Our last vacation finds us in the beautiful mountain regions of ZhangJiaJie in the Hunan Province. These mountains are more commonly known as the Avatar mountains because they are the mountains which are featured in the movie Avatar. I wish I could post a picture here because they are so incredible! We were there for 2 and a half days. We took a train to the Hunan province and it took 15 hours!!! Luckily it was a sleeper train so we were able to lay down. That's how I like to travel!
We stayed at the Wulingyuan Hostel that was run by a guy named Victor. The hostel wasn't the greatest, but Victor was amazing! He volunteered himself to be our guide and took us all around the parks! It was so nice of him! We would have been lost without him!
Our first day in ZhangJiaJie we visited the Tianmen Mountain, also known as Heavens Gate. We took a cable car up to the top of this mountain that is about 3,000 feet high. Up at the top it was incredibly foggy so unfortunately we weren't able to see the amazing view as we walked on a walkway around the side of the mountain. There was a part of the walkway that was made of glass so you could see the nothingness below you, but again, it was foggy. Looking out at the fog was eerie because it felt as if there was nothing out there. Just pure white fog. There are 999 steps leading up Heavens Gate but luckily we walked down them instead of up them. Thanks to Victor and his expertise we did it the smart way!
That night when we got back from the mountain we found some really good street food! Like I said, street food is the best! Then we headed back to our hostel. In the middle of the night I woke up with a pretty bad earache. Gosh I hate my bad ears. Because of some surgery I've had on my left ear, it doesn't regulate pressure like normal, so it doesn't usually pop. I think because of the elevation there was too much pressure and it caused an earache. So that was a rough night.
The next day I didn't want to miss out on the Avatar mountains, so I took some ibuprofen and I was fine for most of the day. While we were on the mountain we saw some monkeys hanging out. I was holding a cutie orange and one of the monkeys walked over to me and just kind of looked at me. I could tell he wanted my orange and I was kind of nervous what the monkey would do if I didn't give it to him so I put my hand out and he grabbed it from me. It was so cool!! We weren't supposed to feed them so I was nervous to give it to him but I'd rather feed him than have him attack me!
That night when we got back to our hostel my ear was pretty bad again so I drugged up on some ibuprofen and a sleeping pill. I woke up the next morning feeling ok, slightly nauseous, but I didn't think I should push my luck. So everyone else went out to the park again and I went back up the room and slept til noon. Everyone came back around 2 and we headed out to catch our train back home.
Even with the ear infection it was still a great vacation! Very beautiful and cold! Definitely a must see spot in China.
See you soon!
Enjoy the Ride!
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