summer is the best

never did i think i would be so content just laying around and letting time pass. ive always been one to seek a busy schedule, to always stay preoccupied. but after this busy year, i think im finally ready to just relax.

as i was moving one of my roomies out, we were discussing how shocked we were by how quickly this past year flew by. its a bit frightening, frankly.

tonight i was talking to a friend, a, who has been working in china for a couple years now. currently, he is in chengdu, which also happens to be my mother's hometown. chengdu is the final destination of his epic bike ride. check it out: http://ride2freedom.org/

last year, him and i were kicking it in emei shan. it is the highest of the four sacred mountains in china and is an absolute MUST DO, UNESCO backs me up on that one. :p

its over 10k feet to the top and the views are truly breath taking. a and i started on day 1 after dinner and hiked a couple hours in the rain... which was especially sweet in my blistered feet from wearing new wedges the day before with my god family. we stayed at a hostel where we had a pretty standard dinner and i taught a how to play ma jiang and then watched the caretakers of the hostel play a few rounds. we also took a small walk to a small sitting area and just hung out and looked at the stars. ive never seen a view so gorgeous.... until the next day!

we started hiking again on day 2 around 7 or 8 in the morning. we saw the famous ocean of clouds and the infamous monkeys.

baby monkeys playing! weeee!

the monkeys were actually pretty aggressive, growling and grabbing at passerbys. i was totally freaked out. around 8pm, we had some dinner in a neighborhood of hostels. instead of staying the night (like everyone else), we donned our rented parkas and hiked all the way to the top, where we finally reached around 1am.

we were so exhausted by the time we reached the top.. and so cold! but it was worth it. we slept outside and in the morning we staked our spots for the sunset. i wish i had a nice camera and/or knew something about taking photos... these just don't do the actual view any justice.

this is not mine, but i found this video of the top on youtube

if you're not a hiker, its okay. there are cable cars too! the hike truly is very difficult and very very steep. also, once you start, there is no going back. there is only one place to get on the cable cars so choose wisely! :p