The girls in the room all got up around 5am and naturally made a fair bit of noise. I heard the same phone alarm 3 times even though they were awake. I got up after 7am and decided not to go to the Panda sanctuary as I would need to rush and instead I would go to Lashan and the great giant Buddha. I ate the remaining mangoes and had a pot noodle for breakfast got my things together and registered for the hostels bike tour that evening. Ialso told reception I'd booked another night and at first he said I'd have to move rooms but he moved people around and it was ok, but apparently the next day there was just 1 bed left in a non air con room. I went to the train station and couldn't buy a ticket with my notes again so but I found some coins in my bag so I took the train to the bus station and got a bus ticket for 9am which is later than I'd wanted but it was 8.36 so that made sense. The bus took 2 hours as per wikitravel and we arrived at 11.05 in Lashan or Le Shan. I went to the ticket counter and asked when the buses go back and they were either 30 past or on the hour until 7pm. I went to the nearby bus stop but I wasn't sure if it was the right direction so I asked if it went to great Buddha and the guy was very helpful and found me a taxi for 20 yuan which I didn't want so we went back to the bus stop and he did find bus 13 on his app after first recommending that I take bus 6 and change to another bus. The bus came and it went all around the area, past a Walmart which I kept in mind for later. We arrived and I got off at the north gate and bought a ticket for 90 yuan as per wikitravel, although it did say no joint tickets here which concerned me. I went in and up the stepped path with just a few stops on the way. At the top there was a big queue for the giant Buddha so I went around the temple first and then to and around a tower which was locked unfortunately . I went back to the queue and joined it and it was taking ages and people pushed in as well to form 2 lines. I got to the end of the queue and there were steps down but people moved so slowly it was still effectively a queue. On the way down I stopped at a platform and got a good photo (I hope). I took more photos on the way down and got better at pushing past people as they had done to me earlier. I got to the bottom and there was no reason for the queue at the bottom, people just took photos then went up the other side. I kept going along the riverside path and the river was ok to look at. I arrived at south gate but didn't want to leave yet so I went back and found a gate with a 80 yuan fee which I had read about in wikitravel so I had done it all wrong. I went back and around and got a bit lost but eventually found Dongba tower which wasn't much as it was an old library I think. I went back around to the east exit and there was a sign for Dongba tower there. I went a different way all the way up on top and I still couldn't find anything else worth seeing. There was a wall but I didn't cross it and went back down where the steps were a bit slippery. I came back to the gate where I needed a ticket for 80 yuan and went past to the south gate where I left through. The path went through what was supposed to be a fishing village in the shape of a big boat. Further on I could see a nice bridge crossing the river and stopped for a few photos. There were some tombs which were free to look at although plastic and fences meant I couldn't go inside. There was a fair bit of information although I wasn't sure who was buried there. I left and came to another entrance to the Buddha capital with the tickets still 80 yuan and I just wasn't sure anymore. A man there was trying to say something to me but I couldn't understand what it was and the poster for the place did look good so I would probably regret not going in. It was going to mean that I would be back late and miss the bike ride the hostel had but I went for it and paid the 80 yuan even though wikitravel had said not to do that so I had messed up somewhere. I went inside and up golden buddha hall which was a fair few steps up. The hall was pretty empty and had stairs up with some views at the top. I went back down to the pharmacy buddha in a cave which was good as it was a really big buddha and although there were people there it wasn't so many. I saw the Buddha first from above and then climbed down and saw it again from below. I went past the pharmacy Buddha through to a cave with lots nice carvings and information boards. The detail in the carvings were great and it was lit enough to take photos sometimes with just a few other people around. The next passage led to a 33m buddha which is normally a good size but it was only the 3rd biggest here so far. I carried on and there were more statues in the next cave, it eas no wondr it was called Buddha capital. I left vack to fresh air briefly before entering another cave this one with golden statues which looked too new. I left the caves there and headed down and looking back tge mountain above the door I'd come from looked like it mighy be the 170m lying down buddha. I carried on down and there were some statues around gardens and further along another big buddha up some steps and some more buddha statues around below in crevices. I climbed up all the steps to the big Buddha and nearby was an entry to the golden buddha hall I'd been at earlier. It was easy to go the wrong way or miss things in this place. There were a few more statues nearby of a many armed shiva and more carvings before I went back down the steps. I found the reclining buddha viewpoint and got some photos although you can't see all of it its still something being so big. I was done so I left through the east exit, the main exit and I realised the wikitravel thing was to get a motorbike ride to here from tge south exit and maybe the man talking to me there was a taxi driver ir something whowould have helped me. Still it was too late now and I crossedthe road and got a bus which again had a winding route vack to the bus station. There was no time for food but I had snacked earlier and I got the bus back to Chengdu at 4.30 which was too late for the bike tour. Instead of a big bus like earlier, this was a small minivan with a TV which showed what looked like Transformers and then afterwards crouching tiger flying daggers. The minican was no faster especially with the rush hour traffic still going into Chengdu so we got back at 6.30 at the train station. I got off a stop early to save a change of trains and take a bus instead and I got on bus 37 after walking a bit along the road. The bus went the wrong way to the right and then kept going for 1km before stopping finally.
I was East not too far from my suitcase shop so I walked to walmart and bought yoghurt, cakes, pears, bananas (that were a bit expensive). I also got an ice cream tub, cubed tofu, a pot noodle, biscuits, peanuts and dried sweet potato. There were no rice or a food cooking area so I tried the other floor and still nothing ao I went back to hostel with a heavy rucksack and ate the ice cream on the way. I tried tge 7-11 on way and across the road I got a steamed bun for 2.5 yuan, it was a wonder I still wanted more food. Back at the hostel I got changed and washed my clothes downstairs in the machinewhich cost 15 yuan and used tokens. I ate and didn some research on the mountain nearby to see if I could do a daytrip there. I thought about doing suitcase packing as I needed to empty my old one into my backpack snd new suitcase but I had to sew my bag again as it had ripped a bit with all the weight from the food. The wash finished and there were not enough hangers for all of my clothes. I tried another spin on the washing machine but nothing happened so I left mist of the clothes in the machine and hung my trousers on chair. I planned where to go some more and came up with an idea for my clothes by making washing lines around my bed using the string and screws I had. I went back to the machine and realised it was paused so I got it spinning for a few minutes and then took the clothes upstairs. I hung the clothes up on my makeshift washing lines and on a cupboard door and tidied my things up then went to sleep early at 10.30. Some noisy people in the room came back at 11.30 and kept me awake for a bit before they were quiet.
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