The third day was awesome! I wish I could tell you the whole story but… well wait, I am getting ahead of myself. I will start at the beginning. We woke up in the morning and planned a touristy day – Xiamen University, Nanputuo Buddhist Temple, hiking up the mountain for the scenic views of Xiamen and Haiwan Park in the evening for street music and dancing. It was another warm sunny day, but not as hot as the day before.
The University was neat and we walked around a little bit, but we didn’t spend a whole lot of time there. The Nanputuo Buddist Temple was really great though. I went to visit the Confucius Buddhist Temple when we were in Nanjing, and although I found the experience interesting, I felt like I missed out on a lot because everything was in only Chinese. Fortunately the Nanputuo is one of the biggest tourist Temples so just about everything was translated into English.
It was huge – and not just one big temple, but several big temples and hundreds of smaller temples and statuettes that climbed up into the mountains. It was not only a tourist location, but it was an actually working temple were hundreds of Monks lived so there were some parts that we were allowed to visit and other parts that we were not. On the day that we went it was packed! I guess we should have assumed that it was going to be packed because it was a holiday weekend. We only saw maybe two other expats the whole time we were there.
The majority of people there were praying and making offerings to the Gods for their late ancestors (hence the holiday). There were specific prayer areas with incense, there were fountains and ponds that people threw paper money into, there were statues that people tried to throw coins into, and there were prayer tables with statues of Gods that people put “offerings” on. The offerings were interesting for sure. Some people put money, flowers, food or drinks. And some people were just sitting on a bench in the temple reading Sutras and praying alone.
So anyway, I had read about the vegetarian restaurants at the temple that were completely vegan friendly and I was dying to try them out. We had not eaten anything yet, so it was going to be one of our first stops at the temple, but we had a hard time finding the restaurant (apparently it was on the other side). So after we wandered in and out of the temples looking for food, we began to make our way up the path into the mountains, hoping that we could find something along the way. Unfortunately, all we could find were little snack shops, so we picked up a bag of chips and sweet egg rolls for lunch.
The walk up into the mountains was irritating and beautiful at the same time. The mountain was just as crowded and the tiny walk ways and steep cement steps are not conducive to large crowds. The day got warmer and we had to take several breaks to step out of the crowd, take a rest and enjoy the view. The views on the other hand were really beautiful the whole way up. There were numerous look outs along the way, but really, it was pretty incredible at the top. We could see the whole mountain side, as well as all of Xiamen and the surrounding islands. But remember what I said before about the hazy sky? Unfortunately, it was no different. Yes, the view was pretty incredible, but it could have been so much better on a clear blue sky day.
Side Note: before I forget, let me tell you about the dress code for hiking. When I was getting ready for the day, I put on yoga pants, a tank top, and tennis shoes (as did Court) because I knew that we would be doing a lot of walking, climbing and hiking and it was warm. While we were hiking, however, you would not believe how many girls we saw wearing nylons, skirts and high heeled stilettos. I mean, really? What would make anyone think it was a good idea to wear stilettos while climbing into a mountain? Yet again, we were the ones getting weird looks because of the way we were dressed.
So anyway, we sat at the top feeling pretty successful that we had made it without any injuries to ourselves or others, but starving because we still had only had a small snack. I dreaded the trip back down – you would think it would be easier, but it was just as difficult. We had to take the same path heading down as we did heading up so it was just as crowded, and my legs were shaking from the long hike without food, but it did not take nearly as long. On the way back down, there were two young Chinese guys walking in front of us who spoke English, and when a Chinese person speaks English, they want to speak it as much as possible, so they started talking to us. They were kind and we chatted the whole way down and when we finally made it, they wanted to take us to a Chinese restaurant near the University (we had mentioned how starving we were and asked for a suggestion).
