Climbing the Great Wall!

I did not get cold in the night. The sleeping bag must have worked 

it's magic. The wall was as hard as expected with the little mats. 

It was just like camping. We looked up at the stars and I stuck my 

head way down in so my face would not freeze. The one real 

difference was the normal sized pillow. Something I usually do 

without when going backpacking and camping. 
 
I woke up to Kim and Ashley talking about going to the bathroom in 

the bucket. Yup, a bucket. That was the bathroom on the Great Wall. 

They both ended up using it but Ashley was much more reluctant. I 

was the last up and out of my bag. If you know me, that should not 

surprise you at all. I stayed in that bag while I brushed my hair 

and put my clothes on right. Then I slipped out of the bag and put 

my shoes on. Oh burr! It was chilly! Kim, Ashley, and I forwent 

bringing big jackets or anything because we did not want to carry 

them around on our vacation. So I had a thin jacket and all morning 

I was cold. There was a bit of a breeze on top of that tower as 

well. We watched the sunrise at about 5:40am. The sun felt great on 

my skin. It felt wonderful sinking in through my clothes to warm my 

body. Mr. Wong brought our breakfast at six o'clock. We had a banana 

and muesli. I actually enjoyed it. I do not like raisins but they 

were in there and I just went for it. Delicious. In the muesli, we 

poured a little bit of milk also and Mr. Wong brought coffee, tea, 

and hot water to make them. The three ILP teachers took some hot 

water, mostly to warm their hands. When it cooled down just enough 

for me to not burn myself, I swished it down. It warmed my insides 

and calmed my little shivers. Only, it was still chilly and I had to 

keep staying warm. 
 
We left Mr. Wong to start our excursion. The shadows stayed cool but 

the sun was bright and helped kindled the fire inside of us. Willing 

us to go on. We climbed stair after stair. Some were steep and 

others could barely be recognized as steps because of the wear and 

tear of so many years. A gorgeous sight to behold, the massive walls 

that took those historical Chinese civilians hundreds and hundreds 

of year to build, still there. 
 
We travelled along, trying to enjoy and soak in as much as possible. 

Our cameras grew sore from the use we were getting out of them. At 

the middle, there were two Chinese ladies that began to trek with us. 

They were kind and seemingly endearing. We soon realized their true 

intentions when one of them told us she was a local farmer. She also 

told us her house was small and gave a piteous spiel about how hard 

she had it. Then she pointed to her backpack and said, "Later you 

buy souvenirs? Later. Then I go home and you go back." It did not 

take long to realize what she was doing. This lady was trying to 

wrap us around her finger so that we would buy things from her. We 

just said we did not know and that maybe we would. She told us, 

"Ssank you. Sank you." (Th is one of the hardest things for Chinese 

people to pronounce.) That did not deter us from enjoying our time. 

At the end, they both tried hard to sell us their souvenirs from the 

bags they carried but we refused to give in. It was strange because 

they only worked on the three of us. The others they may have only 

asked once and then let them be. Ashley was getting hit the hardest 

but I think it was because she is always so friendly and she sounded 

like she was bargaining. She was but only slightly. She told one 

lady that she got a shirt for 15 yuan and so if she went down to 15, 

she would buy it but did not budge at all from there. The lady did 

not go down to 15. It was obnoxious to have those sellers even 

follow us to the Great Wall but we enjoyed our adventure just the 

same. 
 
After climbing through 15 towers, we were ushered to go down a small 

pathway with yet another million stairs. By then, my legs were 

shaking uncontrollably. At the bottom it was even worse. Our driver 

was waiting at the bottom with the large white van we had taken the 

day before. I could have gone for a good snack about then. My energy 

was pivoting on that small breakfast and it was not holding up. I 

was glad I had a few cashews and dried bananas to hold me over. 

About an hour later, while driving back to Beijing, I dug into a 

scrumptious Snickers bar. 
 
