with the desire to meet Kyle and Shane again, I decided to come back tomorrow.