Well that was when the weirdness started… The guys were really cordial and they showed us a good Chinese restaurant and ordered a bunch of food for us (it is always much easier to have someone who speaks and reads Chinese at a Chinese restaurant) and they sat with us but they did not eat. They said that they were too full from lunch, but they wanted to make sure we got food. Well the food was delicious and our conversations were really entertaining. They were both studying navigation at another University just outside of Xiamen and they were both studying English language and culture intensely and we were one of the only interactions they had had with Americans. Their English was actually pretty impressive and they were very curious, asking a lot of questions. Courtney and I nearly died laughing when one confessed that he knew all the English swear words and began spewing a list of inappropriate words that would make a sailor blush. Then at the end of lunch, one of the guys refused to let us pay because he said it was the American and Chinese culture to “treat new friends.” When we parted, Courtney exchanged numbers with one of the guys because they wanted to show us around Xiamen.
While we were back at the hostel resting, the guy would not stop texting Courtney about meeting up with them and going out with them… then when he said something about wanting to bring beer to our hostel and needing a place to stay for the night, we stopped responding! Of course we were smart and did not tell them where we were staying and we never saw them again (thankfully).
After a nap to recover from the long morning and afternoon, we put on our party pants and headed to a park that was supposed to have live street music, dancing, food and bars, but that ended up being a bust! Can you imagine our surprise when the taxi driver tried to drop us off in the middle of an empty park? I guess we did not really think about it being a Sunday night. We told the taxi driver that we wanted to eat and drink and he told us that he knew just the spot and took us to the other side of the island – which ended up being a success! He dropped us off near a boardwalk along the bay lined with bars, dance clubs and even a mini carnival.
We settled into a bar called Me & You 2. It was pretty cool, right on the beach, all open with a round bar in the center and a big stage with a live Philippeno band. They were known for having the best pizza in Xiamen, so naturally we had to test that theory. In fact the pizza was fantastic, the drinks were delicious, the band was entertaining and the staff was really friendly. We ended up meeting a group of German people whom invited us to sit at their table with them to watch the band, so we did. Next thing I knew, we were doing shots and drinking tequila disguised as a margarita and dancing along to the band. When Courtney went to the bathroom, she met three guys from Holland whom were about to go to a dance club down the street and they wanted us to go with them. So we were off and our calm night of dinner and drinks on the beach suddenly turned into a drunken dance party at a very Chinese Dance club with strangers.
Ok, so the rest of the story is not my finest! It is actually rather embarrassing and completely irresponsible looking back on it, but I made it through to tell the tale (barely). Long story short, we were drunk and went to a dance club called The Key with the Holland guys, we met some random Chinese girl named Coco who tried to hook me up with her random Chinese friend (no thank you), I drank the most disgusting Chinese liquor ever, then we got in a taxi, went home, got locked out of our hostel but eventually got in and passed out… or at least that is what I believe happened.
The next morning, Courtney and I both woke up feeling like we had been hit by a bus! We are not as young as we used to be. While Courtney and I were piecing the night back together, she informed me that we not only went to The Key, but we got into another taxi and went to yet another Disco dance club call 1818 on the other side of town before we ended the night back at our hostel. I hear we had a good time, but unfortunately I have zero recollection of the third bar, but I distinctly remember the end of the night and being ready to leave the bar and go home. Now it probably sounds really terrible – two young American girls, out with three strange Holland guys, drunk on vacation in a foreign country – OK, OK you’re right, it was TERRIBLE and I am glad that we made it through the tell the story, but nonetheless, Courtney and I ended the vacation with a bang.
We did nothing but sleep and eat the next day because we felt terrible. Then we prepared to leave the next morning bright and early. One last thing – I know this blog is terribly long and you are probably extremely bored by now, but what the heck it is your choice to be reading it – on that last day, we were woken up by the Inn Keeper because we had to change rooms, for reasons we are still not sure about. Our room for that last night was awful! The room was fine, two twin beds and a small TV, but we no longer had a private bathroom but it was a shared bathroom down the hallway. And worst of all, it was a squatty bathroom. I dread squatties and I was pissed when I found out that it was a squatty bathroom! I mean, really? It was awful! Thank goodness we only had to stay in that room for one night!
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