I met Rissa at the bus station and caught the last bus hoping that the two other girls would show. Once we got on the bus, what do you know, I spotted the two girls in line. I am glad they were able to meet us in time. We took the bus to a small town called Xizhazi. Once we got close to our destination, about a hour and a half later, we learned that the bus to the wall had stopped running. A guy on the bus was trying to help us. This guy had us get off the bus, we were thinking that this was the right stop. Once we got off the bus, we realized that the guy was trying to give us a ride. I have learned while traveling in non-English speaking countries (or high western tourist countries) not to trust people who speak English. It costs money to learn to speak English, if their speaking English they are making money through non-conventional means. However, I was traveling with three girls and using a girl as a translator. We were trying to bargain down the price of the ride, but he kept saying how good of a driver he is and how expensive gas is. I kept telling Rissa, not to listen to the guy, but she kept talking to him. He talked to use for about 30 minutes, slowly bringing down the price, still not near what it should cost. However, Rissa didn't have it in her to just walk away; if this guy is still talking to us, he is still making good money off us, we could have easily found another ride for much cheaper. Regardless, Rissa was in a bad position, listening to me telling her to walk away and listening to this guy telling her to let him drive, she caved in to the driver.
Our driver dropped us off at the wrong place and it took half the time he told us it would; if they speak English, it's a scam! However, we hadn't paid him yet, so I stepped in. I pulled the guy aside, and pulled out a calculator. I plugged in our price, then divided by the supposed time (1 hour), that gave us the cost per minute, then I multiplied that by the time it actually took us and told him that that was the only price we were going to pay him; if he wouldn't accept, we would start hiking and there was nothing he could do about it. He was pissed. I stared at him and didn't move, telling him that was my final offer, take it or drive away. He mumbled something in Chinese, probably something like screw you and accepted my offer. Man it feels good to set the screwer straight.
We headed off to the wall right from the road. The trail was the most intimidating trail I have ever come across. It is going to be a LONG hike up!
Yes, on top of those mountains is The Great Wall of China, our destination before night fall. As you would expect, the hike was treacherous, especially since I was wearing long wool socks and long pants. I was thinking that we would just walk up some stairs and then walk for a while until we found a place to sleep, I had no clue it would be a real trek; my beard turned into a sponge real quick!
Once we got to the top, it was so rewarding. The wall is beautiful at this spot because it is barely intact. That is why no tourists are allowed on this part of the wall, it can be dangerous.
Night creeped up on us as fast as the cold weather did. We had found a nice old watch tower to make camp and we broke out our 'dinner,' which consisted of a large amount of snacks. We spent the night under my head lamp, sharing food and playing cards until we went to sleep.
That night, I never fell asleep. For some reason, it was really hard to sleep on large slabs of stone?! The tent pictured above was the tent for the two girls from Holland, I slept in the watch tower. Also, my thin sleeping bag and lack of cold gear clothes had the cold breeze piercing my bones throughout the night!
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