There was one other important story. Before we got far, a few of us 

needed to go to the restroom. We stopped at a public bathroom in the 

small local town. For the girls, only Jasmine and I needed to go. 

When we turned the corner and peeked in to see the conditions, we 

realized that there were no stalls at all. Just three holes in the 

cement stared at us. I took the appropriate course of action and 

backed out saying, "After you. I'll wait out here." It worked out 

just fine. No one else came while we took our turns. One thing to 

know also is that most bathrooms in China you must provide your own 

toilet paper and if it is an actual toilet (which the squatters are 

considered real ones, any that flush that is), then you must put the 

something I still am not used to and probably will not get used to. 
 
We stopped at the Olympic building place and that was very 

interesting. I never really thought about it before but they are 

massive buildings and have interesting characteristics about them. 

The Ice Cube is made out of a material that actually cleans itself 

with only a little rain and wind. The Bird's Nest is just HuGE and 

shaped like a bird nest. 
 
Finally, we got to eat lunch. It was at a busier restaurant but the 

bathroom was really nice. The food was not bad either. We got 

ourselves some fried rice! For dessert we had something deep fried 

that turned out to be basically fried milk. Do not ask me how that 

works but I thought it was good. I have a sweet love for fried foods 

and sweet foods. It does not have to be too special for me to like 

it. Again, I was filled to the brim with rather good Chinese 

cuisine. After lunch, our tour was over and they took us back to our 

separate hostels. 
 
Our problem now was that the other three ILP teachers had gone out 

and had the only key to our room. So we adventured out to find our 

'I Climbed the Great Wall' t-shirts. We went to several shops and 

found that 20 yuan is the limit because by then they only make about 

6 yuan, or a dollar. Since we were out in the shopping area, we also 

got distracted with other things. Then we went to one of the shops 

that we had been to on previous occasions and we talked to this 

funny guy. He is fairly witty and knows English really well. We 

teased him about selling us stuff and tricking us but that is how we 

found out about the 20 yuan limit on the t's. He liked talking with 

us even though he pretended to be annoyed. The lady that helped run 

between their stores would tell him to stop talking and just give us 

the price. It was fun. 
 
Ashley saw ice cream on our way through so she wanted to go back and 

get some. It was not as good as we had hoped. It was 'Chinese Good' 

which is what we call anything that is relatively good for being in 

China. 
 
Returning to our hostel, we found our door unlocked but no girls. We 

took showers and the girls returned but only to do the same thing, 

shower. They had met some new friends and decided to have dinner 

with them. Kim, Ashley, and I went out to get ice cream again and 

this time was just as bad. We did not know what to do so we kept 

walking. We turned down a random and shady looking road. It went on 

for so long, we thought it was never ending. I was surprised not to 

see one other foreigner on that road. Then again, there may have 

been a reason. Kim was hungry so we tried a bakery but it was closed. 

We just kept walking. It was on a main road but mostly apartments 

lined the street. I was surprised when I saw Lyndi's hat pop up on 

the other side of some shrubs. We whistled and called out to her. 

She was freaked out but soon realized it was just us. The other 

girls were not far ahead but the were busy talking to their new 

friends. So we came up behind and grabbed them. They were pretty 

scared but Nicole said she saw Ashley earlier. Lyndi joined our 

group and we split up again. Hit KFC at 21:50. They had the smallest 

portions of mashed potatoes and veggies I have ever seen. The mashed 

potatoes needed more flavor. It was like eating baby food. The hot 

milk was delicious though. I loved it. We finished our night late 

and planned a decent hour to rise. Bryndi and Nicole were suppose to 

be to our hostel by midnight. Twelve minutes late, she comes in like 

a train apologizing to the completely quiet sleeping room, except 

me. I was writing this blog. Everyone at least turned over in their 

beds and went back to sleep. That concludes this interesting day. 

Well it started out absolutely amazing so that counts. :)